My interviewee this time is André Brock from the School of Library and Information Science at the University of Iowa. His recent article in Games and Culture called ‘‘When Keeping it Real Goes Wrong: Resident Evil 5, Racial Representation, and Gamers” was the topic of our conversation. Brock writes that, “videogames’ ability to depict cultural iconographies and characters have occasionally led to accusations of insensitivity. This article examines gamers’ reactions to a developer’s use of Africans as enemies in a survival horror videogame, Resident Evil 5. Their reactions offer insight into how videogames represent Whiteness and White privilege within the social structure of ‘‘play.’’ … Videogames construct exotic fantasy worlds and peoples as places for White male protagonists to conquer, explore, exploit, and solve. Like their precursors in science fiction, fantasy, and horror, videogame narratives, activities, and players often draw from Western values of White masculinity, White privilege as bounded by conceptions of ‘‘other,’’ and relationships organized by coercion and domination.”

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We revisit the question of video game play and subsequent violence in my interview with James Ivory. He writes that “much of my research focuses on the content and effects of new entertainment media such as video games. At Virginia Tech, I founded the VT G.A.M.E.R. Lab (Virginia Tech Gaming and Media Effects Research Laboratory), a small laboratory hosted by the Department of Communication.” In a chapter, which is appearing in an edited book on communication studies, Ivory points out that “among a sea of influences that can increase aggression, video game violence doesn’t rise to the surface”. He and his coauthor also talk about the role of video games in mass school shootings as a misguided speculation. We had a lively discussion about the stigmatization that such speculation has caused in gamers. In addition to his academic research, he also works to help develop software and provide occasional consulting services pertaining to media analysis, development, and marketing as a member of Arrowhead Interactive.

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This time I spoke with Pål Aarsand who has a PhD in Child Studies and works as a senior lecturer at the Department of Education, Uppsala University, Sweden. His research interest is in young people’s use of digital technology in their everyday lives. He has focused on game/play, identities, the parent-child relation and digital competences. We had a lively conversation about how families are coping with the new play world of video games. We touched on parenting issues as well as problem versus healthy use in children. In his article in the Journal of Children and Media, he notes that his data “reveal considerable diversity in how middle-class parents deal with game play, which is currently one of the most common child and youth leisure activities… It is argued that differences in middle-class families’ parenting styles are related to their view of the child and their stance on game technology. In addition, talk about parenting reveals parents’ construction of good and bad parenting, where they see themselves as belonging to the former category” as it relates to video game play.

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Luther Elliott, of the Institute for Special Populations Research, National Development and Research Institutes, New York, NY, and I talked about his work on how video game genre might be a predictor of problem use. In an article published in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, he and his coauthors explored this new way of viewing problem use. He says that their “study assessed how problem video game playing (PVP) varies with game type, or “genre,” among adult video gamers.” He reports that only 5% of his over 3000 respondents “reported moderate to extreme problems. PVP was concentrated among persons who reported playing first-person shooter, action adventure, role-playing, and gambling games most during the past year.” We discussed the problems around defining addiction in gaming and the popular misconceptions regarding the use of this word.

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Andrew Przybylski and I chatted this time about how ones sense of ideal self can be encouraged with the play of video games. Przybylski is with the Department of Psychology, University of Essex, United Kingdom. He and his coauthors recently published a study in Psychological Science, the highest ranked empirical journal in psychology, exploring these ideas. He points out in the abstract to his article that, “Video games constitute a popular form of entertainment that allows millions of people to adopt virtual identities. In our research, we explored the idea that the appeal of games is due in part to their ability to provide players with novel experiences that let them “try on” ideal aspects of their selves that might not find expression in everyday life. We found that video games were most intrinsically motivating and had the greatest influence on emotions when players’ experiences of themselves during play were congruent with players’ conceptions of their ideal selves. Additionally, we found that high levels of immersion in gaming environments, as well as large discrepancies between players’ actual-self and ideal-self characteristics, magnified the link between intrinsic motivation and the experience of ideal-self characteristics during play.” A more recent research interest of Przybylski regards the cult of Mac users.

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This time I spoke with Adreine Shaw who is at Temple University . We talked about her research into video game identity and culture. This came out in an article in Games and Culture and has been the most downloaded and read article in the journal in the last few years. The article, “What is Video Game Culture?” discusses gender, race, and sexuality which intersect with gamer identification. She points out in our discussion that some people who play a lot of video games are reluctant to self-identify that way because of the stigma that has become associated with video game play. Thus she argues that game developers need to focus more on game content and less on stereotypes about the gaming audience.

