I am currently an Assistant Professor (in game design) at the IT University of Copenhagen, Center for Computer Games Research.
My research is focused on two dominant topics:
- Ethics and computer games: as an information ethicist, aristotelian, and (post)phenomenologist, I attempt to explain the ethics of computer games by analyzing what values are embedded in a game, and how players relate, adapt to, or modify them. In a nutshell, I argue that a game design has ethical values embedded in its design, but that it is ultimately players, as ethical agents, who reflect and act upon those values, in a creative process of owning the (ethics of) the game experience.
My theoretical work is published as a book entitled The Ethics of Computer Games by MIT Press.
I am currently working on translating my analytic work into design research theory, a framework for developing ethical gameplay – which is basically turning ethics into a gameplay mechanic. Throughout 2009 I will be publishing or presenting the core theoretical work for that research project – publications will be referred to in the writings page.
- Game design theory: I am basically interested in two topics: formalizing a language for game design, and developing a set of practices for translating concepts into systems using toys as an inspiration. My work on this area is rather new, and very influenced by industrial design, architecture, and the cognitive science take on design research. As such, I do work on game design but I avoid writing checklists. My work is on game design theory, from a design research perspective.
I am also interested in the aesthetics of games like Flywrench or Cursor*10, or other abusive games.
In the future, I expect to write about reality TV as games and narratives, and about ethics and artificial agents.