I'm not at PAX this year, but if someone goes to the FF7 panel PLEASE REPORT BACK! I have somehow managed to miss both PAX AND TGS due to poor planning and I am very sad about this... (In compensation, I immediately dropped an obscene amount of money on the Revelation Collector's edition :P)

tl;dr: Accepted to @chiplay.bsky.social: presenting the SAVEstate method, a data collection method (and accompanying tool) for naturalistic in-situ player reflections. arxiv.org/abs/2607.17128 I've briefly mentioned the tool I've been working on for annotating gameplay on here. It's real now! 🧵

SAVEstate: A Method for Documenting Player Reflection in Digital Games

In recent years, interest in eudaimonic player experiences (PX) - concerning reflection, meaning-making, and personal growth - has increased. However, most games user research methods are not well-sui...

arxiv.org

I don't think we have a lab bsky so gonna put this here... Ari did a new version of the lab sticker with our newer lab members! Clockwise, starting at 12: Jin Ha, Jason, Emmi, Johnny, Marc, me!, Lidia, Michele, Runhua, Alex, Dany, Lane, Nisha. It's so cuuuute.

My (very personal) essay about FF7 is live in this special issue :) it was an extremely life affirming exercise to write this! Thank you to The Well-Read Game authors and Play Story Press for giving me the opportunity to publish it! drive.google.com/file/d/1s-vh...

Matthew Farber@docfarber.bsky.social · last yr.

📣 Play Story Press is accepting submissions for a special Well Played journal issue based on the theories and techniques proposed in Tracy Fullerton @kinojabber.bsky.social and my book, The Well-Read Game (The MIT Press). playstorypress.org/2025/06/16/w...

Not into the AI-generated podcast summaries of #chi2026 paper sessions – that authors *cannot* opt out of. But was thinking that perhaps this could make papers more accessible to the general public. Turns out the AI-podcasts are only available to ACM premium members... wtf...

No CHI for me this year, but my first ACM journal paper just came out! dl.acm.org/doi/epdf/10.... Anecdotally (and in research, e.g. Vakeva et al., 2025), players use narrative games to support their mental health. So what do bespokenly designed narrative games for mental health actually look like?

We have published the Call for Papers for #CHIPLAY2026! CHI PLAY 2026 will take place November 2-5 in York, United Kingdom. Deadline for Full Paper Submissions is February 18, 2026 (23:59 AoE). The full call is available here: chiplay.acm.org/2026/full-pa... @acm-sigchi.bsky.social #chiplay

Was really challenging to participate in this, but I think I was able to pen something real, important, and personal to my experience in AI. Remember that GenAI is not *all* of AI nor all of what it should be. www.technologyreview.com/2025/12/15/1...

Generative AI hype distracts us from AI’s more important breakthroughs

It's a seductive distraction from the advances in AI that are most likely to improve or even save your life

technologyreview.com

Niall Firth@niallfirth.bsky.social · 11mo ago

OK here we go! Today we launch Hype Correction, our critical look at where AI is, and how we should reset our expectations. www.technologyreview.com/supertopic/h...

(Crazy to say latter half of my PhD - good time to mention that I passed my qualifiers and am a candidate now, woo!)

Nisha Devasia@nishadevasia.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Finally uploaded this short paper/rant on conflicting conceptualizations of escapism in games + well-being that I wrote for the healthy escapism workshop at CHI PLAY '25. Thoughts and directions appreciated, especially as I move into the latter half of my PhD work! ndevasia.github.io/files/escapi...

Finally uploaded this short paper/rant on conflicting conceptualizations of escapism in games + well-being that I wrote for the healthy escapism workshop at CHI PLAY '25. Thoughts and directions appreciated, especially as I move into the latter half of my PhD work! ndevasia.github.io/files/escapi...

It's the ONLY way.

The UW Center for an Informed Public is looking for postdocs (for 2026-2028) from across diverse disciplines whose research sheds light on the challenges of our modern information environment, promotes civic health, and/or helps people/communities navigate online spaces: apply.interfolio.com/177901

Since I don't think any high schoolers follow me...for parents, if your high school aged kids like to game, send them this study for our gaming book club! I'll buy them a game and they'll play it while testing out some reflection tools that I've built. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Interest form for gaming book club!

docs.google.com

Fuck Waymo. Long live KitKat.

Just wanted to "so true" re. @stolisomancer.bsky.social's Geekwire article on my paper, specifically: "Video games often have a positive impact on the people who play them. That impact simply doesn’t get a fraction of the press of gaming’s various downsides." Thanks for writing about this!

