TL;DR April 2024
A compendium of the comings and goings in research, development, and news about our digital playgrounds from April 2024.
Here are some things you may have missed over April 2024.
Research & News
Epic allows players to block confrontational emotes
This month, Epic announced that players would be able to block the visualizations associated with offensive emotes. Once again, Epic are the innovators in the T&S space, implementing new and novel ways to make gaming spaces more enjoyable for everyone (I made a similar comment a few months ago when they announced IARC ratings on first- and third-party content).
New toxicity rating tool
The first rating system for toxicity in games has been released quantifying proportions of racism, gender discrimination and overall toxicity in online gaming communities as rated by players. Some critics have said that these ratings are hard to interpret because they are based off subjective (i.e., player recollections) rather than more objective data (i.e., sever logged data). While a comparison with a more standardized/objective measure would be great to see, there is value in understanding players’ subjective experiences (particularly as we know they motivate engagement behaviors).
Layoffs continue
I have been talking about the layoffs for my last few newsletters now, and that is because it is indeed creating an industry crisis. If you have been impacted by the layoffs, we have put together some words of support and mental health resources over at Take This.
New report from ADL looking at antisemitism in online multiplayer games
In a new report led by Dr. Kat Schrier in collaboration with the ADL, they found players identified as Jewish (i.e., using the screen name Proud2BJewish) experienced a significant amount of harassment and antisemitic hate across three games (Valorant Counterstrike 2 and Overwatch 2). While this is a small sample of players within a small handful of games, their use of recorded gameplay for data collection is a novel (and powerful) approach to documenting these experiences. The full report can be found here.
ICYMI: Psychgeist
This month we’ve seen the release of several new “bite sized” science shorts for you to get your daily fix of games + pop culture + science in 60 seconds or less!
In April, the third episode of the Most Recent Save Podcast was released! I sat down with Prof. Constance Steinkuehler and chatted about how she went from anti-TV to running some of the best game labs in North America (with a pit stop off at the White House) You can listen to the podcast anywhere you like to listen to podcasts but here’s the Spotify link to make things easy.
What I’m watching: So I finished Succession and Roman in all his flaws will forever have a place in my heart. That show was a really powerful portrayal of the innate drive many of us have to simply receive validation from our parents.
But for a palette cleanser, I’ve started Ted Lasso. Yes, I’ve never watched it. But now I’m a Season in and it is just what I needed.
What I’m reading: …the lyrics to the Tortured Poets Department. This album is one that continues to grow on me the more I listen to it and there are some really amazing lines of poetry throughout it. Too many to list here.
What I’m playing: Spiderman: Miles Morales (Insomniac Games). YES I’M BEHIND ON MY AAA TITLES.
ther places you can find my musings…
Personal Website, for more about my research and upcoming events.
Psychgeist, my YouTube channel dedicated to the science of digital games. New videos are released sporadically on Wednesdays and if you aren’t a subscriber yet, please click that link and hit that big red button. Subscribing is FREE and is the easiest way to support my work by increasing engagement and making the algorithm happy.
Twitter, (it will always be Twitter to me!) my digital home away from home.
LinkedIn, if that is more your style
Most Recent Save Podcast, go ahead, give it a like. I promise you’ll love it.