This article compares small (19 employees or fewer) video game developers’ commercial and creative mindsets in three marginal video game industries, Australia, New Zealand, and Greece, to understand how these industries differ. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 62 participants across the three countries and analysed using thematic analysis. Despite all three national industries’ marginal status, there were similarities and clear differences in how the participant developers approached video game production. In particular, the lack of institutional support available for the Greek industry resulted in developers utilising networks and reputation. The research highlights how marginal, national video game industries cannot be simply grouped together because the developers within them display differences, as a result of their industry contexts, which influence and impact their video game development. These findings have implications for support from governments and education.

Bystander intervention and sexual assault research typically rely on self-reported intent to intervene. However, predicted behaviour can be considerably different from actual behaviour. Hypothetical scenarios are often utilised to remove extenuating circumstances, limiting insight into actual behaviour where those circumstances impact intervention. This paper discusses the development and evaluation of an innovative methodology to measure actual bystander behaviour when witnessing signs of an impending sexual assault. With careful attention paid to ethical considerations and participant safety, 13 participants were directly deceived about the true aim of the research. Utilising observational data and a funnelling debrief, the findings demonstrated varied reactions to sexual assault cues, from not noticing and therefore not intervening, to noticing and (in)directly intervening. Participants’ responses indicated they remained unaware of the deception until it was formally revealed, suggesting the methodology effectively realised the study’s aims. The funnelling debrief mitigated the adverse effects of the deception, with some participants reporting more confidence and motivation to intervene in the future. Further development of this methodology could create more interactive bystander intervention programmes that teach people to identify signs of a sexual assault, develop skills to safely intervene, and raise awareness about sexual violence.

Cownose rays (Family Rhinopteridae) are highly migratory pelagic rays that are generally restricted to continental shelves. Despite 100's of years of natural history records, cownose rays have never been reported in Bermuda, an atoll-like coral reef ecosystem that is separated from the continental mainland United States by ~1,000 km. Here we compile evidence that the Atlantic cownose ray ( Rhinoptera bonasus ) has recently established in Bermuda, supported by both morphological and genetic data. Potential ecological and inter-specific competition concerns are presented as well as probable physical mechanisms that facilitated this recent and presumed range expansion.

The proliferation of e-scooters in urban spaces has introduced safety concerns despite their potential to reduce traffic congestion and provide an environmentally friendly solution for short-distance trips. This study consolidates existing knowledge on e-scooter safety through a systematic literature review of 168 academic studies and grey literature, following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Our primary objective is to identify the key e-scooter safety concerns from existing literature, together with the strategies stakeholders use to address these concerns, and highlight areas for further research. The literature shows that e-scooter riders are commonly injured in single-vehicle incidents, with a clear association between severe injuries and violations of traffic rules such as speeding and alcohol consumption. Frequently recommended safety measures include separating e-scooters from pedestrians, instituting licensing and mandatory training, and enforcing helmet usage and zero alcohol consumption. On top of that, clear legislative definitions for e-scooters ease and improve enforcement, and setting technical requirements for e-scooter design can improve stability, handling performance, and reduce incidents.Understanding the differences between user types and the underlying factors influencing risky behaviour is crucial for developing effective interventions. Users of shared schemes often lack knowledge of rules and have poorer riding skills, possibly due to their less frequent use. Conversely, private e-scooter owners pose enforcement challenges for speeding and prohibited riding, as these scooters lack geofencing and tracking capabilities often found in shared scheme e-scooters. Helmet non-use, where mandatory, is attributed to a lack of support from riders for increased law enforcement and a low perception of risk rather than a lack of knowledge about the laws. Similarly, illegal sidewalk riding is linked to factors of comfort and convenience rather than infrastructure preference or unawareness of illegality. Proactive measures that are user-based, time-based, and location-based require further investigation. Consistently collecting and analysing data informs region-specific safety decisions and allows policymakers to monitor safety risks over time and assess intervention effectiveness, which are largely absent in current literature.

Research on media brands is a growth area, but recently most of this research has focused on news media brands leaving the management of narrative media brands underexplored. This article explores how the creators of narrative media brands manage their narratives, characters, and storyworlds. Thirty-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with authors and video game developers and analysed using thematic analysis. The results suggest participants had a general appreciation of the importance of the brand management and marketing of their creations' narratives, characters, and storyworlds, but a deeper understanding of their necessity for success was lacking, particularly for the fiction authors.

