Non-Academic Adventures

Gamers are passionate people and I’ve had the privilege to talk about my research in non-academic circles with fans and players. The links which follow include guest blogs, interviews, presentations and volunteer work which is relevant to my research.

Blogs and popular writing:

Interviewed by Osberg, M. (2016). ‘Balancing Your IRL Love Life with the One in MMORPGs’, Vice Motherboard.

Brown, A. (2015). ‘Dangerous Games: What the Moral Panic over Role-Playing Games Says about Play, Religion, and Imagined Worlds, by Joseph P. Laycock’ Times Higher Education, 14 May 2015.

Brown, A. (2014). ‘Manchester’s Game Development Scene is Growing- But Needs More Investment’ Interview by Kristen Drummond, Digital Arts Online, 26 June 2014.

Brown, A. (2014). ‘Eroottinen roolipelaaminen World of Warcraftissa – tutkijan silmin’. Sihvo, R. (translator). Interview blog post for Peliraati. 

Brown, A. (2012). ‘Intimacy, Bonding, Pleasure, and Joy: What Erotic Role Play and Transgender Gamer Experiences Have to Teach Us About Sex, Gender, and Lovin”. Guest blog post for the transgender blog Being Emily.

Talks

‘Good Sex, Bad Player’ presentation at VideoBrains Event, Meltdown, London, UK, 29 February 2016.

‘The State of Games Studies’ presentation at Update Show, The Landing, Media City, Salford, UK. 12 April 2014.

‘PEGI 18 Panel’ presentation to Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment industry conference, Radisson Blu Edinburgh. Edinburgh, UK. 9-10th August 2012.

Interview with MDR Nation about Guild Wars 2′s erotic role play community.

Volunteering

Board member of the Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA). I function as a student representative. Together with Dr. Rachel Kowert, we worked to increase student visibility and feedback within the organisation and outside of it. In addition to lowering conference registration fees and feeding back to the board, Dr. Kowert and I also created social networks for students within games studies to connect. The largest of these platforms is our website and forum, followed by the Facebook group, Steam group and Twitter.

Since its beginning, I’ve also volunteered at Manchester’s own chiptune music festival and retro gaming event: Superbyte. I’ve done everything from interviewing artists and attendees to working the door. Its not only fun to be a part of, but I believe it contributes on many levels to the wider cultural and aesthetic phenomenon of retro gaming and DIY electronics. You can see me here, cosplayed as Fiona from Adventure Time, in this short video from 2012.