Governance challenges in the global games industry

Current governance challenges facing the global games industry are heavily dominated by online games. Whilst much academic and industry attention has been afforded to Virtual Worlds, the more pressing contemporary challenges may arise in casual games, especially when found on social networks. As authorities are faced with an increasing volume of disputes between participants and platform operators, the likelihood of external regulation increases, and the role that such regulation would have on the industry – both internationally and within specific regions – is unclear. Kelly (2010) argues that “when you strip away the graphics of these [social] games, what you are left with is simply a button [...] You push it and then the game returns a value of either Win or Lose”. He notes that while “every game developer wants their game to be played, preferably addictively, because it’s so awesome”, these mechanics lead not to “addiction of engagement through awesomeness” but “the addiction of compulsiveness”, surmising that “the reality is that they’ve actually sort-of kind-of half-intentionally built a virtual slot machine industry”. If such core elements of social game design are questioned, this gives cause to question the real-money options to circumvent them. With players able to purchase virtual currency and speed the completion of tasks, the money invested by the 20% purchasing in-game benefits (Zainwinger, 2012) may well be the result of compulsion. The decision by the Japanese Consumer Affairs agency to investigate the ‘Kompu Gacha’ mechanic (in which players are rewarded for completing a set of items obtained through purchasing virtual goods such as mystery boxes), and the resultant verdict that such mechanics should be regulated through gambling legislation, demonstrates that politicians are beginning to look at the mechanics deployed in these environments. Purewal (2012) states that “there’s a reasonable argument that complete gacha would be regulated under gambling law under at least some (if not most) Western jurisdictions”. This paper explores the governance challenged within these games and platforms, their role in the global industry, and current practice amongst developers in the Australian and United States to address such challenges.

How technological change affects power relations in global markets : remote developers in the console and mobile games industry

This paper focuses on Australian development firms in the console and mobile games industry in order to understand how small firms in a geographically remote and marginal position in the global industry are able to relate to global firms and capture revenue share. This paper shows that, while technological change in the games industry has resulted in the emergence of new industry segments based on transactional rather than relational forms of economic coordination, in which we might therefore expect less asymmetrical power relations, lead firms retain a position of power in the global games entertainment industry relative to remote developers. This has been possible because lead firms in the emerging mobile devices market have developed and sustained bottlenecks in their segment of the industry through platform competition and the development of an intensely competitive ecosystem of developers. Our research shows the critical role of platform competition and bottlenecks in influencing power asymmetries within global markets.

A systemic view of innovation adoption in the Australian beef industry

Significant investments in developing technological innovations have been made in the Australian beef industry but with low adoption rates. By modelling the key variables and their interactions in the innovation adoption process, this research seeks to demonstrate the complexity and dynamics of the process. This research uses causal loop modelling and develops a holistic model of the current innovation adoption system in the Australian beef industry to show the complexity of dynamic interactions among multiple variables. It is suggested that innovation adoption is such an extremely complex issue, and we need to shift our views on this issue from a paradigm of linear thinking to systems thinking. Innovation adoption is more likely to be enhanced based on a full understanding of the complexity and dynamics of the system as a whole. The paper demonstrates to practitioners and developers of innovation the multiple variables and interactions impacting innovation adoption.

Innovation & workplace culture in the Australian interactive entertainment industry : the Halfbrick story

