Feb 11 2021 38 mins 1
Dr. Rabindra Ratan speaks with his guests, Dr. Dmitri Williams & Dr. Mia Consalvo, about the history, present, and future of game studies within the current academic and socio-political climates.
About this week's guests:
Dr. Dmitri Williams, Ph.D., is an associate professor at USC Annenberg, where he teaches courses on technology and society, games and data analytics. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 2004. His research focuses on the social and economic impacts of new media, with a focus on online games. He works actively with game companies and startups. Williams was the first researcher to use online games for experiments and to undertake longitudinal research on video games. He continues to study the psychology of online populations, with projects involving community, identity, sexuality and economics.
He has published in the Journal of Communication, Human Communication Research, the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, Communication Monographs and others. His work has also been featured in several major media outlets, including NPR, CNN, the Economist, the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Chicago Sun-Times and others. Williams testified before the U.S. Senate on video games and has served as an expert witness and consultant in federal court cases.
Dr. Mia Consalvo, Ph.D., is a professor of Communication Studies presently at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada and holds the post of Canada Research Chair in Game Studies and Design, Communication Studies. Consalvo has authored a number of scholarly books and publications on the topic of video games in contemporary society and the culture of gameplay.
Consalvo's research focus has included cheating in online games. According to her research, cheating for real-world profit has been occurring for at least two decades, costing the video game industry millions of dollars. A common form of cheating involves the use of “bots” designed to automate certain game processes and gather materials valuable in a particular game, and selling these game materials to other players. Consalvo's research has included a study on online gender-swapping and demonstrated clear differences between online gaming behavior among male and female players.
About the SPARTIE Lab:
The Social and Psychological Approaches to Research on Technology-Interaction Effects (SPARTIE) Lab performs research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how the use of media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influences meaningful outcomes (e.g., education, health/safety, persuasion).
The SPARTIE Lab is part of the greater academic community at the College of Communication Arts & Sciences at Michigan State University. More information on the lab's research projects, staff, and work can be found at the SPARTIE Lab website.
About the host:
Dr. Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, Ph. D., is an Associate Professor and AT&T Scholar at Michigan State University’s Department of Media and Information and is the Director of the SPARTIE Lab.
He is also an affiliated faculty member of the MSU Department of Psychology, the MSU College of Education’s program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, and the MSU Center for Gender in a Global Context. Ratan received his Ph.D. from USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, his M.A. in Communication from Stanford University, and his B.A. in Science, Technology and Society, also from Stanford University.
Dr. Ratan conducts research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influence meaningful outcomes (e.g., persuasion, education, health/safety). He is particularly interested in the Proteus effect, media-rich transportation contexts, perceptions of media as self-representations and/or social others, avatarification for health and education, and gender stereotypes in gaming contexts.
Dr. Ratan lives near Lansing with his family. More information on his work can be found on his website.
