Games Institute Podcast

On this episode of the GI Podcast, co-hosts Sid Heeg and Dr. Emma Vossen sit down with the Rhetoricon Team. Led by Dr. Randy Harris of the English Language and Literature department at the University of Waterloo, the Rhetoricon project is the longest running project at the Games Institute. Dr. Harris' project examines rhetorical figures in language for the purposes of building ethical language learning models and utilizing citizen science to contribute to the database. Joining the conversation are three students on the project Adeshola Ogunsanya, Drake Dong, and Nathan D'Silva, who provide their expertise from working on the database and explore how working on this interdisciplinary project has impacted them. Links https://rhetoricon.uwaterloo.ca/ https://gofigure.uwaterloo.ca/ https://uwaterloo.ca/english/profiles/randy-harris  

In this episode of the GI Podcast, co-hosts Toben Racicot and Sid Heeg sit down with postdoctoral fellow Dr. Eugene Kukshinov and his work in social virtual reality and exploring the concept of presence within VR environments.  Bio: Dr. Eugene Kukshinov is a media psychology and HCI postdoctoral researcher. He got his PhD in Media and Communication from Temple University, USA. His focus is on understanding psychological processing of media and technology. This includes immersive experiences and their interrelationships in different contexts such as (Social) VR, video games, or storytelling. Links: Dr. Kukshinov's website: https://eugenekukshinov.com/  Kukshinov, E. (2024). It's (not) me: Dynamic Nature of Immersive Experiences in Video Game Play. Human Studies. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10746-024-09768-9

This month, hosts Sid Heeg and Toben Racicot are joined by Pamela Maria Schmidt and Dr. Emma Vossen as they discuss the games they've played in 2024 and are looking forward to in 2025. Catch the latest details about their experiences with Balatro, It Takes Two, and The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. All this and more on this special edition of the GI podcast! Stay in touch with the Games Institute! LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/company/the-games-institute  Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thegamesinstitute.bsky.social  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thegamesinstitute/ Links: "Playing as the Princess: Nintendo, Gender Roles, and Echoes of Wisdom" by Emma Vossen and Sarah Stang

Co-hosts Toben Racicot (English Language and Literature) and Sid Heeg (Environment) interview Dr. Luke Potwarka (Recreation and Leisure) and Greg Mittler (Athletics and Recreation). Together they are the founders of UWIN aka the University of Waterloo Interdisciplinary Network for Esports.  Sid and Toben chat with Greg and Luke about Esports sustainability, the possible inclusion of Esports in the Olympics, and their recent trip to the University of Warwick for future collaborative research efforts on Esports development and research. Bios Dr. Luke R. Potwarka Associate Professor in the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies in the Faculty of Health Sciences and Director of the Spectator Experience and Technology Laboratory aka the SEAT Lab. His research involved thinking critically about sports spectatorship and consumer behaviour and wellbeing. Greg Mittler is the Esports and Gaming Coordinator in the Department of Athletics and Recreation and an alumnus of Waterloo's Recreation and Business program. Greg has been involved in many parts of Camps and Athletics at UW for almost 20 years. Shownotes SEAT LAB: “Our international team of researchers investigate the role of sport spectator experiences in the promotion of individual health and well-being. To achieve this goal, we employ various technologies as both a methodology (e.g., social neuroscience, eye-tracking, second screens, etc), and a means of experiencing sport events (e.g., virtual reality, augmented reality, mobile devices). Our lab's current work focuses on developing a better understanding of the sport consumer experience using social neuroscience methodology. We are interested in addressing the extent to which brain system activation can predict engagement (i.e., flow) and involvement in the sport viewership experience.” UWIN's Mission: “The mission of our proposed network is to strengthen esports-related scholarship, teaching/learning, and student experiences at the University of Waterloo. We will advance this mission through socially just and equity-oriented approaches, which seek to make esports more accessible and inclusive spaces for all. Our mission will consider esports from a holistic wellbeing perspective, with considerations for potential physical, mental, social, and emotional benefits and harms of esports to participants and communities.”  