A recent success story of the Australian videogames industry is Brisbane based Halfbrick Studios, developer of the hit game for mobile devices, Fruit Ninja. Halfbrick not only survived the global financial crisis and an associated downturn in the Australian industry, but grew strongly, moving rapidly from developing licensed properties for platforms such as Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, and Playstation Portable (PSP) to becoming an independent developer and publisher of in-house titles, generating revenue both through App downloads and merchandise sales. Amongst the reasons for Halfbrick’s success is their ability to adaptively transform by addressing different technical platforms, user dynamics, business models and market conditions. Our ongoing case-study research from 2010 into Halfbrick’s innovation processes, culminating with some 10 semi-structured interviews with senior managers and developers, has identified a strong focus on workplace organisational culture, with staff reflecting that the company is a flat, team-based organisation devolving as much control as possible to the development teams directly, and encouraging a work-life balance in which creativity can thrive. The success of this strategy is evidenced through Halfbrick’s low staff turnover; amongst our interviewees most of the developers had been with the company for a number of years, with all speaking positively of the workplace culture and sense of creative autonomy they enjoyed. Interviews with the CEO, Shainiel Deo, and team leaders highlighted the autonomy afforded to each team and the organisation and management of the projects on which they work. Deo and team leaders emphasised the collaboration and communication skills they require in the developers that they employ, and that these characteristics were considered just as significant in hiring decisions as technical skills. Halfbrick’s developers celebrate their workplace culture and insist it has contributed to their capacity for innovation and to their commercial success with titles such as Fruit Ninja. This model of organisational management is reflected in both Stark’s (2009) idea of heterarchy, and Neff’s (2012) concept of venture labour, and provides a different perspective on the industry than the traditional political economy critique of precarious labour exploited by gaming conglomerates. Nevertheless, throughout many of the interviews and in our informal discussions with Halfbrick developers there is also a sense that this rewarding culture is quite tenuous and precarious in the context of a rapidly changing and uncertain global videogames industry. Whether such a workplace culture represents the future of the games industry, or is merely a ‘Prague Spring’ before companies such as Halfbrick are swallowed by traditional players’ remains to be seen. However, as the process of rapid and uncertain transformation plays out across the videogames industry, it is important to pay attention to emerging modes of organisation and workplace culture, even whilst they remain at the margins of the industry. In this paper we investigate Halfbrick’s workplace culture and ask how sustainable is this kind of rewarding and creative workplace?

Effects of scaffold architecture on mechanical characteristics and osteoblast response to static and perfusion bioreactor cultures

Tissue engineering focuses on the repair and regeneration of tissues through the use of biodegradable scaffold systems that structurally support regions of injury whilst recruiting and/or stimulating cell populations to rebuild the target tissue. Within bone tissue engineering, the effects of scaffold architecture on cellular response have not been conclusively characterized in a controlled-density environment. We present a theoretical and practical assessment of the effects of polycaprolactone (PCL) scaffold architectural modifications on mechanical and flow characteristics as well as MC3T3-E1 preosteoblast cellular response in an in vitro static plate and custom-designed perfusion bioreactor model. Four scaffold architectures were contrasted, which varied in inter-layer lay-down angle and offset between layers, whilst maintaining a structural porosity of 60 ± 5%. We established that as layer angle was decreased (90° vs. 60°) and offset was introduced (0 vs. 0.5 between layers), structural stiffness, yield stress, strength, pore size and permeability decreased, whilst computational fluid dynamics-modeled wall shear stress was increased. Most significant effects were noted with layer offset. Seeding efficiencies in static culture were also dramatically increased due to offset (~45% to ~86%), with static culture exhibiting a much higher seeding efficiency than perfusion culture. Scaffold architecture had minimal effect on cell response in static culture. However, architecture influenced osteogenic differentiation in perfusion culture, likely by modifying the microfluidic environment.

Video analytics for the detection of near-miss incidents on approach to railway level crossings

Recent modelling of socio-economic costs by the Australian railway industry in 2010 has estimated the cost of level crossing accidents to exceed AU$116 million annually. To better understand causal factors that contribute to these accidents, the Cooperative Research Centre for Rail Innovation is running a project entitled Baseline Level Crossing Video. The project aims to improve the recording of level crossing safety data by developing an intelligent system capable of detecting near-miss incidents and capturing quantitative data around these incidents. To detect near-miss events at railway level crossings a video analytics module is being developed to analyse video footage obtained from forward-facing cameras installed on trains. This paper presents a vision base approach for the detection of these near-miss events. The video analytics module is comprised of object detectors and a rail detection algorithm, allowing the distance between a detected object and the rail to be determined. An existing publicly available Histograms of Oriented Gradients (HOG) based object detector algorithm is used to detect various types of vehicles in each video frame. As vehicles are usually seen from a sideway view from the cabin’s perspective, the results of the vehicle detector are verified using an algorithm that can detect the wheels of each detected vehicle. Rail detection is facilitated using a projective transformation of the video, such that the forward-facing view becomes a bird’s eye view. Line Segment Detector is employed as the feature extractor and a sliding window approach is developed to track a pair of rails. Localisation of the vehicles is done by projecting the results of the vehicle and rail detectors on the ground plane allowing the distance between the vehicle and rail to be calculated. The resultant vehicle positions and distance are logged to a database for further analysis. We present preliminary results regarding the performance of a prototype video analytics module on a data set of videos containing more than 30 different railway level crossings. The video data is captured from a journey of a train that has passed through these level crossings.

