Greetings, Leonardo readers! My name is Richard Wirth; I'm a master's student at the University of Texas at Dallas, and Leonardo's first graduate student fellow. My primary area of research is in games and simulation, which I have recently been approaching through the lenses of behavioral studies and ethnography. Currently this is taking the form of a study on the communities and social structures of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs).

Whether analyzing the function of trust and truthfulness, social constructs such as guilds and alliances, or the way in which certain elements of game design affect player behavior, I find computer games to be some of the most interesting interactive media. Over the course of my fellowship, I will be posting blog entries relating to the study of games and their players. My previous work has been predominantly in the realms of interactive narrative and game design, and as such I intend my blog posts to coincide with my own ventures into related fields. My initial research has found me exploring an interdisciplinary swath of areas, such as ethnographics, social psychology, human-computer interaction, perception, and more. During the course of my residency, I intend to write posts giving an academic beginner's look into the correlation between game design and established fields of science. Additionally, I will attempt to relate various subject areas within game studies through brief forays into specific titles. I look forward to relating my experiences in game studies through this blog, and will hopefully be able to use these writings to give an accessible look into my area of research!