This month co-hosts Toben Racicot and Sid Heeg interview incoming GI Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Geneva Smith about her research into NPC emotional believability in games.  Links: G-ScalE Lab at McMaster University. https://gscale.cas.mcmaster.ca/  “Start Your EM(otion En)gine: Towards Computational Models of Emo-tion for Improving the Believability of Video Game Non-Player Characters” - http://hdl.handle.net/11375/28699 “GLaDOS: Integrating Emotion-Based Behaviours into Non-Player Characters in Computer Role-Playing Games” -  http://hdl.handle.net/11375/21369 

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! Stay in touch with the Games Institute! LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/company/the-games-institute X: https://twitter.com/GamesInstitute Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thegamesinstitute/

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

This month we are joined by Dr. Derritt Mason, who is a associate professor in English at the University of Calgary. Follow along as Dr. Mason discucsses topics surrounding their love of video games, queer representation in games, and coming of age stories in gaming. Dr. Mason additonal dives into how adolescent roles are displayed in horror games, the unique aspects of "bildungsroman" in gaming, and his book “Queer Anxieties of Young Adult Literature and Culture”.    Email: derritt.mason@ucalgary.ca   Website: https://derrittmason.com/   Book: Queer Anxieties of Young Adult Literature and Culture   University Profile: https://english.ucalgary.ca/profiles/derritt-m

Dr. Neil Randall is not only the Executive Director of the Games Institute Research Facility at the University of Waterloo, but also an avid guide and participant in the fellowship of the Lord of the Rings universe. Here, he discusses interesting particulars in how the Lord of the Rings franchise has reconfigured itself through decades of adapatations. Alongside the scope of adaptation, our three experts touch on the importance of medium in adaptation, the specific cultures affiliated with adapatations, and issues surrounding the importance of source text.  More information:  Phrase "LOTRO": Lord of the Rings Online  LOTRO: Play Lord of The Rings Online Dr. Niel Randall: See his bio here

Dr. Lili Liu, Dean of Health at the University of Waterloo, and Dr. Hector Perez, Postdoctoral Fellow, discuss the concept of serious games and their application in research for the aging population This includes how Drs. Liu and Perez have used games in their research such as exercise games, games for memory, social interaction, and cognitive thinking. Their work has been used to with the intent of decreasing the effects associated with older adults living with dementia, and has led to collaborative research and design processes with First Responders in First Nations communities in Quebec, Canada. Check out their work with the Aging and Innovation Research Project (AIRP):  https://uwaterloo.ca/aging-innovation-research-program/

This month, the GI podcast is joined by Dr. Daria Ho, who is a professor in History at the University of Waterloo. Dr. Daria Ho talks about her passion for history, her childhood with gaming, and the importance of performance and choice in teaching. Using avant garde teaching techniques, Dr. Ho talks about the incredibly creative and diverse experiences she and her students have shared through the implication of realism and role-play in the classroom.  Teams: Daria.ho@uwaterloo.ca Email: Daria.ho@uwaterloo.ca DMZ Project Trailer: https://youtu.be/dr1KJpAdHrI DMZ Project Documentary: https://youtu.be/E5pV4oSgoak If you are interested in learning to play Gō with Dr. Daria Ho, please reach out through the above email. 

Co-hosts Sid Heeg and Toben Racicot talk with Dr. Brianna Wiens and her involvement in social media activism campaigns, as well as her fresh take on integrating media theory into graduate and undergraduate level courses.  Show Notes: DOHR (Digital Oral Histories for Reconciliation): https://dohrprojectca.wordpress.com/ MeToo: https://metoomvmt.org/ FTT (Feminist Think Tank): https://www.feminist-think-tank.com/  qLab (q collaborative): https://www.qcollaborative.com/ Dr. Brianna Wiens' Socials  Instagram: aesthetic.resistance Twitter: https://twitter.com/biwiens   

Co-hosts Sid Heeg and Toben Racicot speak to Dr. Steve Wilcox about accessibility in gaming, First Person Scholar (FPS), Gamergate, his academic trajectory and social impact games!  Shownotes: Allergory: https://praxisgames.itch.io/allergory  Factorio: https://www.factorio.com/ Learn more about FPS: http://www.firstpersonscholar.com/ Check out the projects Dr. Steve Wilcox undertook at the GI: https://uwaterloo.ca/games-institute/steve-wilcox Check out Dr. Steve Wilcox's Wilfrid Laurier University profile: https://www.wlu.ca/academics/faculties/faculty-of-human-and-social-sciences/faculty-profiles/steve-wilcox/index.html  Dr. Steve Wilcox's Socials Personal website: https://www.helloworlds.ca/cv/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/stevemwilcox?lang=en 