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On this show I chat with Hannah Marston who coauthored an article “Interactive Videogame Technologies to Support Independence in the Elderly” which was recently published in the Games for Health Journal. Dr. Marston is with the Institute of Sport Gerontology, German Sport University Cologne. She writes about her work that, “in recent years the use of videogame technology has increased within the domain of health, in particular to facilitate rehabilitation following a stroke or fall.” In our interview and in her article she gives an overview of how “videogame technologies can be used to address health issues contributing to reduced independence in older adults. Four themes were identified: (1) hardware, (2) software, (3) health issues addressed using videogames, and (4) clinicians’ perspectives. Several recommendations have been proposed to build upon the use and integration of videogame technology into rehabilitation and training for older adults. In particular, the use of videogames for health requires an appropriate game classification system for development of games that are appropriate for the physical, cognitive, and social requirements of older adults or those living with a disability.” Marston also speaks about the problem with falls and how gaming might help in training elderly through the Stoopfalls project.

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The author of “Getting Women in the Game”, Shira Chess is the focus of my interview this time. She is a visiting professor at Department of Mass Communication, Miami University, Ohio. Her article appeared in the National Communication Associations journal, Communication Currents. Her article “analyzes the advertising strategy use to market video games to women. The increase in advertising started when more women were observed to be playing Nintendo Wii, PC Casual Gaming and Facebook Games. The copywriting often combines the idea of play and productivity, and messages are subtle rather than direct. Analysis of specific advertising such as the “My Wii Story,” and that of “Brain Age” game are explored.” In our conversation we also talked about how women are restricted in the roles they can play in video games and must fall under the caveat of beauty and self-care. She also pointed out how women are chastised for wasting time in ways that you don’t see for male players.

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This show is a conversation with Dr. Roger Stahl who is an Associate Professor in the Dept. of Communication Studies at the University of Georgia. Dr. Stahl has just produced a film about how political activism is occurring inside video games. His film, Returning Fire: Interventions in Video Game Culture, he points out that, “Video games like Modern Warfare, America’s Army, Medal of Honor, and Battlefield are part of an exploding market of war games whose revenues now far outpace even the biggest Hollywood blockbusters. The sophistication of these games is undeniable, offering users a stunningly realistic experience of ground combat and a glimpse into the increasingly virtual world of long-distance, push-button warfare. Far less clear, though, is what these games are doing to users, our political culture, and our capacity to empathize with people directly affected by the actual trauma of war. For the culture-jamming activists featured in this film, these uncertainties were a call to action.” These compelling activities documented in his film point out that “Their work forces all of us — gamers and non-gamers alike — to think critically about what it means when the clinical tools of real-world killing become forms of consumer play.” You can find out more about these issues in his latest book, Militainment, Inc.: War, Media, and Popular Culture, has just been released by Routledge Press.

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In this show we are chatting with Fiammetta Rubin of the Naturopathic Educational Services in Philadelphia, PA. This interview is a bit of a departure from the video game theme of this show. It’s about how a lifelong artist found computers and incorporated computers into her art. She explains that her “digital prints are produced by an Epson printer on Epson archival paper and inks. Each print is subsequently hand drawn or water colored to insure the originality of the artwork.” You can see her work here. As a lively, curious 70 something year old you’ll learn that it’s never too late to learn about the creative potential of the computer. In the last half of the show I preview the next years shows which focus on the exploding research in the field of video game studies.

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In this show we will be discussing the borders between virtual and real. My guest is Dr. Greg Garvey who is with the Department of Visual and Performing Arts at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. I chatted with Greg at the 2012 meeting of Towards a Science of Consciousness about his chapter in my book, Video Game Play and Consciousness. We talked about how gamers, as well as users of the online virtual worlds, navigate back and forth between the domains of the real and the virtual. He explained the case of Devin Moore who in 2003, appeared to have acted out a scenario from Grand Theft Auto leading to the deaths of three police officers. When considering the virtual world of Second Life Dr. Garvey observes that descriptions of the experience of being ‘in-world’ bore some resemblance to several of the diagnostic criteria for dissociative disorders. In our interview Garvey talks about his process of investigating this conjecture asking these questions: how do game players and users of virtual worlds manage the transitions back and forth between the real and the virtual? How do they distinguish what’s real and not real?

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