I am proud to announce that I will be contributing a new monthly column to Fangirl Magazine called “Ask Dr. Rachel!”. In it, I will be fielding questions posed through social media about all things video games, and game studies, with a focus on media…

In August 2016, Dr. Nicholas Kardas published an article in the New York Post entitled “It’s ‘digital heroin’: How screens turn kids into psychotic junkies”. In the opening paragraphs, he describes how playing Minecraft on an iPad quickly turned a…

This week, I visited my local Fox news studio to talk about A Parent’s Guide…, video games, and Christmas. A lot of parents are concerned about the amount of time their children playing games during the holiday season. How much is too much? Is it…

This morning I had the pleasure of talking about A Parent’s Guide to Video Games on my local NBC affiliate news station. It is especially important to talk about video games this time of year, as many parents are scrambling to get their children’s…

Over the last few months, Massively Overpowered (previously known as Massively) has been publishing a series of articles focusing on various chapters within my new book, The Video Game Debate…. These articles do a great job of breaking down the main…

What is a “gamer”? And what does it mean to be a gamer today?

These questions are ones that have been nagging me for some time now. While the term “gamer” is often thrown around as a synonym for “player”, to me these concepts are vastly different…

New Book Announcement: The Video Game Debate: Unravelling the Physical, Social, and Psychological Effects of Digital Games (Kowert & Quandt, Eds).

Prof. Thorsten Quandt and I are proud to announce the release of The Video Game Debate: Unravelling the…

Video games have long been understood as an entertaining and popular medium, and recent work has suggested that at least part of their appeal rests in their ability to foster feelings of sociability and belonging with others. Because of this, one…

From the over sexualized characters in fighting games, such as Dead or Alive or Ninja Gaiden, to the overuse of the damsel in distress trope in popular titles, such as the Super Mario series, the under- and misrepresentation of females in video games…

The popularization and affordability of Internet connectivity has changed the way video games are played by allowing individuals to connect worldwide in shared gaming spaces. These highly social environments allow players to connect, interact with…

Researchers have grown concerned as to whether or not engagement within online video gaming environments poses a threat to public health. Previous research has uncovered inverse relationships between frequency of play and a range of psychosocial…

Internet connectivity has changed the way that video games are being played by allowing users to connect worldwide in shared gaming spaces. These highly social environments allow players to connect, interact, and learn from each other. Despite this…

In recent years, there have been rising concerns about the potential negative social impact of online video games, particularly in relation to adolescent players. While there has been a wealth of research in this area, none has yet to provide…

With the advent of new social technologies, researchers have become increasingly interested in the functionality of mediated social spaces as environments where individuals can meet new people and gather with old friends. Due to their accessibility…

What is a “gamer”? Who are “gamers”? How does one quantify the extent to which a person is or is not a “gamer”?

All of these questions have contributed to the recent “Gamer Identity Crisis”. I discuss these issues and the future of the “gamer” in a guest blog post for VG Researcher (it can also be seen on Gamasutra…

Turn on the TV at any given hour and you are bound to find a reference to the stereotypical online gamer. Popular TV shows like the Big Bang Theory, Law and Order: SVU, and web-series’ such as Pure Pwnage and The Guild have all portrayed the same…