Xu Honglan This project studies open-source World of Warcraft bots not just through interviews, but by critical code studies on their actual code and GitHub repositories. It shows how “power gamers” frame botting as non-malicious optimization to escape tedious grind, design their scripts to prioritize safety over raw efficiency, and use platforms like GitHub to collaboratively refine and normalize these cheating practices.

Xiang Kexin With an aim to understand the unique roleplay affordances and constraints of AI companion platforms, our research proposes a new roleplaying game (RPG) category, “LLM-based single-player online freeform RPGs.” Through a case study of Character.AI, we develop a productive analytical toolkit – “roleplace space,” “four frames of collaborative storytelling”, and “gravity model” – that enables a critical examination of how AI companion roleplay operates in ways intrig

Xu Honglan This project studies open-source World of Warcraft bots not just through interviews, but by critical code studies on their actual code and GitHub repositories. It shows how “power gamers” frame botting as non-malicious optimization to escape tedious grind, design their scripts to prioritize safety over raw efficiency, and use platforms like GitHub to collaboratively refine and normalize these cheating practices.

Xiang Kexin This project examines the immersive, participatory narrative experiences in character-based video games through the lens of embodied cognition. It is expected to produce two key outcomes. First, an analytical framework for understanding players’ embodied narrative experiences in character-based video games; and second, a set of design strategies that enhance players’ embodied engagement with their characters and their characters’ stories, for either conventional v

Diego Barroso Hong Kong has been the setting of several games, like the open-world action game Sleeping Dogs. Although they may be exciting for a while, these environments often end up feeling stereotypical and lifeless. I’m developing an analysis approach that focuses on three layers of referentiality (visuals, environment, and agency) to help game designers build meaningful spaces and scholars explain them more effectively. I’ve already worked on this project by writing abo

Leino, O. T., & Möring, S. (2025). Existential ludology: Computer games as worlds. In The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Games (pp. 90-108). Routledge. Olli Leino In this chapter, we propose existential ludology as a general framework and a method for understanding computer games and play. We cross-expose insights from a branch of game studies known as ludology with insights from a branch of continental philosophy known as existentialism. Our resulting approach is ludolo

Huang, Y., Xiang, K., Sharma, G., Rabbi, R., Ju, R., & Holopainen, J. P. (2025, November). Meet Daiyu in The Era of GenAI: Using LLMs to Remediate Classics into Interactive Digital Narratives. In International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling (pp. 29-47). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland. Yuxuan Huang, Kexin Xiang, Ran Ju and Jussi Pekka Holopainen In this paper, we explore the integration of large language models (LLMs) in interactive digital narratives (IDNs)

Wang, Z., Ma, L., Lc, R., & Holopainen, J. (2025, November). Design, Reflect, Create: Game Poem Practices with Generative AI Tools. In International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling (pp. 113-129). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland. Wang, Ziyi, Jussi Holopainen et al. Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) tools are transforming creative practices, yet their role in game poem design remains largely unexplored. Game poems serve as a bridge between interactive

7-9 November 2025 The Goethe-Institut Hongkong and the French Consulate of Hong Kong are excited to partner with the School of Creative Media, the City University of Hong Kong for the project “City of Dreams and Fears”, bringing together German, French, and Hong Kong game designers for a two-day Game Jam. They'll create game prototypes exploring cities as shared spaces and addressing ecological and social urban challenges, with results displayed in an exhibition. https://www.

8-9 October 2025 “Game mechanics” is a frequently referenced yet contested term in game studies. There have been some efforts to define it, of which perhaps the most widely known is Sicart’s (2008) definition of game mechanics as “methods invoked by agents interacting with the game world.” The term has also been explored for its tangled relationship to game rules as well as narrative, while for certain game genres (e.g. MOBAs, FPSs, Soulslike) it can refer to the player’s abi

Barroso, D., & Huang, Z. (2025). Urban (Re) Development for Video Games. Effective Ludoforming and the Work of Ryu Ga Gotoku. CEEGS 2025 Landscapes Cities Localities. Diego Barroso and Zidong Huang There are multiple reasons to use preexisting spaces in fiction, from nostalgia to faithful simulation. Cities are sometimes used as settings for books, films, and video games, with their own completeidentities. Still, more often than not, those cities are an inspiration, their ess