Dr. Oliver Schneider joins the GI Podcast to talk about custom board games, the origins of the Haptics Experience Lab (HX Lab), haptics and accessibility, Disney Research, and much more with hosts Toben Racicot and Sid Heeg!   Shownotes: Learn more about DualPanto: http://oliverschneider.ca/dualpanto/  Check out CanHaptics: http://canhaptics.ca/  CanHaptics training course (CanHap 501 or MSCI 720 at the University of Waterloo): https://wiki.canhaptics.ca/ One of Oliver's Disney research projects: https://la.disneyresearch.com/publication/tactile-animation/  FeelCraft: http://oliverschneider.ca/feelcraft/  Check out Oliver's GI profile: https://uwaterloo.ca/games-institute/people-profiles/oliver-schneider Oliver's personal website: http://oliverschneider.ca/  Learn more about the HX Lab: https://uwaterloo.ca/haptic-experience-lab/ Oliver's Twitter https://twitter.com/oschneid     

AC Atienza joins Toben and Sid to discuss their pathway to becoming a board game designer and consultant, as well as their experiences in those roles. Learn about the board game industry, design philosophies, and the importance of hands-off playtesting.  Other topics covered include:  Why are there fewer resources for learning board game design as opposed to video game design? How does one get a job in the board game industry? What are the secrets to success with a board game Kickstarter? What is the difference between input and output randomness in design? Why are some games more fun to design than play? How do you identify systemic problems while playtesting? And what is Gen Con, the largest tabletop game convention in North America, really like?   SHOWNOTES: Learn more about Wiggles 3D here: https://wiggles3d.com/ Check out Captain's Gambit: Kings of Infinite Space: https://www.cloudfallstudios.com/captainsgambit About GenCon: https://www.gencon.com/aboutus Who is Tom Vasel? https://www.dicetower.com/team-members/tom-vasel Stardew Valley Board Game: https://shop.stardewvalley.net/products/stardew-valley-the-board-game Azul: https://www.boardgamehalv.com/azul/ Cats: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/257814/cats   Contacts: AC is reachable at: https://www.cloudfallstudios.com/ AC Atienza's Twitter: https://twitter.com/acatienz You can learn more about the Games Institute at https://uwaterloo.ca/games-institute/        

Toben returns to the podcast studio with new co-host Sid Heeg. They talk pandemic pasttimes, Sid's new academic trajectory, and what games have kept them busy throughout the COVID lockdowns.   To learn more about Sid Heeg: https://uwaterloo.ca/school-environment-enterprise-development/people-profiles/sid-heeg Hear more from Sid on the Games Institute Podcast: https://gamesinstitute.libsyn.com/010-farming-simulators-and-achievement-hunting-with-sid-hee https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/010-farming-simulators-achievement-hunting-sid-heeg/id1465789684?i=1000451821829  

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.

Grace talks ethics in research and innovation, and explains her work with UW’s new Council for Responsible Innovation and Technology (CRIT).

Elise Vist guests to discuss hockey, fan fiction, fandoms, and queering academia.

Neil Randall, Executive Director of the Games Institute joins Marisa and Toben to discuss board games, simulation, teaching philosophy, and the origins of the Games Institute.

Marisa and Toben walk back through the guests and topics on The Games Institute Podcast in 2019.

Dungeon Master Toben runs The Isle of Caire Ankrah, a homebrew one shot, for a group of GI members.

Dr Igor Grossmann discusses wisdom, podcasting, and Dungeons & Dragons.

Hosts of Three Panel Contrast, Dr. Anna Peppard, Dr. J. Andrew Deman, and Dr. Michael Hancock join the show to talk about comic book scholarship, carving a place for discussion themselves, and adapting comic books for the screen--both movies and games.

Stuart joins us once more to discuss his research conclusions before heading back to France.

Michael Hancock guests to talk RPGs, his dissertation research, gaming books, and branching into comic scholarship.

Sid Heeg joins the show and discusses their love of farming, its importance in modern society, surrounding rhetorics, and achievement hunting.

Krystyna Oakman discusses her academic journey, working at the Games Institute, knowledge mobilization, and creative play.