Games Institute Podcast

Marisa Benjamin, co-host of the Game Institute Podcast, has moved on to other career endeavours. As a farewell, she guests in this exit interview episode to reflect on the experience of building the podcast and what comes next.

Lindsay Meaning talks examining colonialism in games and the games industry as the focus of her dissertation. From single-player RPGs like Assassin's Creed to board games like Settlers of Catan and Spirit Island, Lindsay has lots to say about colonialism's presence.

Cayley MacArthur joins the podcast to discuss her research into systems of inclusivity and human computer interaction. From knitting groups, to online gaming groups, technology brings people together, just like this podcast, and Cayley's research draws out interesting conclusions as to how digital gatherings can be improved and why they were so vital during COVID years.

Join DM Toben as he guides players Lindsay Meaning, Betsey Brey, Boris Ulyanskiy, and Leonid Moyzhes through an adventure during the International Conference on Games and Narrative's online sessions. The party receives an anonymous invitation to the Cryptid Nature Conservatory and have no idea what awaits them!

Nicholas Hobin, English PhD researcher, has devoted his research to understanding the portrayals of animals in video games. Until recently, animals in games has been an understudied topic in Game Studies. Nicholas is working hard to fill this gap, but there's still so much space to explore. Listen to him trace the roots of his work with Animal Studies, to close analyses of Red Dead Redemption 2 and, most recently, Untitled Goose Game. No animals were harmed in the making of this episode, nor in the playing of the games that we played to prepare!

Sabrina Sgandurra is the Editor in Chief for First Person Scholar and an English PhD researcher. This episode is a whirlwind! In under an hour, we discuss immersive narratives, role-playing games, experiential games research, live streaming, First Person Scholar, and Assassin's Creed.

Join us as we talk with Dr. Lennart Nacke, Associate Professor of HCI and Director of the HCI Games Group, about all things game design, gameful thinking, and user experience. Lennart shares his own origin story and the origin of the HCI Games group. He plants seeds for interested researchers to take up intriguing projects and even puts out a call (or two!) for students to find out how they can get involved with his lab.

Alessandra Luz, PhD student from the HCI Games Group, joins us to discuss using technology to develop games-based optometry treatments for children. Alê shares her experience working in advertising in Brazil, England, and Japan, and a Master's in England, leading up to starting her PhD at the University of Waterloo in May 2020 just after the pandemic lockdowns began. Hear Alê talk about what it was like to join the Games Institute's community exclusively online and get inspired by her commitment to bring gender, racial, and disability equity into her interdisciplinary research.

Pelisha Samithamby discusses her graduate research in haptics. As a graduate researcher in the Haptic Computing Lab at the Games Institute, Pelisha is developing the Haptiverse, an online library of haptic feedback samples. See more about the Haptiverse here: haptiverse.com

Postdoctoral Fellow, John Muñoz, joins the show to talk about his many projects covering: VR exercise games (exergames), game design and development, Human Robotic Interaction, and music!

Jenn Rickert closes out 2020 with insights into World of Warcraft raiding and guild culture, stories from BlizzCon and her academic adventures, and shares her love for the Games Institute. To contact Jenn: jennrickert.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennrickert/ https://twitter.com/JennRickert

Pamela Maria Schmidt joins the show to discuss her Master's MRP researching apocalyptic narratives in video games, technologies, maintaining one's culture through games, and why the Witcher is so important to her.

Hosts Toben and Marisa join up online to catch up about their activities during COVID, research, and things they're looking forward to whenever normalcy returns.

Game Institute researchers Betsy Brey and Pamela Maria Schmidt discuss all facets of Five Nights at Freddy's in this special Halloween event.

We’re rewinding time to 2 years ago when we hosted this panel live at the Games Institute. Moderated by Marisa Benjamin, our panelists explore Horizon Zero Dawn from the perspectives of their research fields. We get into feminism, animal studies, player experiences, game design, and much more. Host: Marisa Benjamin - marisabenj.com

Our speakers brought in their unique perspectives and expertise to discuss the co-operative games Spirit Island (2017; board game) and Overcooked 2 (2018; video game).We used these games as a springboard for a larger discussion about the genre of co-operative games: What are these games all about and why would people play them? How are they different from one another in form, content, and player experience?

Justin Carpenter talks form and content in games and literature, working to master challenges in games, and the death (or rebirth) of the author/designer.

In this episode, we expand our knowledge on the processes behind personalized gamification, previously introduced in our episodes with Gustavo Tondello and Stuart Hallifax. Max also shares some innovative applications he’s worked on using gamification strategies... spoiler alert: he talks about a game for washing your hands.

AC leaves us speechless in their explanation of game poetics: novel game studies research to end all ludology/narratology debates. We chat about how iterative design through Energize and Captain's Gambit bolsters AC's research.   To support AC's kickstarter for Captain's Gambit please visit: http://kck.st/2TAEEeh

Lia Black discusses Destiny, Cross-Disciplinary Interactive Experiences, her many research projects, and the potential of a triple crown: three degrees from uWaterloo.