@geekwire.com · last yr.

Trending: From stress relief to self-discovery: UW researchers reveal the deeper impact of video games https://www.geekwire.com/2025/from-stress-relief-to-self-discovery-uw-researchers-reveal-the-deeper-impact-of-video-games/

me at CHI PLAY (positive)

David Amador@djlink.bsky.social · last yr.

How do video games shape who we are? HCDE & @ischool.uw.edu researchers found that 78% of gamers reported life-changing experiences from play—from coping with stress to building identity. Findings will be presented at @chiplay.bsky.social later this month. www.washington.edu/news/2025/09...

Q&A: How video games can lead people to more meaningful lives

UW researchers discuss their study which surveyed 166 gamers about how video games sparked meaningful changes in their lives.

washington.edu

There's an article about this paper now! Especially in the ✨current political climate✨, I try to remember what games (especially FF7) have instilled in me: hope in times of despair, and that fighting back can defeat the bad guys and their systems of oppression. www.washington.edu/news/2025/09...

Q&A: How video games can lead people to more meaningful lives

UW researchers discuss their study which surveyed 166 gamers about how video games sparked meaningful changes in their lives.

washington.edu

Nisha Devasia@nishadevasia.bsky.social · last yr.

It's probably early to be posting for #CHIPLAY2025, but I'm excited about this paper! arxiv.org/pdf/2507.18084 tl;dr Players sometimes have very personally meaningful or eudaimonic gaming experiences and we investigated what kinds of effects people reported those experiences had on their lives.

The folks who manage our building put a flyer in the elevator every week. Along with the weekly weather and notes about building rules being broken, they often add a quote. This is one I snapshotted a few weeks ago:

Mainstream pundits have instantly sanitized and ignored Charlie Kirk's core political project and its impacts. He has been remembered by the mainstream press as someone they merely disagreed with, a debate me-guy whose words and actions had zero consequences: www.404media.co/charlie-kirk...

Charlie Kirk Was Not Practicing Politics the Right Way

The mainstream media seems entirely uninterested in explaining Charlie Kirk's work.

404media.co

“The problem that Democrats actually need to solve is how to effectively message in an information environment that is designed from the ground up to benefit reactionary narratives. If they don’t figure that out, they’ll end up… dreaming up middling solutions to non-existent problems.” Great article

Peter@notalawyer.bsky.social · last yr.

My latest newsletter is a response to @jerusalem.bsky.social on the politics of immigration, and why ticky-tack policy solutions won't save Democrats.

When I legitimately need to study (like for my general exam) I like listening to bland lo-fi, but sometimes it gets too bland. I also like listening to video game instrumental, but sometimes I get too emotional and it makes me cry. The solution I just found: open.spotify.com/playlist/1M3...

Final Fantasy LoFi Mix

open.spotify.com

I'm at PAX West! Let me know if you are too :) (and come check out the foundry10 booth in the tabletop free play area)

Recorded my CHI PLAY presentation video, realized I was wearing my "whiskey is liquid sunshine" shirt the whole time, wondered if I should rerecord it to *not* memorialize me looking like an alcoholic into ACM YouTube for posterity, then gave up and uploaded it anyways

New preprint! A Crowdsourced Megastudy of 12 Digital Single-Session Interventions for Depression in American Adults What's the best way to help someone overcome depression with just 10 minutes of their time online? We ran a trial (n=7,505) testing 12 diverse interventions. osf.io/preprints/ps...

Made a silly demo of what I'm working on right now - it's a tool for annotating while gaming, similar to annotating a book. As I mentioned in my last post, it's very inspired by ideas discussed re. critical reflection in The Well Read Game. Feedback appreciated on the MVP! youtu.be/LIdFdVaLWCI

Game Annotator (v1)

YouTube video by Nisha Devasia

youtu.be

8. This has been a short and honestly rather peevish thread, so if you want read more that has been written in a more equanimous tone, here's a short piece that I coauthored a few years ago, precisely about how we deal with this kind of duplicity.

To Fight Misinformation, We Need to Teach That Science Is Dynamic

Science is a social process, and teaching students how researchers work in tandem to develop facts will make them less likely to be duped by falsehoods

scientificamerican.com

Please, I beg everyone panicking about “kids these days” to just display the full scale on the y-axis of their (not so) terrifying charts. Oh wait, maybe that story would not sell 🤔 mikemales.substack.com/p/how-to-go-...

How to go viral with dire-sounding – but phony – “statistical trends”

Those bent on creating anti-internet panics keep rigging their presentations.

mikemales.substack.com