Mechanical stimulation of the pro-angiogenic capacity of human fracture haematoma: Involvement of VEGF mechano-regulation

Compromised angiogenesis appears to be a major limitation in various suboptimal bone healing situations. Appropriate mechanical stimuli support blood vessel formation in vivo and improve healing outcomes. However, the mechanisms responsible for this association are unclear. To address this question, the paracrine angiogenic potential of early human fracture haematoma and its responsiveness to mechanical loading, as well as angiogenic growth factors involved, were investigated in vitro. Human haematomas were collected from healthy patients undergoing surgery within 72. h after bone fracture. The haematomas were embedded in a fibrin matrix, and cultured in a bioreactor resembling the in vivo conditions of the early phase of bone healing (20 compression, 1. Hz) over 3. days. Conditioned medium (CM) from the bioreactor was then analyzed. The matrices were also incubated in fresh medium for a further 24. h to evaluate the persistence of the effects. Growth factor (GF) concentrations were measured in the CM by ELISAs. In vitro tube formation assays were conducted on Matrigel with the HMEC-1 cell line, with or without inhibition of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR2). Cell numbers were quantified using an MTS test. In vitro endothelial tube formation was enhanced by CM from haematomas, compared to fibrin controls. The angiogenesis regulators, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1), were released into the haematoma CM, but not angiopoietins 1 or 2 (Ang1, 2), basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) or platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF). Mechanical stimulation of haematomas, but not fibrin controls, further increased the induction of tube formation by their CM. The mechanically stimulated haematoma matrices retained their elevated pro-angiogenic capacity for 24. h. The pro-angiogenic effect was cancelled by inhibition of VEGFR2 signalling. VEGF concentrations in CM tended to be elevated by mechanical stimulation; this was significant in haematomas from younger, but not from older patients. Other GFs were not mechanically regulated. In conclusion, the paracrine pro-angiogenic capacity of early human haematomas is enhanced by mechanical stimulation. This effect lasts even after removing the mechanical stimulus and appears to be VEGFR2-dependent.

Analysing governance categories used on project alliances in the construction industry

In Australia, collaborative contracts, and in particular, project alliances, have been increasingly used to govern infrastructure projects. These contracts use formal and informal governance mechanisms to manage the delivery of infrastructure projects. Formal mechanisms such as financial risk sharing are specified in the contract, while informal mechanisms such as integrated teams are not. Given that the literature contains a multiplicity of often untestable definitions, this paper reports on a review of the literature to operationalize the concepts of formal and informal governance. This work is the first phase of a study that will examine the optimal balance of formal and informal governance structures. Desk-top review of leading journals in the areas of construction management and business management, as well as recent government documents and industry guidelines, was undertaken to to conceptualise and operationalize formal and informal governance mechanisms. The study primarily draws on transaction-cost economics (e.g. Williamson 1979; Williamson 1991), relational contract theory (Feinman 2000; Macneil 2000) and social psychology theory (e.g. Gulati 1995). Content analysis of the literature was undertaken to identify key governance mechanisms. Content analysis is a commonly used methodology in the social sciences area. It provides rich data through the systematic and objective review of literature (Krippendorff 2004). NVivo 9, a qualitative data analysis software package, was used to assist in this process. A previous study by the authors identified that formal governance mechanisms can be classified into seven measurable categories: (1) negotiated cost, (2) competitive cost, (3) commercial framework, (4) risk and reward sharing, (5) qualitative performance, (6) collaborative multi-party agreement, and (7) early contractor involvement. Similarly, informal governance mechanisms can be classified into four measureable categories: (1) leadership structure, (2) integrated team, (3) team workshops, and (4) joint management system. This paper explores and further defines the key operational characteristics of each mechanism category, highlighting its impact on value for money in alliance project delivery. The paper’s contribution is that it provides the basis for future research to compare the impact of a range of individual mechanisms within each category, as a means of improving the performance of construction projects.

Cyclic mechanical strain guides capillary-like morphology in vitro

Introduction Stretching of tissue stimulates angiogenesis but increased motion at a fracture site hinders revascularisation. In vitro studies have indicated that mechanical stimuli promote angiogenic responses in endothelial cells, but can either inhibit or enhance responses when applied directly to angiogenesis assays. We anticipated that cyclic tension applied during endothelial network assembly would increase vascular structure formation up to a certain threshold. Methods Fibroblast/HUVEC co-cultures were subjected to cyclic equibiaxial strain (1 Hz; 6 h/day; 7 days) using the FlexerCell FX-4000T system and limiting rings for simultaneous application of multiple strain magnitudes (0–13%). Cells were labelled using anti-PECAM-1, and image analysis provided measures of endothelial network length and numbers of junctions. Results Cyclic stretching had no significant effect on the total length of endothelial networks (P > 0.2) but resulted in a strain-dependent decrease in branching and localised alignments of endothelial structures, which were in turn aligned with the supporting fibroblastic construct. Conclusion The organisation of endothelial networks under cyclic strain is dominated by structural adaptation to the supporting construct. It may be that, in fracture healing, the formation and integrity of the granulation tissue and callus is ultimately critical in revascularisation and its failure under severe strain conditions.

