Academic Gamer
The beginning of my academic work on games was my Thesis Project for my Master's degree at the University of Toronto. That work was supervised by Dr. Jen Jenson (UBC). The early written works focused on lag/latency and Quality of Experience vs Quality of Service issues with Gears of War games. Also, the early written works were accompanied by three documentary videos that I produced.
Once my doctoral studies began, I changed my focus from STS topics to Cultural Studies topics. My new interests were related to "failure" in games and I did lengthy research for the mobile strategy game, Gods of Olympus. My work on Gods of Olympus includes a monograph, documentary video introducing my research, as well as three hundred gameplay videos documenting my time as a Gods of Olympus player.
As a player of the Gods of Olympus mobile strategy game, I was an ambassador for the community, as well as, creating and organizing unique grassroots events, such as, "Alliance Wars". Recently, I have settled on a transmedia approach to my doctoral work, and I will focus on the history of adaptation between games and movies, with a specialized focus on how ludic game elements have been incorporated into contemporary movies to increase their success as commercial products.
Once my doctoral studies began, I changed my focus from STS topics to Cultural Studies topics. My new interests were related to "failure" in games and I did lengthy research for the mobile strategy game, Gods of Olympus. My work on Gods of Olympus includes a monograph, documentary video introducing my research, as well as three hundred gameplay videos documenting my time as a Gods of Olympus player.
As a player of the Gods of Olympus mobile strategy game, I was an ambassador for the community, as well as, creating and organizing unique grassroots events, such as, "Alliance Wars". Recently, I have settled on a transmedia approach to my doctoral work, and I will focus on the history of adaptation between games and movies, with a specialized focus on how ludic game elements have been incorporated into contemporary movies to increase their success as commercial products.
Gods of Olympus
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MOral STate of Play
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Staines, D., Consalvo, M., Stangeby, A., Pedraça, S. (2018) State of Play: Games and Moral Dilemmas. The 68th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association, Prague
Staines, D., Consalvo, M., Stangeby, A., Pedraça, S., “State of Play: Video Games and Moral Engagement”, Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds 11:3 (2019) |
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Latency and Dark Play
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I switched my doctoral thesis topic in 2018 after already researching the first topic and preparing a thesis proposal draft. Although I walked away from the topic of Quality of Service versus Quality of Experience as impacted by Dark Play (i.e. lag-switches, IP flood software, XG Firewall software and hardware), I may nevertheless come back to it in the future.
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Selected Essays
PRESENCE AND DARK PLAY (Doctoral Exam)
| presencedarkplay.pdf |
BALLISTIC REACTION AND THWARTED EXPECTATION: Video Game Violence and Aggressive Response
| ballisticexpectation.pdf |
STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU: Consumer-Based Ethics for Policy in the Digital Game Complex
| ethicalgamepolicy.pdf |
CHEAT OR ELITE?: Designing Games for Hardcore Players
| cheatorelitedesign.pdf |
GEARS OF WAR – On Modes of Representation Through Analysis of Cinematic Cut-Scenes
| gearscinematics.pdf |