Marcus Carter
@marcuscarter.com
Professor in HCI @ USYD, CEO @ Ludolio. Australian Research Council Future Fellow. Game Studies & Virtual Reality.
Had a chance to play Key Fairy today, which is available now on Ludolio! Owl Machine's ink-illustrated, pacifist bullet-hell about a tiny fairy untangling a cursed forest, one of the best-reviewed indies of the year, now available for classroom and library licensing.
Roblox's age-up initiative is going great! Can anyone help me workshop these paper title ideas? I can't get no (Refunds) Gimme Robux Sympathy for the Brainrot You can't always get what you want (Robux)
Power Network Tycoon has been working with Ludolio for trialing games in education, starting at the University of Sydney. I gave a lecture there recently on my journey. Planning to expand into universities in the US and Canada very soon. youtu.be/fdjgYjiJRt8?... #education #gaming #engineering
Ludolio - How We're Making Game-Based Learning More Accessible
YouTube video by Ludolio
youtu.be
Happy to finally share a project we’ve been working on: www.ludolio.com, a digital game distribution platform that lets University libraries lend commercial games like ebooks.
Ludolio - The platform helping libraries lend games.
Ludolio, the platform helping libraries lend games.
ludolio.com
I don't want to pretend this *isn't* shocking or ghastly but, like, when digital media experts are expressing concern generally about the data a game like Pokemon Go is collecting from day one, this is precisely the kind of end game they are thinking about.
Schera Wyss 💀 SLUG WORLD 2026@scherawyss.bsky.social · 2mo agoThis might be one of the most insane scandals in game history When Pokemon Go players scan PokeStops, theyve been unknowingly building a detailed visual model of the world which is being sold to a military contractor to build a no-GPS positioning for the new generation of unmanned killing machines
📢 Our new paper is out in New Media & Society! “The industry is so rotten”: Regulating video game monetisation and divided gaming cultures in China We use debates around China’s latest regulation as a lens to show how monetisation has become a key fault line shaping different play ideologies.
Our (@mahliann.bsky.social, @marcuscarter.com, and I) book GAME STUDIES: A CRITICAL INTRODUCTION TO THE FIELD is officially OUT everywhere in the world except the US for some reason. So here is an actual thread about why we wrote it and what we were trying to achieve with it.
I've thought for a while USYD should have a game design club, so we seed funded it for a year. We expected 10-15 students hanging out, making games in a room, with a paid mentor. Over 570 students signed up (!) and 120+ turned up to our first session last Friday. Wild enthusiasm.
It's Saturday afternoon and I have a few hours to myself so you know what that means
The nice thing about writing books is that eventually you get a copy and this is a lovely surprise when it happens.
Brendan Keogh@brkeogh.bsky.social · 6mo agoNew book now coming out very soon. Next month!
New book now coming out very soon. Next month!
Brendan Keogh@brkeogh.bsky.social · 11mo agoBOOK ANNOUNCEMENT! @mahliann.bsky.social, @marcuscarter.com, and myself have combined our collective brains and written a wide-reaching introduction to the complex and interdisciplinary field of Game Studies in this forthcoming book for Polity. www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?b...
This thread is absolutely worth a read; of course ‘gaming’ and ‘gambling’ are getting conflated!
Veli-Matti Karhulahti@mkarhulahti.bsky.social · 6mo agoFirst post of the year, new paper out today: we present possibly the biggest case of systematic Measurement Schmeasurement in tech use. It seems that most studies on gaming (videogame) addiction/disorder haven't measured gaming after all. This research took years, so long 🧵 doi.org/10.1098/rsos...
🍲 It is still soup season! @gua-le-ni.com's philosophical game still continues to promote the discussion of what exactly is soup. And that even an ordinary concept like ‘soup’ is vague, shifting, and impossible to define exhaustively. @derlampenputzer.bsky.social @zeit.de
Stefano Gualeni@gua-le-ni.com · 8mo ago"Was ist Suppe?" A little old game (of mine) causes confusion and delight, it seems [in German]. www.zeit.de/2025/54/some... Cc @zeit.de @indigitalgames.bsky.social #soup #gamestudies
Huge congrats to all the very deserving early career academics who got DECRAs. And condolences to the much larger group of deserving people who didn't get DECRAs. Just remember that the vast majority of successful academics you know also didn't get DECRAs!
