Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
PhD Student (2nd Year), Critical Game Design

“The Convenience of Being Idle”

Where will the future of games take us? Many have argued that virtual reality or augmented reality will be the future of games, but both of these genres, by their very nature, exclude players of certain demographics. Those that are excluded may turn to idle games. These are games that allow pleasure without the pressure of a typical gameplay experience. Their mobile nature allows the player to start and stop whenever they want and even while playing, the player is able to make progress while absentmindedly clicking away or doing nothing at all. Idle games often play themselves to a certain extent as the player makes progress. The games remove part of the needed gameplay in a way that feels rewarding to the player. This is, however, not without its risks, as while these games can be played almost indefinitely, there is still a desire in the player to make progress as quickly as possible, which can lead to addiction-like behavior and spending on microtransactions.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
PhD Student (2nd Year), Critical Game Design

“Liminal Space in Games”

The liminal space aesthetic movement has recently gained traction among various internet circles, both fascinating and mystifying these communities in turn. The affective qualities of these spaces prove to carry real emotional weight, which when leveraged help to create strong and compelling experiences. Video games, in particular, may be the perfect medium for creating and exploring liminal spaces. In this talk, we seek to break down what makes liminal spaces feel the way they do, how games often utilize them, and why liminal spaces matter so much for the games we play and make.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
PhD Student (2nd Year), Critical Game Design

“Sound Becomes Site: Music of the Metaverse”

My research investigates creative and technical strategies for composing music with contemporary virtual reality platforms. Using comparative analysis of historic presidents for ‘virtual music’ in conjunction with the creation of new artistic projects, this work will identify emerging compositional trends, articulate current best practices in the field, and define future use cases for musical creation in virtual contexts.

Specific focus will be given to the musical applications of current ‘game engine’ production software, open source ‘WebVR’ protocols, and their intersection with contemporary audio tools used to produce spatial or ‘immersive’ audio. New musical works informed by historic case study will connect artistic strategies from experimental music to the emerging compositional medium of virtual reality. Additionally, this will explore the manner in which the technical affordances of these contemporary software tools either support or subvert musical exploration, and the cultural structures in which this negotiation occurs.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
PhD Student (1st Year), Critical Game Design

“Creating Seriously Persuasive Game”

This study aims to create digital therapeutics modules to change mental disorder children’s social behaviors using seriously persuasive game design. The focus is to create a simulated social interaction digital playground for children and adolescents with Asperger’s to explore social interaction and foster understanding of other people’s situations and emotions. I’m not creating digital therapeutics that teach the right answers. Rather, it will simulate familiar and recurring social situations for children and adolescents with Aspergers to explore how non-Asperger people react based on their actions, finding answers by themselves. This design is a seriously persuasive design, which balances simulation and direction. I’m not trying to create a single digital panacea for every social behavior. By creating modules of digital therapeutics, my study aims to target multiple specific social behaviors with
various gamified approaches.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
PhD Student (2nd Year), Critical Game Design

“The Rise of Chinese eSports: A Tough and Long Road”

At the start of the 2000s, many Chinese game companies chose to agent foreign games and imported them to China. As the Chinese game industry’s backbone, internet cafes were the most important areas where Chinese players reached those imported foreign games. Though many internet cafes were using pirated versions of those games, they created the universal of eSports games and offered most Chinese game players a chance to play those games. Xiaofeng Li was the first Chinese professional player who won WCG twice in a row and proved Chinese eSports was not weaker than any other country. His autobiography, When Li Xiaofeng Becomes SKY, introduces the importance of internet cafes to professional players in detail. Based on Li’s book, this paper will look into the Chinese game eSports development process and its relationship with internet cafes. The topic will cover the starting up of Chinese eSports, the components that support Chinese eSports, the obstacles that hinder Chinese eSports’ development, and the significance and social problems of Chinese eSports. This paper will answer the question: How did Chinese eSports get to their current position starting from zero?