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As undergraduate students turned research assistants, building Moloch’s Gauntlet, an in-game escape room, became a lived experiment in modded Minecraft as a pedagogical tool. Our project explores three ideas: 1) how dismantling the game’s representational aesthetics links it to the wider body of knowledge that functions as an alternate academic space, 2) how selectively concealing and revealing the game’s mechanisms leads to procedural elaboration, inviting participation in the creative process, and 3) that modded Minecraft functions as an open platform that makes the iterative game design process accessible, teaching design through play without the barrier of complex computer science foundations. Our own experience, first as students and then as undergraduate student-researchers, suggests that engaging students with techniques that move beyond familiar call-and-response, problem-and-solution approaches, can result in a transformative outcome for students and educators alike.

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This paper offers an interpretation of The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part II as narratives of moral emancipation from patriarchal structures. It argues that the protagonists, Ellie and Abby, participate in the construction of each other’s moral agency and autonomy, while navigating their complex gender identities and attempting to break the cycles of violence and retaliation initiated by their fathers. Neither character succeeds in the end. Indeed, the games’ main argument is that if moral autonomy is ever within reach, it is not on individualistic or universalistic terms; that is, that the notion itself of being autonomous is necessarily relational, gradual, and situated within the gender politics of each character’s moral particularity.

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In the increasingly competitive landscape of the games industry, working efficiently is essential for ensuring products meet audience expectations and work as intended. Various elements can play a key role when attempting to develop games smoothly and successfully, as time, money and technical capabilities can be very limiting factors that can require careful consideration. For this research, this paper will explore three key examples of such elements, which are art styles, AI tools, and the role of creative expression during the development process. Each of these examples can be notable factors towards streamlining production tasks and accelerating development, which can be especially important in the fast and competitive games industry. The choice of an art style, for instance, can save time, effort and costs while also being more optimal for performance and for supporting a chosen theme. The role of creative expression is also something that should not be understated, as it can be vital for finding solutions to problems, as well as preventing other potential issues. Finally, AI tools have demonstrated significant potential and numerous possibilities to help streamline various tasks related to the games industry, such as programming, artistic production and organizing data. By analyzing these three elements—art styles, AI tools, and creative expression— this paper will aim to provide a stronger understanding of how they can contribute to ensuring a more efficient game development process.

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This article examines the evolution of gaming houses in esports as physical manifestations of the industry's shifting relationship with labor, capital, and professionalization. By tracing the transformation of these communal living spaces from grassroots solutions to economic precarity into corporate-managed professional environments, the analysis highlights complex tensions between passion and exploitation that characterize digital labor. Drawing on theoretical frameworks from digital labor studies alongside ethnographic interviews with 33 industry professionals, this research positions gaming houses as both architectural responses to precarity and spatial embodiments of the blurred boundaries between play and work that define esports. The analysis reveals that while the aesthetic progression of gaming houses from makeshift accommodations to state-of-the-art facilities suggests industry maturation, underlying conditions of employment insecurity persist.