This article examines the experiences of female partners and relatives of child sexual abuse material offenders and the (il)legibility of their experiences within prevailing theoretical frameworks and policy responses to violence against women. Drawing on survey and interview data with clients of a specialist support agency, we situate the lack of understanding and support available to these women within the systematic depoliticization of child sexual abuse. The article traces how women developed their own social critique of child sexual exploitation as a form of gendered violence and called for a feminist reengagement with the politics of child sexual abuse.

While dorsal-ventrally compressed chondrichthyans are among the most imperiled fishes in the world, there is still limited knowledge of the biology of many of these species, even in well-studied ocean basins. In the western North Atlantic Ocean, the population structure of the Atlantic angel shark (Squatina dumeril) is not fully understood; therefore, the portioning of genetic variation was assessed among individuals caught along the east coast of the United States (Atlantic) and on the northern Gulf of Mexico (Gulf) using reduced representation genomics and mitochondrial sequencing. Three distinct groups were delineated with nuclear data, the Atlantic, the eastern Gulf, and the western Gulf, along boundaries described by previous research. Mitochondrial data only resolved two groups, with the western Gulf separated from the eastern Gulf and Atlantic combined. Demographic modeling suggested that the Atlantic population separated from a single Gulf population which subsequently split into eastern and western populations. Additionally, there was evidence that adjacent populations experienced gene flow after splitting, which may explain the incongruence between results based on nuclear and mtCR data. Correlations between environmental variables and allele frequencies at 873 loci indicated potential local adaptation. Therefore, the preservation of all three groups is necessary for the conservation of long-term adaptive variation important for species persistence.

While there is a growing body of literature concerning video game production by smaller developers, there has been little examination of their marketing and business practices. This article presents the first exploration of the marketing skills, knowledge, and practices within the Trans-Tasman video game industry. Data was collected from thirty-three video game developers across Australia and New Zealand utilizing semi-structured interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis. It was found that, despite developers generally recognizing the importance of marketing, their marketing skills, knowledge, and practices were mixed and uneven. While some developers were undertaking integrated activities such as evaluation and brand management, others did not understand how to. The findings and insights generated have contributed to understandings about Trans-Tasman video game production and have begun to address an important knowledge gap concerning video game developers' marketing skills, knowledge, and practices.

Sexual assault is a global problem, with the risk highest among university students. Bystander intervention preventing sexual assaults has primarily been researched using quantitative methods to understand what factors influence it. However, both sexual assault and bystander intervention are complex with many subtle and overlapping issues that, when analyzed qualitatively, can offer new insights. The current study aimed to explore and develop a nuanced and comprehensive understanding of students' perceptions of sexual assault and bystander intervention across two universities, one in the United Kingdom and one in Australia. Thirty-nine university students (19 in the United Kingdom; 20 in Australia) took part in one-to-one semistructured interviews. Using inductive thematic analysis, two overarching themes were identified: (a) navigating the complex dynamics of sexual assault; and (b) decisions to intervene or not to intervene. Findings suggest that the complexity and ambiguity around sexual assault can forestall bystander intervention. As such, increasing education, awareness, and discussions around sexual assault and bystander intervention is vital to increase awareness of the problem and mobilize action from bystanders to prevent sexual assault.

Developing spoken grammar awareness is a crucial first step in fostering noticing habits (Schmidt, 1990) in second language learners. Classroom instruction using corpus-informed materials is an ideal way to assist this development, given that these materials are based on research which informs us about the most frequent forms and uses of spoken grammar and thus materials can help us to make frequent forms more salient to learners. However, as Badger (2018) notes, few studies seek to investigate what students actually notice outside of the classroom, following instruction. In this qualitative study, we aimed to address this gap by giving four intermediate learners instruction sessions using corpus-informed materials to teach three aspects of spoken grammar which corpora show are very frequent (vague language, ellipsis, and discourse markers). Following instruction, learner diaries were submitted over a three-week period to track (a) whether learners noticed the spoken grammar forms focused upon during the instruction in their day-to-day conversations in the UK, (b) whether they used any of the forms, and (c) the extent to which they perceived that this awareness helped them to have more successful conversations. The diaries were supported by a qualitative questionnaire administered 2 weeks after the final diary was submitted. Results show that learners reported noticing the forms in a variety of conversations, although this awareness was not always accurate. They also reported making some use of the forms themselves and the general perception was that the language taught was useful to them.

