PhD | Polygamer

Polygamer #115: Brianna Dym on fanworks

Posted on July 21, 2021 by Ken Gagne

Brianna Dym is a Ph.D student in the University of Colorado Boulder’s information science department under Dr. Casey Fiesler. Brianna’s field of study is fanworks: the original creations, derivations, and reimaginings of existing brands and media, from movies to video games. LGBTQIA+ authors engage in this creative component of fandom to produce original stories and games that better represent marginalized groups.

In this podcast, Brianna and I discuss what makes for good source material, and why there’s more fanfic of Dragon Age and Mass Effect than of Call of Duty or Super Meat Boy; whether fandom is necessarily participatory; why Nintendo should be more supportive of derivative works; how fanworks can develop skills in groups historically excluded from STEM fields; and how communities migrate from platform to platform, and why LiveJournal and Tumblr may serve their needs better than a CMS like WordPress.

Stream the audio edition of this interview below or from Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, Overcast, Pandora, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Click past the jump for a transcript and links to resources mentioned in this episode.

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Polygamer #108: Dr. Rachel Kowert of Psychgeist

Posted on December 16, 2020 by Ken Gagne

Dr. Rachel Kowert is the host of Psychgeist, a YouTube series that examines the psychology of video games. In her videos, Dr. Kowert examines such concepts as escapism, flow, esports, and Animal Crossing. She is also the research director for Take This, a non-profit that seeks to destigmatize mental health issues in the gaming industry; and she is the author of Pragmatic Princess, a children’s book about empowerment and self-reliance.

In this interview, Dr. Kowert and I talk about the role of MMORPGs during a pandemic, and what the long-term effects will be on our social skills; why the moral panic over video games has seemingly lasted longer than previous ones; how escapism can be a way not just to get lost, but also to be found; whether escaping into books are subjected to the same judgment as escaping into a video game; how Take This has adapted its AFK Rooms to online events; and what the best Final Fantasy is (and why it’s VI).

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:05:12 — 38.2MB) | Embed

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Polygamer #105: T.L. Taylor on Twitch streaming

Posted on September 23, 2020 by Ken Gagne

Dr. T.L. Taylor is a professor at M.I.T. and the author of several books, including Watch Me Play – Twitch and the Rise of Game Live Streaming. Her ethnographic research into esports and online game streaming have led her to co-found AnyKey, an advocacy organization that supports diversity, inclusion, and equity in competitive gaming; and to be one of the founding members of Twitch’s Safety Advisory Council.

In this episode, I ask T.L. how esports led to Twitch and vice versa; how an external advisory council can sway an organization as large as Twitch; how one can write a book about a medium that is so quickly evolving; the AnyKey pledge that over 750,000 million streamers have taken; whether esports could survive without Twitch, or vice versa; what gaming can tell us about the future of our country’s culture and politics; and about her current research into amusement parks as commercialized play spaces.

Stream the audio edition of this interview below or from Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Overcast, Pandora, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Click past the jump for links to resources mentioned in this episode.

Podcast: Download (Duration: 57:07 — 27.1MB) | Embed

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Polygamer #99: Ludomusicologist Dr. Dana Plank

Posted on March 18, 2020 by Ken Gagne

Dr. Dana Plank is a ludomusicologist, devoted to the study of video game music and sound. She has researched how game audio is used to represent disability, sensuality, gender, and exoticism, and she has been interviewed for books, podcasts, and MAGFest panels about games including Final Fantasy VI, Super Mario Bros. 3, and Super Mario RPG. Her current studies include Celeste; That Dragon, Cancer; and Untitled Goose Game. She is also a co-organizer of the North American Conference On Video Game Music 2020, scheduled to be held online this April 4–5.

In this interview, Dr. Plank and I explore the origin of ludomusicology, and what it is that ludomusicologists do; the academic route that led her to study ludomusicology and 8/16-bit games in particular; how technological constraints breed creativity, and how the interactivity of modern soundtracks distinguish them from cinematic scores; how silence can be a powerful indicator that something has gone wrong; how to use video games as a music-teaching tool; how COVID-19 has affected NACVGM; and what books she recommends in this academic field of study.

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Polygamer #97: Dr. Carly Kocurek of Save Point & Games for Girls

Posted on January 22, 2020 by Ken Gagne

Dr. Carly Kocurek is an associate professor of digital humanities and media studies at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Her work in the analysis and preservation of games includes Save Point, a zine about the history of video games whose second issue is currently being crowdfunded on Kickstarter. She is also researching the “Games for Girls” movement of the 1990s, courtesy a grant from the National Science Foundation.

In this podcast interview, we discuss why a zine is a format uniquely suited to this topic; how Save Point is able to be published with such a modest budget; how to make academic subjects accessible to a lay audience; what the “Games for Girls” movement was, and how it’s evolved over the last 25 years; the research that the NSF grant enables her to conduct; and how listeners can support game preservation efforts.

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Podcast: Download (Duration: 50:58 — 24.2MB) | Embed

Polygamer #95: Dr. Jessica Hebert of the PDX Broadsides

Posted on November 13, 2019 by Ken Gagne

Dr. Jessica Hebert is a placentologist and nerdy musician with the PDX Broadsides, a Portland, Oregon-based pop-folk trio. Their recent, debut East Coast tour featured songs about Nathan Fillion, Settlers of Catan, and mental health. Jessica is now back home, where she continues her work studying the role of the placenta (the human body’s only temporary organ!) on gestational diabetes.

In this podcast interview, Jessica and I chat about the PDX Broadsides’ piratical origin, their creative songwriting process, why so many nerd musicians sing about Rosalind Franklin, and how to request vacation time from your day job to sing in a nerd band. We also dive into myths about the placenta, the value of communication in the sciences, and scientific role models.

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Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:04:55 — 30.6MB) | Embed