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
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Do Addons Add Up? Negotiating Fairness in World of Warcraft
Do Addons Add Up? Negotiating Fairness in World of Warcraft
David Li
David Li
Can You Ever Leave an MMO?
Can You Ever Leave an MMO?
Faris Kazim
Faris Kazim
Toxicity in games. How do we not?
Toxicity in games. How do we not?
Matthew Lamm
Matthew Lamm
Do MMO games provide a simplified testing ground for social identity?
Do MMO games provide a simplified testing ground for social identity?
Rena Chen
Rena Chen
Tales Between Bytes: Player Stories and the
Preservation of the MMO
Tales Between Bytes: Player Stories and the
Preservation of the MMO
Riley Lyman
Riley Lyman
12th floor Seminar Hall
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What is Agency? A Miserable Pile of Choices: Player Agency Across Genres
What is Agency? A Miserable Pile of Choices: Player Agency Across Genres
Zero Input Games
Zero Input Games
Jon Topielski
Jon Topielski
Please Stop Talking to Me About The Traitors: Creating Unscripted Crime Fiction in Surreality Television
Please Stop Talking to Me About The Traitors: Creating Unscripted Crime Fiction in Surreality Television
Kai DeJesus
Kai DeJesus
6th floor Room 616
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Unwanted Agency: The Subversion of Power Fantasies in Video Games
Unwanted Agency: The Subversion of Power Fantasies in Video Games
Claire Lincoln
Claire Lincoln
George Eltzroth
George Eltzroth
12th floor Seminar Hall
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The New Run
The New Run
Alex Machalicky
Alex Machalicky
Toxicity Is Overtuned: Employing In-Game Mechanics and Psychology to Nerf Negative Social
Behaviors in Online Multiplayer Games
Toxicity Is Overtuned: Employing In-Game Mechanics and Psychology to Nerf
Negative Social Behaviors in Online Multiplayer Games
Ashley Newell
Ashley Newell
Time Loops as Ludonarrative Harmony: Character-Player Arcs in Video Games
Time Loops as Ludonarrative Harmony: Character-Player Arcs in Video
Games
Xingyu Qin
Xingyu Qin
6th floor Room 616
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The Price of Pity: A Fractal Analysis of Gacha Monetization
The Price of Pity: A Fractal Analysis of Gacha Monetization
Abhishek Chatterjee
Abhishek Chatterjee
Unalive Service: How the Pursuit of the Live-Service Boom of the Digital Gaming Industry Led
to its Most Difficult Era in Recent Memory
Unalive Service: How the Pursuit of the Live-Service Boom of the Digital Gaming
Industry Led
to its Most Difficult Era in Recent Memory
Destin Piagentini
Destin Piagentini
What Can the Games Industry Learn from Hollywood?
What Can the Games Industry Learn from Hollywood?
Madeline Khare
Madeline Khare
Commonalities of the Top 100 Tabletop Kickstarters
Commonalities of the Top 100 Tabletop Kickstarters
Peyton Schwiebert
Peyton Schwiebert
12th floor Seminar Hall
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Couch, 9:16, Shoes, Acrylic Charm
Couch, 9:16, Shoes, Acrylic Charm
Museums as Walking Simulators: Designing for Movement, Meaning, and Control
Museums as Walking Simulators: Designing for Movement, Meaning, and
Control
Ahmed Shuwehdi
Ahmed Shuwehdi
Fighting games and the Fighting Game Community (FGC): How do they diverge from other competitive genres
Fighting games and the Fighting Game Community (FGC): How do they diverge from other competitive genres
Marco Carenza
Marco Carenza
6th floor Room 616
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Makers and Breakers: How the Formats of Game Creation are Intentionally Broken to Create New
Possibilities
Makers and Breakers: How the Formats of Game Creation are Intentionally Broken
to Create New Possibilities
Finlay Logan
Finlay Logan
You Played Yourself: Autobiographical Games as Artistic Depictions of the Self
You Played Yourself: Autobiographical Games as Artistic Depictions of the
Self
Selah Wright
Selah Wright
The Secrets of Game Development Lie in The Differences Between Any% and 100%
Speedruns
The Secrets of Game Development Lie in The Differences Between Any% and 100%
Speedruns
Shreesha Yelameli
Shreesha Yelameli
Stephen Rubino
Stephen Rubino
African Diasporic Culture Preservation Through Games
African Diasporic Culture Preservation Through Games
Whit Walton
Whit Walton
12th floor Seminar Hall
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Gender and Identity Play in Pokémon: From Screen to Stage
Gender and Identity Play in Pokémon: From Screen to Stage
Despoina/DLC
Despoina/DLC
Technofuturistic Dreams of Virtual Utopias
Technofuturistic Dreams of Virtual Utopias
Esteban Romero
Esteban Romero
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Depression Quest: Representing Depression Through
Procedural Rhetorics
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Depression Quest: Representing
Depression Through Procedural Rhetorics
Lucas Chan
Lucas Chan
The Missing M(other): How Bioshock repackages (M)otherhood Through Playable
Fatherhood
The Missing M(other): How Bioshock repackages (M)otherhood Through Playable
Fatherhood
Mars So
Mars So
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, roundtable discussions, and workshops exploring games, play, and design.
