gs1

gs1 is an academic conference showcasing the scholarly work of NYU Game Center MFAs.

Fractals are the governing theme of this year’s research. A fractal is a shape which contains a pattern no matter the scale it is observed. The patterns aren’t always the same, but wherever you look there’s something to see. Fractals help us make sense of an otherwise chaotic universe.

Each featured research project imagines its game-related subject as a cell in a larger pattern and containing many inner patterns. For gs1, games exist within systems and are composed of them. It’s games all the way down.

Archive: 2025

12th floor Seminar Hall

9:00 AM

9:00 AM - 12th floor Seminar Hall

Multiplayer Games

David Li

Can You Ever Leave an MMO?

Matthew Lamm

Do MMO games provide a simplified testing ground for social identity?

Tales Between Bytes: Player Stories and the Preservation of the MMO

12th floor Seminar Hall

10:30 AM

10:30 AM - 12th floor Seminar Hall

What is Agency? A Miserable Pile of Choices: Player Agency Across Genres

Amber Xia

Hansong Li

Jon Topielski

Kai DeJesus

6th floor Room 616

10:30 AM

10:30 AM - 6th floor Room 616

Aesthetics

Claire Lincoln

George Eltzroth

LJ Wei

Prince Wang

Zhili Chen

12:00 PM

Lunch

12th floor Seminar Hall

1:00 PM

1:00 PM - 12th floor Seminar Hall

Systems

The New Run

Toxicity Is Overtuned: Employing In-Game Mechanics and Psychology to Nerf Negative Social Behaviors in Online Multiplayer Games

Jiayu Ruan

Time Loops as Ludonarrative Harmony: Character-Player Arcs in Video Games

6th floor Room 616

1:00 PM

1:00 PM- 6th floor Room 616

Industry

The Price of Pity: A Fractal Analysis of Gacha Monetization

Unalive Service: How the Pursuit of the Live-Service Boom of the Digital Gaming Industry Led to its Most Difficult Era in Recent Memory

What Can the Games Industry Learn from Hollywood?

Commonalities of the Top 100 Tabletop Kickstarters

12th floor Seminar Hall

2:30 PM

2:30 PM - 12th floor Seminar Hall

Couch, 9:16, Shoes, Acrylic Charm

Museums as Walking Simulators: Designing for Movement, Meaning, and Control

Jingwen Shi

Fighting Games and the Fighting Game Community (FGC): How Do They Diverge From Other Competitive Genres and Communities?

Nic Kim

6th floor Room 616

2:30 PM

2:30 PM - 6th floor Room 616

Makers and Breakers: How the Formats of Game Creation are Intentionally Broken to Create New Possibilities

Finlay Logan

You Played Yourself: Autobiographical Games as Artistic Depictions of the Self

The Secrets of Game Development Lie in The Differences Between Any% and 100% Speedruns

Stephen Rubino

African Diasporic Culture Preservation Through Games

4:00 PM

Break

12th floor Seminar Hall

4:15 PM

4:15 PM - 12th floor Seminar Hall

Identity

Gender and Identity Play in Pokémon: From Screen to Stage

Technofuturistic Dreams of Virtual Utopias

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Depression Quest: Representing Depression Through Procedural Rhetorics

The Missing M(other): How Bioshock repackages (M)otherhood Through Playable Fatherhood

about + contact

Questions can be directed to karina.popp@nyu.edu

Poster designs by Nic Kim and Jiayu Ruan

Organized by Karina Popp with assistance from Steele Citrone and Rio Flores

Short for ‘Game Studies I’, a required course for Game Center MFA students, gs1 features students’ semester-long analytical research projects. In keeping with the hands-on nature of the overall graduate program, the intention of this conference is to do game studies by sharing in-progress work. Join us for a day of presentations, roundtables, and workshops exploring games, play, and design.