Games Institute Podcast Games Institute

This week co-hosts Toben (English Language and Literature) and Sid (Environment) interview faculty member Dr. Gerald Voorhees (Communication Arts), about his past, present, and future research on race, decolonization, whiteness, and masculinity in games.
Voorhees reminisces on past research about masculinity and “Dadification” in games, and discusses his research in eSports examining the performance of gender, whiteness, and masculinity. He also talks about joining the GI and First Person Scholar over a decade ago and leading the ADE speaker series that was held at the GI last year.

Links:
Daddy Issues: Constructions of Fatherhood in The Last of Us and BioShock Infinite
Masculinities in Play
Performing Neoliberal Masculinity: Reconfiguring Hegemonic Masculinity in Professional Gaming
The Culture of Digital Fighting Games: Performance and Practice: Todd Harper
Made in Asia/America: Why Video Games Were Never (Really) About Us: Matt Howard
ADE for Games Communities Workshop and Speaker Series
Skins Deep: Race, Gender, and Nationality in eSports: Tara Fickle
Research Disability & Play: Where's the Fun in That?: Katta Spiel
Dungeons, Dragons, and Digital Denizens: The Digital Role-Playing Game
First Person Scholar
Bio:
Gerald Voorhees earned a Ph.D. from The University of Iowa (2008) and holds a B.S. in Speech Communication from the University of Texas at Austin, where he was a Senior Fellow in the Honors Program of the College of Communication. His research focuses on games and new media as sites for the construction and contestation of identity and culture. He is also interested in public discourse pertaining to games and new media, as well as rhetorics of race and ethnicity in mediated public discourse. He is Vice-President of the Canadian Game Studies Association, a former member of the Executive Board of the Digital Games Research Association, and a former co-chair of the Game Studies area of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Nation Conference. 

Co-hosts Toben Racicot (English Language and Literature) and Sid Heeg (Environment) interview Computing and Software PhD candidate Sasha Soraine (McMaster University) about her experiences with games and games research.
Sasha is part of the interdisciplinary Gaming Scalability Environment (G-ScalE) Lab at McMaster. Fun fact, G-ScalE was a part of the IMMERSe network that helped establish the GI!
For our 51st episode, Sasha goes in-depth about the concept of "mechanically achievable gameplay" and how it could help the game industry. This concept systemically evaluates if the target demographic will be able to play the game that is being developed.
Sasha explains, “If we are building a game that we know we're going to target kids eight to nine [years old] or adults fifty to sixty [years old], are we, in our design thinking, in our design stage, when we're planning out the games, is that actually something they can even engage with or is it something that, in our design, is so far out of the realm of what they can do?"
In addition, Sasha shares her experiences from the G-ScalE lab and why she sought out a more interdisciplinary style of research.
Links
IMMERSe Grant
Game Scalability Lab
Game Scalability Lab – Sasha Soraine
Sasha Soraine’s Website
Bio 
Sasha Soraine is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Computing and Software at McMaster University. Her research interests focus on understanding the player-game relationship through the intersections of game design and human-computer interactions. Her work with the G-ScalE lab focuses on understanding player experiences through the cognitive and motor requirements of common gameplay challenges. The core argument of her doctoral work is published in “Mechanical Experiences, Competency Profiles, and Jutsu” in the Journal of Games, Self, and Society. Her recent book chapter collaboration, “Pandemic Gaming and Wholesome Philosophy: How New Players Reimaged Gaming Practices” in Gaming and Gamers in Times of Pandemic, explores how gaming identities and practices have changed over the pandemic. When she’s not researching games, Sasha enjoys playing a variety of video games, board games, and tabletop roleplaying games.

For our 50th episode, Toben (English Language and Literature) and Sid (Environment) interview OG GI member Dr. Emma Vossen about her academic life with games before becoming the GI’s Research Communication Officer.
She discusses how she got into games as a kid, her time as EIC of First Person Scholar, and how much game studies has changed since she started her PhD in 2012.
Links
First Person Scholar
Emma’s FPS essay about GG
Katherine Cross’ essay about GG
Emma’s dissertation
Steve Wilcox
Steve’s writing about middle-state publishing
Historiographies of Game Studies: What it Has Been, What it Could Be - ***Not “Game Studies Historiographies” as Emma said***
Adrienne Shaw
CBC Documentary
Doppelganger by Naomi Klein
Lost Girls by Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie
25,000 Years of Erotic Freedom by Alan Moore
Ducks by Kate Beaton
It’s a Good Life if you Don’t Weaken by Seth
Pentiment
Night in the Woods
The Excavation of Hobs Burrow
Inscryption
Tunic

This month, hosts Sid Heeg and Toben Racicot are joined by Pamela Maria Schmidt and AC Atienza as they discuss the games they've played in 2023 and are looking forward to in 2024. Catch the latest details about their experiences with Tears of the Kingdom, Baldur's Gate 3, and some exciting indie games. All this and more on this special edition of the GI podcast!
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This week we are joined by Joe Tu, who is a PhD student and GI member pursing a degree in Systems Design Engineering. Follow along as we discuss Joe's experiences with gaming, his educational journey at The University of Waterloo, and his experiences/work at the GI. Further, we dive into the insights of Joe's recent project on incorporating heartrate monitors into gaming, and his goals for potential future projects. In addition, we reminisce about Joe's experiences at CHI Play (Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction), and gaming in his free time.
Email: joseph.tu@uwaterloo.ca
Or find Joe's desk at the GI (It has a Christmas tree)
 

 This month we are joined by Shawn Desouza-Coelho, who is GI alumni, U-Waterloo Graduate with a Masters in English - Experimental and Digital Media, avid gamer and theatrical performer. Follow along as Shawn discusses topics around the amazing impacts of gaming in games like Final Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons, Baldurs Gate, and ­­­­plenty more. Shawn also explores his experience’s in the early days of The Game Institute, the projects he worked at the GI and how they relate to digital games and modern cinema. In addition, Shawn discusses his love of theater and his current research in how racialized performers navigate and negotiate theatrical space in the southern Ontario theater industry.  
Links:
Email: shawnddc@yorku.ca