Abstract The sicklefin devil ray (Mobula tarapacana) is a large, pelagic ray which is listed as Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Mobula tarapacana is thought to have a circumglobal, yet patchy distribution, and has not been verified extant off the eastern USA. Here, we report 180 sightings of M. tarapacana with a total of 361 individuals, collated across five datasets from aerial survey operations and incidental sightings in the waters off the US East Coast and Gulf of Mexico, between 1996 and 2022. This study extends the northern range of M. tarapacana in the Gulf of Mexico to 29°N, and in the Atlantic to 40°N. Seasonal trends were observed off the north-eastern coast of the USA, with M. tarapacana only present in the summer months. Measurements from high resolution digital aerial imagery found M. tarapacana off the New York coast to be adults and subadults with an average disc width of 268 cm (±25, range 232–316 cm). This study provides important spatial and temporal data for management, as well as informing areas for future research on M. tarapacana in the western Atlantic.

Sports podcasting has spread rapidly over the past decade and reflects how sports media have been quick to embrace new technologies. Despite being a relatively recent medium, podcasts have expanded the sports field with their format and content. The rise in podcast shows and episodes has been noticeable, but less is known, particularly in an academic context, about the audience's desire for sports news and information. Utilising the audience of The Final Word, a global podcast focusing on cricket, this study will examine perceptions of media engagement and news consumption through a survey of 333 listeners. The Final Word is a popular podcast that has gained critical acclaim for its content and format, and is hosted by two cricket writers, who are based in Australia and the United Kingdom. The findings provide important global insights and descriptive results of the habits and perceptions of listeners in relation to media engagement and news consumption of a journalistic podcast

Reports of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on the internet are rapidly increasing and the number of people accessing it is substantial. Many of these men have partners or families who are impacted by their CSAM use. These families experience negative mental health and social outcomes as a result. Despite this, there are limited services that provide support to this population. In this article, we examine the findings of an evaluation of PartnerSPEAK, a service in Victoria, Australia, that supports the non-offending partners and families of CSAM offenders. The evaluation included a survey of 53 clients as well as seven in-depth interviews. The findings showed that the peer support model utilized by PartnerSPEAK offered effective support for this underserved client group including the reduction of shame and isolation.

Video game consumers are well-known for their brand engagement activities, but the interaction between brand engagement and brand authenticity in a video game context remains unknown. This study uses The Sims 4, an installment in a long-running, successful video game brand series, whose consumers are known for their particularly extensive engagement activities, to address this research gap. Thematic analysis informed by active story interpretation was used to analysis 2194 relevant online comments. The research identified that The Sims 4's consumers had expectations that certain gameplay features, deemed authentic to the brand and included in previous games, would be included in the game. However, when they were not included, consumers lowered their evaluations of the game's authenticity and value. Furthermore, consumers were frustrated that to get back these expected features they would have to create them themselves and they refused to do so. The findings advance knowledge of video game branding and provide practical implications for the industry. The industry cannot rely on consumers to create or fix a media brand's authenticity, no matter how engaged or active their consumers might be. Instead, video game media brands must listen, engage, and communicate with their consumers to ensure they deliver brand authenticity and the features expected by consumers.

This article explored how players were impacted by and used emergent narrative to make sense of their gameplay in the Total War strategy video game series. Two stages of qualitative research were undertaken: (i) a thematic analysis of 295 online forum posts; and (ii) 104 respondents to an online survey. The research followed a phenomenographic approach with analysis informed by undertaking the active story interpreter role. The thematic analysis found that 32 % of the posts contained emergent narratives of which 14 % were detailed, while a further 39 % of the posts expressed pleasure from reading these emergent narratives. Results from online survey suggested respondents developed emotional attachments to the generals and units they controlled in Total War video game, and that this emotional attachment increased their enjoyment of the gameplay (79 %). However, sometimes, due to these attachments, players allowed generals to ‘retire’ and idle in a settlement, which may have adversely impacted their strategic gameplay in a game genre that privileges long-term planning. Since players can derive pleasure in creating or reading other players’ emergent narratives, developers could further enhance players’ enjoyment of their strategy games by providing more resources and prompts to assist with their creation.

Recent advancement in technology has made virtual reality (VR) more accessible and immersive than ever before, resulting in its increasing utility in various industries. Despite this, VR has remained an underutilised tool within clinical psychology. This study aimed to explore the potential of using VR for therapeutic benefits through examining the level of flow and anxiety-reducing effects of freeform drawing in real life (on paper) versus drawing in VR (using Tilt Brush) via a randomised-controlled trial with 40 participants. State and trait anxiety was measured using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, level of flow was measured using the Long Flow State Scale, and level of presence was measured using the iGroup Presence Questionnaire. Overall level of flow was not significantly different between both groups, implying drawing in VR induces as much flow as drawing in real life. Level of flow was positively correlated to level of presence experienced in the VR group ( p < .01). Although there was no significant interaction effect, both groups experienced an overall decrease in state anxiety, with the VR group experiencing a significant reduction of state anxiety from pre- to post-test ( p < .01).