Luke Hernandez is currently a Ph.D. Student in the Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication program at the University of Texas at Dallas. Luke’s research work lies at the intersection of Critical Game Studies, Latinx Studies, and Queer Theory. Luke works… Continue Reading
We are very excited to announce our latest Special Issue! In this issue, we focused on the voices and experiences of queer and trans people of colour, and efforts to decolonizing the games studies space. With amazing work by our… Continue Reading
Check out the edited transcript for an interview with Kishonna Gray below! You can also listen to the interview on Soundcloud by clicking here or following this link: https://soundcloud.com/firstpersonpodcast/racial-equity-games-showcase-an-interview-with-kishonna-gray Additionally, if you’d like to see the full transcript, please click… Continue Reading
The word “Interactive” is a much abused and rarely defined buzzword. Espen Aarseth notes this in his 1996 book Cybertext where he observes how the word “Interactive” is more of a marketing term with little academic depth, a slogan that brings to mind “computer screens, user freedom, and personalized media, while denoting nothing”.1 More recently, Miguel Sicart in Against Procedurality has criticised a trend within game studies to unduly fetishize the digital and structural aspect of games. 2 Nowhere are these trends more apparent than in the recently published conference proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling. The term “Interactive Digital Storytelling” is supposed to tie the papers together, but does so with little definitional cohesiveness: signifying branching paths, collaborative fiction, digital spaces, authoring tools and simulation games all at once. This reflects a worrying trend in game studies, a trend which fetishizes the digital while neglecting to explore the theoretical implications of the games that are actually being discussed. Continue Reading