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Gaming Events

Upcoming Events:

That’s it for Spring Semester 2026! Stay tuned for events in the fall!

 

Recent Events:

 

Carolina Seminar in Critical Game Studies Presents: “Take a Good Long Look: Gender in the Magic Mirror”

The Carolina Seminar in Critical Game Studies talk was held on Friday, April 17, on Zoom from 9 a.m. to 10:15 A.M. and was presented by UNC ECL Ph.D. candidate, Antonia DiNardo. This talk explored ideas of appearance, self-image, and the mirrored self in the discourse of transgender embodiment, from Harry Benjamin’s The Transsexual Phenomenon to modern video games. Exploring the use of mirrors as sites for managing character identity in a number f popular CRPGs, the talk deconstructed the ways in which games replicate restrictive psychosocial models of understanding gender and embodiment even as they offer increasing degrees of transgender representation. 

 

 

 

YXBA: A Critical Graduate Play Salon Presents Morkborg!

On Thursday, March 26th, in Greenlaw 316 at 6:30 PM YXBA hosted a playthrough of the tabletop roleplaying game, Mork Borg, an apocalyptic fantasy role playing game inspired by doom metal. As quoted, “the game involves valleys riddled with undead, gothic cathedrals and a cursed forest … cannibal warlocks, poison peddlers from beyond the void and hungry gut worms.” Delightful!!!

 

 

 

Carolina Seminar in Critical Game Studies Presents “Recursivity, Repetition, and Race: Building a Methodology for Reading Race in Video Games”

The Carolina Seminar in Critical Game Studies talk was held on Wednesday, March 11th at 3:30 to 4:45p.m. in Donovan Lounge (Greenlaw 223) discussed how videogames and race have intermingled since the earliest days of the medium, yet game studies have yet to develop a sustained methodology to contend with the racial logics and aesthetic practices embedded within game texts. The talked asked: How do videogames function as racial projects? Does race function as a structuring force within game design? How do the structures of repetition inherent to games hold and transmit racial meaning? In this talk, Dr. Austin Anderson, Provostial Fellow at Stanford University and co-founder of the Stanford Critical Game Studies Lab, explored these questions by discussing his current book project: Racial Recursivity: A Methodology of Critical Race Game Studies, which creates a formalist ludic-textual framework for reading videogames as racial-cultural projects by exploring the role of repetition in racial practices and games.

 

 

 

 

Carolina Seminar in Critical Game Studies: Materializing Design Traces // Tracing Design Materials

The Carolina Seminar in Critical Game Studies held on Zoom Friday, February 27th from 9a.m. to 10:15a.m. featured Dr. Rilla Khaled, Associate Professor, Design and Computation Arts at Concordia University. Dr. Khaled discusses the Method for Design Materialization (MDM). MDM is a proposal for standardized approach to surfacing design practice logics and reasoning, through digital archiving coupled with regular and reflective journaling. Dr. Khaled demonstrated how to use MDM and how it supports theorization of game design.

 

Past Events:

Flyer for Valentine's Day YXBA Party, a play through of Monster Prom!! Find love (and maybe humiliation) through the coming-of-age narrative that combines humor and romance for a gaming experience that brings to life the horrors of adolescence. Hosted by YXBA: A Graduate Critical Play Salon. Held on February 19th, 2026.

Flyer for Carolina Seminar in Critical Game Studies, "You Were Expected": Encountering Algorithmic Rememory in The Outlast Trials (with my little sister). Presented by Zayla Crocker. Hosted by the Carolina Seminar in Critical Game Studies. Held on Zoom Friday, February 13th 2025.

Flyer for Dystopia New Year's Watch and Play Party: Watch Katheryn Bigelow's 1995 film "Strange Days" (which is rated R) and play Cyberpunk 2077 which was inspired by the film. Hosted by Kino Corner. Screening held on January 22, 2025. Cyberpunk playthrough held on January 29th 2025.

Flyer for YXBA: Graduate Critical Play Salon Outlast Playthrough. Hosted by YXBA: Graduate Critical Play Salon. Held on October 23, 2025.

 

Flier for "Self-Narrating Play" presented by Dr. Rob Gallagher from King's College London. Hosted by the Carolina Seminar in Critical Games Studies. Held on April 22nd, 2025.
Flier for "Nazi Brains & Klan Guts: Playing with Alternative History and Overlapping Traumas in Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus" Presented by Zayla Crocker. Held on April 10, 2025.
Flyer for "Yippie-Ki-Yay Watch and Play", a collaborative two-part event hosted by Kino Corner and the Critical Game Studies Program. Screening of A Fistful of Dollars held on March 25, 2025, followed by a play session of Red Dead Redemption 2 held on April 1, 2025.
Flyer for "GPU Shaders as Metaphors for and materializers of Experience" presented by Dr. Kelsey Brod. Hosted by the Carolina Seminar in Critical Game Studies. Held on March 4, 2025.

