In the darkest days of the covid-19 pandemic, as many people figured out how to work and live in isolation, they turned to various virtual worlds and spaces for comfort. From games like Animal Crossing to Zoom, the popularity ...

Quality of life is bound to psychological well-being, which in turn is affected by the frequency and magnitude of negative mood states. To regulate mood states, humans often consume media such as music and movies, with ...

Even at the apex of its hype cycle in the 2010s, game studies scholars and designers derided gamification. This article first explores why gamification inspired such vitriol. It finds the incursion of non-game corporations ...

The crisis in the journalism industry, intensified with the popularization of the World Wide Web, warrants radical rethinking of the professional identity of journalists and their role in society. This paper first suggests ...

Even though virtual reality (VR) shares features with video games, it offers a wider range of experiences. There is currently no cohesive classification for commercial VR offerings. As a first step to account for this ...

It's as tough a time as ever for game critics, who seem to be stuck between a rock and a hard place—an industry that acts as gatekeepers to most of the information they cover and an increasingly combative readership. Because ...

The skirmish between game engines Unity and Unreal presents a new front in the platformization of cultural production. This article argues that such programs are “platform tools.” They enable amateurs and professionals to ...