Strategies and solutions for housing sustainability : building information files and performance certificates

The overall aim of this research project was to provide a broader range of value propositions (beyond upfront traditional construction costs) that could transform both the demand side and supply side of the housing industry. The project involved gathering information about how building information is created, used and communicated and classifying building information, leading to the formation of an Information Flow Chart and Stakeholder Relationship Map. These were then tested via broad housing industry focus groups and surveys. The project revealed four key relationships that appear to operate in isolation to the whole housing sector and may have significant impact on the sustainability outcomes and life cycle costs of dwellings over their life cycle. It also found that although a lot of information about individual dwellings does already exist, this information is not coordinated or inventoried in any systematic manner and that national building information files of building passports would present value to a wide range of stakeholders.

Identifying Core Functions of Asset Management

It is widely acknowledged that effective asset management requires an interdisciplinary approach, in which synergies should exist between traditional disciplines such as: accounting, engineering, finance, humanities, logistics, and information systems technologies. Asset management is also an important, yet complex business practice. Business process modelling is proposed as an approach to manage the complexity of asset management through the modelling of asset management processes. A sound foundation for the systematic application and analysis of business process modelling in asset management is, however, yet to be developed. Fundamentally, a business process consists of activities (termed functions), events/states, and control flow logic. As both events/states and control flow logic are somewhat dependent on the functions themselves, it is a logical step to first identify the functions within a process. This research addresses the current gap in knowledge by developing a method to identify functions common to various industry types (termed core functions). This lays the foundation to extract such functions, so as to identify both commonalities and variation points in asset management processes. This method describes the use of a manual text mining and a taxonomy approach. An example is presented.

Commercial successes in the music industry

Commercial success in the music industry is obviously related to one’s ability to use musical artisanship as a basis for generating profits and to accumulate substantial wealth. That may seem fairly straightforward, but commercial success is an elusive concept that is continuously negotiated within the industry to determine both what should be considered “success” as well as how it should be measured. This entry discusses commercial success in the popular music industry and strategies used to achieve it.

The enemy of music : modeling the behavior of a cultural industry in crisis

The purpose of this explorative study is to contribute to the understanding of current music industry dynamics. The situation is undeniably quite dramatic: Since the turn of the millennium, the global music industry has declined by $ US 6.2 billion in value—a fall of 16.3% in constant dollar terms. IFPI, the trade organization representing the international recording industry, identifies a number of exogenous factors as the main drivers of the downturn. This article suggests that other factors, in addition to those identified by IFPI, may have contributed to the current difficulties. A model is presented which indicates that business strategies which were designed to cope with the challenging business environment have reduced product diversity, damaged profitability, and contributed to the problem they were intended to solve.

Mathematical investigation of the interactions between the inflammatory response and mechanical aspects of dermal wound repair

Dermal wound repair involves complex interactions between cells, cytokines and mechanics to close injuries to the skin. In particular, we investigate the contribution of fibroblasts, myofibroblasts, TGFβ, collagen and local tissue mechanics to wound repair in the human dermis. We develop a morphoelastic model where a realistic representation of tissue mechanics is key, and a fibrocontractive model that involves a reasonable approximation to the true kinetics of the important bioactive species. We use each of these descriptions to elucidate the mechanisms that generate pathologies such as hypertrophic scars, contractures and keloids. We find that for hypertrophic scar and contracture development, factors regulating the myofibroblast phenotype are critical, with heightened myofibroblast activation, reduced myofibroblast apoptosis or prolonged inflammation all predicted as mediators for scar hypertrophy and contractures. Prevention of these pathologies is predicted when myofibroblast apoptosis is induced, myofibroblast activation is blocked or TGFβ is neutralised. To investigate keloid invasion, we develop a caricature representation of the fibrocontractive model and find that TGFβ spread is the driving factor behind keloid growth. Blocking activation of TGFβ is found to cause keloid regression. Thus, we recommend myofibroblasts and TGFβ as targets for clinicians when developing intervention strategies for prevention and cure of fibrotic scars.