 

Flyer for "Enter the Zone: Stalker Watch and Play" a collaborative two-part event hosted by The Carolina Slavic Club, Kino Corner, and the Critical Game Studies Program. Screening of Stalker directed by Andrei Tarkovsky held in February 2025 followed by a play session of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. on February 27, 2025.

Flyer for "GTA 5 Playthrough and Discussion". Hosted by YXBA: A Graduate Critical Play Salon. Held on January 27, 2025.

Flyer for a virtual session on Gamification and Value Capture. Hosted by the Carolina Seminar in Critical Game Studies. Held on November 19, 2024.

Flyer for "Alien Superstar", a collaborative two-part event. Hosted by Kino Corner and the Critical Game Studies Program. Screening of Alien with discussion facilitated by Dr. Candice Meritt held on October, 28 2025 followed by a play session of Alien Isolation held on October 30, 2024.

Flyer for the Greenlaw Gameroom Open House. Featuring speakers Dr. Michelle Robinson from the Department of American Studies, Dr. Jennifer Gates-Foster from the Department of Classics, Dr. Kym Weed from the Department of English and Comparative Literature, Antonia DiNardo from the Department of English and Comparative Literature, and David Hall from the Department of English and Comparative Literature. Hosted by the Critical Games Studies Program to open discussion about the use of games in the classroom. Held on September 30, 2024.

Flyer for a virtual session on Materiality and Gameplay. Hosted by the Carolina Seminar in Critical Game Studies. Held on October 8, 2024.

Flyer for Augmenting Reality: Black Praxis in Digital Gaming. Presented by Dr. Kishonna Gray. Hosted by the Critical Games Studies Program. Held on April 10, 2024.

Flyer for a virtual session on Critical Design and Development Reality hosted by the Carolina Seminar in Critical Game Studies. Held on March 7, 2024.

Flyer for a virtual session on Transdisciplinary Theory. Hosted by the Carolina Seminar in Critical Game Studies. Held on November 28, 2023.

Flyer for Medieval Gaming: Play Session of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Hosted by the Critical Game Studies Program. Held on February 2024.

Flyer for "Honest Recreation" from Hamlet to Elsinore presented by Dr. Michael Lutz via Virtual Session. Hosted by the Critical Games Studies Speaker Series. Held on November 29, 2023.

Flyer for a virtual session on Critical Design Workshop. Hosted by the Carolina Seminar in Critical Game Studies. Held on October 24, 2023.

Flyer for Medieval Gaming at The Gathering Place. Hosted by the Critical Game Studies Program. Held on October 24, 2023.

Flyer for a workshop, lecture, and seminar with Dr. Gaspard Pelurson hosted by the Carolina Seminar in Critical Game Studies. Held on April 11, 12, and 13. 28, 2023.

Flyer for "Science Fiction and Games in the Classroom" presented by Stephanie Kinzinger. Hosted by the Critical Games Studies Program. Held on March 3, 2023.

Flyer for Critical World-Building with Tabletop Games (workshop). Hosted by the Critical Games Studies. Held on March 30, 2023.

Flyer for "Inclusive Design Practices in Tabletop Gaming" presented by Omari Akil. Hosted by the Critical Games Studies Program. Held on February 20, 2023.

Flyer for "Video Game Adaptations of Early Modern Theater in the Classroom: A Workshop". Presented by David Hall. Hosted by the Critical Games Studies. Held on March 20, 2023.

Flyer for "Playing with the Climate: Situatedness and Immerselessness in Environmental Video Games". Presented by Dr. Katherine Buse. Hosted by the Critical Games Studies Program. Held on February 3, 2023.

Flyer for "Gaming as Speculative World Building Practice". Presented by Chris Martens and Alexandra To. Hosted by the NULab at Northeastern, Carolina Seminars, and the Critical Game Studies Program. Held on October 7, 2022.

Flyer for "Indigeneity and Games in the Classroom" a workshop hosted by David Hall and the Critical Games Studies Program. Held on September 28, 2022.
Flyer for "teaching with games" presented by Courtney Rivard, Guillermo Rodriguez-Romaguera, Doug Stark, Stephanie Kinzinger, and David Hall. Hosted by the Digital Literacy Lab and the Critical Games Studies. Held on March 4, 2022.
Flyer for "Representation and Reclamation: The History and Future if Native Americans in Video Games". Presented by Dr. Ashlee Bird. Hosted by the Critical Games Studies Initiative, the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program, and the American Indian Center. Held on September 14, 2022.
Flyer for the Critical Game Studies Program's Kickoff party. Hosted by the Critical Game Studies Program. Held August 24, 2022.

 

Flyer for Critical Smash Tournament. Hosted by the English and Comparative literature department. Held on November 18, 2022.
Flyer for Game Night with COLEAGS and the Greenlaw Game room. Hosted by COLEAGS and the Critical Game Studies Program. Held on November 12, 2022.