Liu, H. X., & Holopainen, J. P. (2025). Calling for play-oriented research on blockchain video games: An overview study. Distributed Ledger Technologies: Research and Practice, 4(3), 1-23. Jussi Holopainen Blockchain video games, specifically video games using blockchain technology, are a trending topic in the media, technology community and business world. While blockchain video games are expected to transform the industry, little is known about how they are played and the p

Holopainen, J., Huang, Y., Shin, J., Nissinen, E., & Lucero, A. (2025, July). Infinity book: speculating literary expressions in the age of generative ai. In Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (pp. 1430-1454). Jussi Holopainen and Huang, Yuxuan This paper explores the ethical, social, political, and philosophical implications of generative AI (GenAI) on human creativity, contributing to the current discussions on the impact of AI. We use spec

Huang, Y., Liu, H. X., & Holopainen, J. (2024, June). "Infinity Book": Critical Speculation on How Generative AI Shapes the Socio-Material World. In ICCC (pp. 387-391). Yuxuan Huang and Jussi Holopainen Recent advancements in Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) and its promising impact on shaping humancomputer co-creativity relationships have attracted speculation on this issue. Despite a call for more design-oriented research and many works using critical and speculat

Ip, Y. Y., Fan, K., Shaw, J., Rodríguez, H., & Leino, O. T. (2024). Cinema After Cinema. Yuk Yiu IP and Olli Leino Reflecting cinema beyond its traditional screen-based form, CINEMA AFTER CINEMA reviews the media art project CINEMA 2.0, a decade-long showcase that explores cinema as a method and worldview co-curated by Ip Yuk Yiu and Kattie Fan. The book contains an anthology of writings by Ip, with additional contributing texts by Jeffrey Shaw, Hector Rodriguez, Olli Tapio L

Huang, Y., Shea, J., Howe, D. C., & Holopainen, J. (2025, June). Lyric Poetry in the Face of Posthumanism: An Analysis of Generative AI-Assisted Poetry Writing. In Proceedings of the 2025 Conference on Creativity and Cognition (pp. 762-773). Yuxuan Huang and Jussi Holopainen Generative AI seems poised to transform a wide range of endeavors once thought to be solely the domain of humans—from journalism to legal practice to creative expression—into collaborative activities invo

Gopinath, K. K., & Holopainen, J. (2025, June). Temporal Agency and Timeplay in Video Games. In Conference Proceedings of DiGRA 2025: Games at the Crossroads. Karthik Kuduva Gopinath and Jussi Holopainen This paper examines temporal agency in video games, referred to as the player's ability to manipulate time within the game world, to make decisions, and to observe their consequences. Building on existing scholarship about ludic agency and ludic temporality, this paper utiliz

Ma, L., Pan, M., Siu, V., Chang, X., Holopainen, J., Li, J., & LC, R. (2025, May). Follow My Logic: Generative AI Workflows in Designing for Serious Table-Top Games. In International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 153-172). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland. Jussi Holopainen Creating compelling and engaging tabletop games is a challenging process that requires deep understanding of game mechanics and aesthetic considerations. To facilitate novice game designers

Aarseth, E. (2025, May). A Bubble Inside an Anomaly: Looking Back at New Media (3000 BCE–2024 CE). In Texts, Authority, and Authorship: From Ancient Scribal Culture and Oral Traditions to Digital Media. Espen Aarseth If it takes around fifty years for a new media technology, for example the printed book, to find its form (and longer for the waves of upheaval it creates to calm down), what kind of observations can we make if we zoom out, say, an order of magnitude or two? Boar

07-08 Apr 2025 The fourth iteration of the interdisciplinary seminar "Current Perspectives in Game Studies" brings together game studies scholars to discuss their recent research. This seminar serves a forum for exploring diverse perspectives, ranging from theoretical analyses to empirical studies, all centered on the multifaceted nature of games as cultural, social, and artistic phenomena. https://www.scm.cityu.edu.hk/en/events/current-perspectives-game-studies-springsummer-