Research

As a researcher, I contribute primarily to the field of media and communication studies with knowledge in media industries, digital labour, and app economies. In my Ph.D. thesis, titled Game Changers: Everyday Gamemakers and the Development of the Video Game Industry (the full pdf can be downloaded here), I argue that a broad movement of everyday gamemakers, including professional developers and hobbyists, emerged and transformed the traditional modes of production of the game industry through the restructuring of labour practices in local scenes.

 

A large component of my research focuses on the analysis of code, software, and platforms drawing on interdisciplinary methods across digital studies. Most digital objects are hidden behind digital rights management (DRM) and copyright protections, which make it difficult to understand how digital objects are developed, manufactured, and published—consequently, requiring unique metadata, preservation, and collection development needs. My research develops bibliographical and computational methods for analyzing and preserving digital objects, while adhering to the legal-rights of creators and copyright-holders.

My current projects contribute to scholarly and public debate about the increasing power and contentious politics of digital platforms through my collaborative work at the App Studies Initiative, an international network of academic experts in app-related media research. To date, scholars have focused on the dominant platform quintet: Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft. However, the less visible but pervasive impact of production platforms which build digital content, of which Unity is an exemplar case, have received scant attention. My research encompasses the socio-technical history of the Unity3D engine; Unity’s corporate strategies and promotional culture; and the culture of production and labour practices of Unity developers.