iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Oscar Moralde

Kate Galloway @kategalloway.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

Michael Austin @michaelaustin.bsky.social & I are working on a new collection Resonant Worlds: Sound, Matter, and Environmental Design in Games. Here’s the CFP.

1105

Reposted by Oscar Moralde

Matt Knutson @mattknutson.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

Nearing the end of #SCMS26, and guess what's still left to talk about? P18, Reexamining Esports with @a-c-cote.bsky.social, @maxwellfoxman.bsky.social, Keung Yoon Bae, and Taylore Woodhouse. Starting in 30 min in Alpine 1.

152

Oscar Moralde @oscarmoralde.com · 27/03/2026

Really great stuff if you want a recap of the panel!

020

Reposted by Oscar Moralde

Brendan Keogh @brkeogh.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

The Journal of Games Criticism has published a new issue!! Come and read 6 great new open-access game studies articles! gamescriticism.org/issue-6-1/ #gamestudies

VOLUME 6, ISSUE 1 (JANUARY 2026)
The Wounds That Never Healed: Videoludic Trauma in Cry of Fear

by Samuel Poirier-Poulin

This article offers a conceptualization of trauma in horror video games, arguing that games can cut across the reality/fiction divide, deeply affect the emotional organization of the player, and leave them with wounds that take time to heal. More specifically, it develops the idea that Cry of Fear (Team Psykskallar, 2013) can induce a form of trauma in the player by putting them in horrifying and intense situations.

Character Affectivity in Newton and the Apple Tree

by Henri M. Nerg

This paper studies character affectivity and temporality in the Japanese visual novel Newton and the Apple Tree (Laplacian, 2017). The paper analyzes different affects and emotions that game characters evoke in players. Importantly, affect is understood here as a neuropsychological concept.

Black Sun in the Land of Shadow: DLCs and Textual Depletion in Shadow of the Erdtree (2024)

by Max Coombes

This article explores the relationship between downloadable content (DLC) and base games in producing ‘lack’ in the player and text, using Shadow of the Erdtree (2024) as its focus.

Investigating Development Crunch in Games and its Impact on Creative Expression

by Shaif Hemraj

This article explores the often negative and detrimental relationship between “crunch” and creative expression and synthesizes academic and industry conversations into a serious game prototype, Game Maker Mayhem

A Contemporary Take on Victorian Lunacy: Representations of the Asylum in the Neo-Victorian Video Game Alice: Madness Returns

by Jéssica Iolanda Costa Bispo

Considering the historical reality of Victorian asylums, this article explores Alice: Madness Returns, as it encourages a critical look at these institutions through the lens of neo-Victorianism, demonstrating a potentiality for reinterpreting the Victorian historical narrative.

Goblins for Slaughter: The Perpetuation of Racism and Classism in Baldur’s Gate 3

by Benjamin J.M. Horn

This article explores how Baldur’s Gate 3 has perpetuated Victorian-era racism and classism. To demonstrate this, the article discusses current literature on racism and monstrosity, delves into the history of the goblin, and conducts a close reading of Baldur’s Gate 3’s first act.

34423

Reposted by Oscar Moralde

Brendan Keogh @brkeogh.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT! @mahliann.bsky.social, @marcuscarter.com, and myself have combined our collective brains and written a wide-reaching introduction to the complex and interdisciplinary field of Game Studies in this forthcoming book for Polity. www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?b...

12495115

Oscar Moralde @oscarmoralde.com · 26/08/2025

Tackling two new course preps after spending most of the past month making a cross-country move which was also the first time moving in 15 years

220

Oscar Moralde @oscarmoralde.com · 07/08/2025

In the 15 years I have lived near the LA County Museum of Art, I have been there exactly once lol (I saw THE CLOCK), maybe I should go back while I still have time

100

Oscar Moralde @oscarmoralde.com · 06/08/2025

Major update -- I will be joining the Film and Media Studies faculty at Washington University in St. Louis as a Visiting Lecturer! Looking forward to helping them develop their digital media studies curriculum. Happy to connect with folks in the Midwest! fms.wustl.edu/people/oscar...

fms.wustl.edu

Oscar Moralde

000

Oscar Moralde @oscarmoralde.com · 30/07/2025

I read this line in Stuart Hall's memoir FAMILIAR STRANGER and had to stop and stare out the window: "I had by then given up the project to become a creative writer and I didn't know enough music or play well enough to become a musician. Out of such 'failures' are critics and theorists made!" (132)

100

Oscar Moralde @oscarmoralde.com · 05/04/2025

Looking forward to chairing this #SCMS25 panel on Video Games and Advertising later today! 5:15 to 7:00 (and then the SIG social is right after...)

N18 Video Games and Advertising
Industry, Ideology, and Identity
Swissotel Alpine 1 (Lucerne Level)
Ben Latini, "Is that Dude Cool or What?": Video Game Comics, Masculinity, and the Cultural Construction of the Gamer
Evan Lauteria, "Japanese Game Advertisements, Localization, and Mythologies of Cultural Difference"
Megan Condis and Jess Morrissette, "Console Wars: How Nintendo and Sega Shaped the Image of Gaming in the 1990s"
Oscar Moralde, "Video Game Industry Showcase Presentations and the Construction of Perpetual Anticipation"

0112

Oscar Moralde @oscarmoralde.com · 03/04/2025

Hello! I teach and research embodied video game aesthetics and ideology, particularly in looking at how games fit into the timetables of everyday life, as in my study of the idle/clicker game genre: www.invisibleculturejournal.com/pub/wait-wai...

invisibleculturejournal.com

Wait Wait… Don’t Play Me: The Clicker Game Genre and Configuring Everyday Temporalities

150

Oscar Moralde @oscarmoralde.com · 03/04/2025

I have basically been radio silent on social media since 2020ish for The Reasons You Might Guess. However, at this point necessity is the mother of posting, so here we go...

010