I love to play games.
In grad school, I started to love studying them too. Playing a game for homework? I never dreamed of such a luxe existence.
If games are just another form of art and another way we communicate with one another - and boy do I believe they are both! - then they're just as worthy of an in-depth look as music and movies and books. What do games tell us? Since games are interactive, how does the technology they employ change the way we receive the messages they're imparting? And since we're each choosing our own paths through many of those games... how varied are those messages we receive?
I was lucky enough to work with two of my professors, Alexis Pulos and S. Austin Lee, on a couple of video-game-related publications that explore gender performativity and the way technology changes:
- Male Action vs. Female Inaction: Cultural Implications of Gender Performance in Japanese Video Games
- It's Dangerous to Go Alone! Take This (New Technology): Nintendo's Impact on the Technological Landscape of the Video Game Industry
While I might not have any academic inroads right now, I still love to think about and talk about games. Here in the blog, you'll see essays - sometimes short, sometimes long - about video games and why people love to play them.
<3 AG