Here you can find updates on our research and related work by our research team – things will be trickling out slowly until we have finished our final round of interviews, but we are trying to share preliminary findings as we put them together. You can also take a look at the ideas of others who have shaped our thinking on this project.
CANADALAND Commons Episode & Book Launch
Our team member Johanna Weststar was interviewed by the CANADALAND Commons podcast series for an episode about unionization in the game industry. You can listen to it here!
Johanna also recently published an amazing book on labour in the game industry with her colleague Marie-Josée Legault, Not All Fun and Games. Request for your local library to order it, or click here to buy a copy.
Presentation at the 2024 Canadian Game Studies Association Conference, Montreal
This spring we had an opportunity to connect with our colleagues in Canadian game studies to talk about the project with a presentation at the 2024 CGSA. You can click here to view our slide deck which includes some preliminary statistics from our interviews so far. (Citation: Sooknanan, V., and Gordon, K. (2024). “Perspectives on Credentializing Gameswork”, Canadian Game Studies Association Conference, June 2024, Montreal.)
Guest Lecture in University of Toronto course BMS432H1 – The Game Industry
Our team members Itoro Emembolu and Vishal Sooknanan were invited to give a guest lecture in Dr. Felan Parker’s winter term 2024 University of Toronto course on the Game Industry, where they shared some of our findings and gave some insights into the challenges of running longitudinal participant research in games.
University of Waterloo Workshop
In October 2023, we led a workshop at the University of Waterloo Games Institute on our work thus far and some of the themes emerging from our early conversations with participants. Click here to read our summary report from the workshop conversations, and stay tuned for a link to the recorded portion of the talk! (Citation: Gordon, K., Gouglas, S., Harvey, A., Sooknanan, V., Weststar, J., Whitson, J., and Emembolu, I. (2023). “Building Equitable and Sustainable Game Development Education”, University of Waterloo Games Institute ADE for Game Communities: Workshop and Speaker Series, October 2023, Waterloo, Ontario.)
GDC Talks
Direct links to the talks will be added once they have been made public.
Educators Summit: From Rosy-Eyed to Dissatisfied: What Game Education Is Missing
- Cristina Amaya (President & Co-Founder, Latinx in Gaming)
- Kenzie Gordon (Project Manager, University of Alberta)
- Location: Room 2014, West Hall
- Date: Tuesday, March 21
- Time: 2:10 pm – 2:40 pm
Lost XP: Why Junior Game Developers Quit and How to Help
- Johanna Weststar (Professor, Western University)
- Jakin Vela (Executive Director, International Game Developers Association (IGDA))
- Sarah Spiers (Development Director, Electronic Arts)
- Pierre-Luc Labbée (President, rhum.hr)
- Location: Room 207, South Hall
- Date: Wednesday, March 22
- Time: 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm
- Stephanie Fisher (Co-Director, Pixelles)
- Alison Harvey (Associate Professor, York University)
- Location: Room 215, South Hall
- Date: Wednesday, March 22
- Time: 9:00 am – 10:00 am