What’s enough of a milestone for me: We have finally agreed out how to represent a Wordle grid in black and white, which means this book is now completely done!
Brendan Keogh@brkeogh.bsky.social · 9mo agoThe webpage for our upcoming book has the cover on it now which is enough of a milestone for me to write another post about the book we have coming out soon. www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?b...
The webpage for our upcoming book has the cover on it now which is enough of a milestone for me to write another post about the book we have coming out soon. www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?b...
Game Studies: A Critical Introduction to the Field
Game Studies: A Critical Introduction to the Field, From Among Us to Minecraft, Catan to Dungeons and Dragons, games and play are fundamentally transforming how we understand storytelling, education, ...
politybooks.com
Brendan Keogh@brkeogh.bsky.social · 11mo agoBOOK ANNOUNCEMENT! @mahliann.bsky.social, @marcuscarter.com, and myself have combined our collective brains and written a wide-reaching introduction to the complex and interdisciplinary field of Game Studies in this forthcoming book for Polity. www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?b...
Check out the latest from the SSRN #blog which features a selection of #research on age verification & #online safety. Read more: spkl.io/63322AKCwm #Academicsky #AcademicChatter
The Latest Research on Age Verification & Online Safety
This list includes a selection of the latest research on age verification & online safety posted to SSRN in 2025. Tinder Backgrounds by Irina D. Manta (Hofstra University) The “Segregate-…
spkl.io
This is basically @adriennemassanari.bsky.social's new book in meme form.
Jose@jum.bsky.social · last yr.
My DRS paper on graphic design and AI has just passed 15,000 downloads | dl.designresearchsociety.org/drs-conferen...
Teaching game design is way harder than anything else I've ever taught, because we make collaborative social rituals out of all of human experience... and then also sometimes have to balance spreadsheets about polearm damage.
Last year, we ran a study where we gave children a $20 pre-paid debit card to spend in any game. This method elicited incredible data showing how carefully children weigh their purchasing decisions, but also revealed the many minefields and deceptive practices they have to navigate.
New article in @theconversation.com today by myself and @marcuscarter.com on how kids talk about when spending money in Roblox is harmful to them. TLDR; virtual currencies and random reward features should be better regulated! theconversation.com/literally-ju...
‘Literally just child gambling’: what kids say about Roblox, lootboxes and money in online games
Kids who play Roblox games describe ‘scary’ virtual currencies and ‘cash grab’ random rewards.
theconversation.com
Agree, it's why I always recommend reading @brkeogh.bsky.social's book The Videogame Industry does not exist. Games are a media, an art field. While it's understandable to want to help people pay bills, we undermine them by focusing so much on their monetization - especially when it's unrealistic.
Eniko Fox@enikofox.com · 2y agoToo much gamedev advice is dispensed assuming the end goal is a commercially viable game and maybe that's a problem? Making a financially load bearing game is so close to impossible that maybe setting that as the end point for all game development is creating wildly unrealistic expectations
God this is really annoying - but Adam Tooze posted the best thing he’s written in months *today*. It’s a wide ranging interview from a Chinese publication, but here’s the best (and most terrifying) description of the current AI bubble I’ve yet read adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-...
I agree with @localthunk.bsky.social. Rating Balatro as an 18+ game is as unserious as it is hypocritical, and how we use ratings and regulations to safeguard children often makes no sense. My latest at @crossplayblog.bsky.social: patrickklepek.substack.com/p/is-balatro...
Balatro’s 18+ Rating Underscores Gaming’s Hypocritical “Protecting” Children Rhetoric
Loot boxes pass through regulatory and rating scrutiny without batting an eye, but a card game? My word!
patrickklepek.substack.com
“the catchphrase might be that the Bullshit Jobs are now being done by the Bullshit Machine.” Great read!
Chris J. Karr@cjkarr.bsky.social · 2y ago@himself.bsky.social knocks another one out of the park with his great piece on LLMs and the anticipated effects they will have on large organizations of all kinds.
Wondering why Australia shouldn’t (consider) ban social media (games) for minors? China sets us an example. Thanks for the great team work @benegliston.bsky.social , @marcuscarter.com 🍻 theconversation.com/china-restri...
China restricted young people from video games. But kids are evading the bans and getting into trouble
In China, many people see video games as ‘spiritual opium’. However, laws restricting young people’s play have proven difficult to enforce in practice.
theconversation.com
