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. Williams 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. Consalvo 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.
Watch Here: YouTube