Games Matter

I was incredibly fortunate to get to participate in the Knight Foundation’s symposium Lessons from the First Internet Ages back in November 2021. As a part of that I contributed a short piece for publication online entitled “Games Matter.” One of the things I’ve tried to do in my teaching and prior research (particularly around…

Pedagogy and Possible Futures

The following is from a short talk I presented for the Entertainment Design Symposium at Shanghai Tech in October 2020. It was part of a panel focused on game education and I was asked to address the issue of esports in academic programs. I’m a professor in the department of Comparative Media Studies at MIT…

Game studies histories

There’s been some discussion recently about game studies as a field. What defines it. What discussions dominate it. The usual wranglings over intellectual histories within scholarly (and I suppose other) domains. It’s something I’ve certainly thought about before. Back in 2009 I wrote a piece trying to disrupt some of the framing around the field.…

DiGRA remarks on collegiate esports

In August 2019 I gave a keynote at DiGRA (a game studies conference) on the subject of esports and networked broadcasting. At the end, I offered the following remarks on collegiate esports. One quick additional note, after the talk I was struck by how many faculty came up to me to say they are being…

Watch Me Play now available

My new book, Watch Me Play: Twitch and the Rise of Game Live Streaming (Princeton), is now out! You can pick up a copy at Amazon, Princeton, or your local bookseller. I was also so lucky to have the fantastic folks over at Emerson Esports make me a book trailer video for it. Check out…