Today Jonas Heide Smith defended his PhD thesis: “Plans and Purposes – How Videogame Goals Shape Player Behaviour” at the IT University of Copenhagen. In his dessertation, the simple idea that players try to win is explicated through a “Rational Player Model”, a tool for understanding the relationship bwteen game goals and the behavior of players who try to reach these goals. Jonas study on multiplayer console play found players to behave “rationally” within the gamespace itself while working to fulfil vairous social functions in their verbal interaction.
