Utah Games alum Keaton Hoek and my work on understanding the challenge of navigation in videogames through examining the Metroid series was presented at #DiGRA25 a few weeks ago. Read all about it here! doi.org/10.26503/dl....
It was a true honor to give the keynote at DiGRA 2025 at the University of Malta.
The audience was deeply moved, some in tears and many asked: “What can we do to help Palestine?”
That question alone meant so much.
#DiGRA25
A picture of a panel discussion during DiGRA 2025, with (left to right) Omar N'Shea, Rasheed Abueideh, Aphra Kerr, Yuqian Sun, Daniel Vella, and Krista Bonello Rutter Giappone.
A picture of the opening address of DiGRA 2025, with (left to right) Simon Fabri, Stefano Gualeni, Daniel Vella, and Ashley Guajardo
A picture of Rasheed Abueideh's keynote presentation at the University of Malta Valletta Campus for DiGRA 2025.
520+ participants from 42 countries, 326 paper & abstract presentations, 16 workshops, a PhD consortium, a public discussion, conference dinner, board game night, improv show, and a beach visit. I think we can safely say that #DiGRA25 organized by @indigitalgames.bsky.social was a big success!
Also at #DiGRA25, Stephanie Harkin gave a great talk on representations of gaming in lifestyle magazines for girls. With a great shout out to the Video Game History Foundation! @gamehistoryorg.bsky.social
ROMChip shout out/sighting at #DiGRA25! This was in the context of a fascinating talk on "Diode Games" (early hobbyist electronic games) easychair.org/smart-progra... @romchip.bsky.social
Picture of the National Library of Malta.
#DIGRA25 has been inspiring, sweltering (☀️🥵!) and incredibly rewarding. Looking forward to following up with many for exciting research activities.
Safe travels to all and hope to see you at the next one!
I really enjoyed listening to @bettibo.bsky.social about the cozy contradictions in forza horizon with its faux britishness and masculine car culture elements and road trip fantasies. It struck me this digra that cosy reinforces problematic elements and contradicts eco quite often #digra25
@bettibo.bsky.social up now on driving games. These games often magnify natural environments (yup, they are heavy on virtual tourism i'd say). Driving is romanticized and depicted as cosy but... driving is also not sustainable at all 🤔 #digra25
By drawing from waste studies, Agata Zarzycka examines the role of garbage in Stardew from multiple perspectives. Waste is not made (it's not an issue that's managed) but a resource that is occasionnally found. Notably, the farmer avatar is a biopolitical figure, a "manager of life" #digra25
Cosy eco panel begins with exploration of algorhitmic ecologies and the cyberpastoral in Stardew and Satisfactory. Tech can support nature and can do so also in code (e.g. Stardew Valley's fishing mechanics and unique fish appearances). Satisfactory, hower, views nature as labor and capital #digra25
Camila Freitas also emphasizes the increased role of monetization and gambling in gaming. I would add that economies of play were always there but have intensified so much in the current data / platform economy, from gacha and freemium models to data as capital. Good to see these studies! #digra25
Future directions vary from role of AI and voice interfaces to cultural diversity in character cultures. Lovely talk! (I feel validated in my frequent obsessions for fictional characters, haha) #digra25
The article related to the talk can be found here. Some interesting findings, eg. ppl in relationships get a lot out of character love and men especially feel guilty spending time with companion characters instead of their partner 🤔 #digra25 bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Love for companions relates to social connection and desire and sometimes, weak ties in the human x human relationships. It's also connected to fondness for anthropomorphism #digra25
Mayu Koike is up on human to non-human love. 🩷 Parasocial character relationships are one of my fav topics to study and write about so I am really tuned on for this one! Love how Mayu unpacks the history of companion characters from Tamagotchi to Dogs 3DS and Animal Crossing 🫶 #digra25
Congrats, Leon, and thank you for the inspiring call to action at #digra25 just now! I agree very much that we have to proactively share our work and translate our insights to the wider field. Your tips were great - good luck in this new position.
How to reach wider audiences? Use socials, talk to press, blog. ScienceX mentioned as a helpful tool as well as writing your own press kits. We can be visible and create interventions. (Amen!) Does it always work? No, but it's worth the effort! #digra25
Good morning, #digra25! We start with a plea for publishing our findings broadly. If regulators don't know about games and well-being, and negative design (eg. Lootboxes), we will not have impact on economic and legal policies 🤔 #digra2025
Mia Consalvo and colleagues analyzed many cozy games, even one that ticked the boxes of the cozy manifesto with terrible results. Implicit design choices of cozy include pacing, cooking mechanics and more. Have cozy elements become clichés and what is next? Or is cozy a flavor or vibe? #digra25
Cozy games have potential to forge connection (eg. Kind Words) but more is needed. We need to change and do more self care, also in academia. A powerful message by Marta! #digra25
Up now is Marta Tyminska with a moving autoethnography of cosy games. Examples include Vampire Therapist and Bucha (2022). Great examples that show cozy games can meaningfully address well-being and trauma #digra25 #digra2025
Cozy manifesto is one of the resources from designers that also helps in studying these themes. It's been a while ago that I read that one! From visuals to mechanics and audio, it all comes up in this one ( @petravb.bsky.social ) lostgarden.com/2018/01/24/c... #digra25
Case in question is Seasons: A Letter from the Future, which is all about remembering and crafting in a Ghibli esque aesthetic. Never played it but now i want to! #digra25 #digra2025
Cozy games panel starts with @bettibo.bsky.social and Jan-Noël Thon. Cozy is not a consistent genre but an aesthetic signifier. We see the label used across genres from farming sims to RPGs and walking sims #digra25 #digra2025
Optimisation trackers make the productivity clearer, but guess what…. the game even has a period tracker! This positions it also in feminine apps, health discourse and apps. Women’s labour and apps-in-apps is crucial here #digra25 #digra2025
For another solid take by @jjol33n.bsky.social on characters and monetisation do download our new open-access book where she discusses gacha and Genshin www.aup.nl/en/book/9789... #digra25 #digra2025
L&DS is the front runner in this Chinese otome space and its ‘super app’ quality makes it extra engaging. And of course you pay heavily if you want a fav character or steamy scene…. #digra25
@jjol33n.bsky.social unpacks the predatory monetisation scheme of Love and Deepspace. She positions this case and trend in the long history of romance as leisure (and labour!) and current neoliberal feminism. However , it also connects to gacha (and wider gamblification) in games #digra25
In the Romance panel now with some deep multimodal readings of otome game Love and Deepspace. We get a dash of Butler, gender performativity and critique of female agency too, which is sadly quite normative and limited in this game #digra25
On my way back to Finland after #digra25 It was an amazing experience to meet such an inspiring game scholars <3
For those who might have wondered why that one section of the ladies bathroom at the venue was occupied during coffee breaks, sorry that was me hiding and breast milk pumping haha :D
