Our Research

Utilizing a relational framework that follows Coleman’s Becoming of Bodies (Coleman 2008) and Radical Relationality (Powell 2013), Brett’s talk examines elements of problematic design surrounding two virtual worlds: World of Warcraft (Blizzard 2004) and VRChat (VRChat Inc. 2017). Expanding previous work on the erasure of queer bugs in WoW (Brett 2018), Brett works to map how the production, maintenance, or...

In game studies research on avatars has generally focused either upon identity or theories of multiple selves. Identification theories tend to focus on whether human players relate their offline selves to the image of their online character. A two dimensional relationship between avatar and player. In contrast, the latter expresses that the self is often fragmented by the affordances of...

The question ‘are videogames causing violence?’ is an infamously difficult to answer. This question assumes a dualist framework in which individuals and bits of culture exist as separate, discrete objects that interact independently from each other (Elias 1978; Depelteau 2013; Powell 2013). Particularly, thinking about the interactions between humans, technology and culture in a way that discusses the effects of...

This Diversity Working Group workshop will promote current and emerging research on diversity in game studies, including but not limited to race, gender, sexuality, class, caste, disability, nationality, decoloniality, and other related topics. Workshop presenters will share their work with an audience of colleagues and experts, and participants will discuss current trends and network to better support diverse work in...

Noel Brett shows how the shared agency between humans and video game technologies can mobilize far-right violence through intentionally or unintentionally placed affordances.

With live streaming rising in popularity, many people stream the creation of 3D avatars However, many of these avatars end up following a similar output: a hyper-feminized anime girl. Why is this? What are the social and technological processes constructing these avatars? To answer these questions, I propose that human (streamer and audience) and non-human (streaming platform and 3D modeling...