Writings

BOOKS

2012. Leet noobs: The life and death of an expert player group in World of Warcraft. New York: Peter Lang.

JOURNAL ARTICLES

2009. Visualization of expert chat development in a World of Warcraft player group. E-Learning, 6(1), 54-70. dx.doi.org/10.2304/elea.2009.6.1.54

2009. Social dimensions of expertise in World of Warcraft players. Transformative Works and Cultures, 2. dx.doi.org/10.3983/twc.2009.0072

2009. Communication, coordination, and camaraderie in World of Warcraft. Games and Culture, 4, 47-73. dx.doi.org/10.1177/1555412008325478

2008. The player matters: A review of Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword. E-Learning, 5(4), 508-512. dx.doi.org/10.2304/elea.2008.5.4.508

2008. Moral ambiguity in The Witcher: A game review. E-Learning, 5(3), 358-365. dx.doi.org/10.2304/elea.2008.5.3.358

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

2011. How a new actor was temporarily enrolled into the network of game playing. Proceedings from the 9^th international conference on Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (pp. 661-663).

2011. Chen, M., Cuddihy, E., Medina, E., and Kolko, B. Modeling but not measuring engagement in computer games. Proceedings from Games Learning Society 2011 (pp. 63-71). ETC Press.

2011. Kelly, S., Wolfenstein, M., Chen, M., Chess, S., D’Angelo, C., and Harper, T. Writing the games-based dissertation. Proceedings from Games Learning Society 2011 (pp. 155-159). ETC Press.

2007. [Review of the book Play Between Worlds by T.L. Taylor]. Resource Center for Cybercultural Studies.

INVITED TALKS

Fall 2011, Spring 2012. “Ethnography of Online Games,” Introduction to Interactive Media: Games and Gaming, University of Washington, Bothell

Spring 2011. “Expertise in World of Warcraft as sociomaterial practice,” Digipen

Spring 2007. “Digital Games and Globalization,” Digital Media, Globalization, and Systems Thinking, University of Washington

PRESENTATIONS

2012. Horstman, T., Chen, M., and Cooper, S. Gamers as scientists? The relationship between participating in Foldit play and doing science. Paper presentation at American Educational Research Association (AERA), Vancouver, BC.

2012. Horstman, T., Chen, M., and Cooper, S. Foldit practice: Science or gaming? Digital Media and Learning (DML) 2012, San Francisco, CA.

2011. Ask, K., Chen, M., Karlsen, F., Paul, C., and Mortensen, T. Playing by the numbers: A panel on theorycrafting. Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA), Hilversum, The Netherlands.

2011. Paul, C., Altizer, R., Chen, M., Dutton, N., Harper, T., and Kelly, S. We study games… professionally: Academic research and game studies. Penny Arcade Expo (PAX Prime), Seattle, WA.

2011. McKnight, J. C., Chen, M., and Galarneau, L. Big debate: Are online games building or destroying community? And how mangled is it? Fireside chat at Games Learning Society (GLS), Madison, WI.

2011. The mangle of gaming to socially create meaningful experiences. Critical Gaming Project’s Keywords for Video Game Studies Colloquium, Seattle, WA.

2011. The enrollment of a new technology and the subsequent redistribution of roles and responsibilities in an online game. Roundtable presentation at American Educational Research Association (AERA), New Orleans, LA.

2011. Social dimensions of expert practice in online gaming. In Socially situated expert practice in and around gaming symposium at American Educational Research Association (AERA), New Orleans, LA.

2011. Mapping gaming practice to scientific practice. In Learning technologies in informal contexts, a Strand 6 (Science learning in informal contexts)-sponsored symposium at National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST), Orlando, FL.

2010. Paul, C., Chen, M., Dutton, N., Harper, T., and Kelly, S. We play games… professionally: Academic research and game studies. Penny Arcade Expo (PAX Prime), Seattle, WA.

2010. Chen, M., DeVane, B., Grimes, S. M., Walter, S. E., and Wolfenstein, M. The mangle of play: Game challenges and player workarounds. Digital Media and Learning Conference (DML), La Jolla, CA.

2009. Walter, S., and Chen, M. A comparison of collaboration across two game contexts: Lord of the Rings Online and World of Warcraft. Association of Internet Researchers (IR10), Milwaukee, WI.

2009. Using actor-network theory to study expert player groups in World of Warcraft. Graduate Student Symposium at State of Play 6, New York City, NY.

2008. Leet noobs: Expert World of Warcraft players relearning and adapting expertise in new contexts: The hands-on version! Games Learning Society (GLS) 4.0, Madison, WI.

2008. Leet noobs: Expert World of Warcraft players relearning and adapting expertise in new contexts. In Mapping the learning pathways and processes associated with the development of expertise and learner identities, a poster session at the International Conference for the Learning Sciences (ICLS), Utrecht, The Netherlands.

2007. Communication and cooperation in a World of Warcraft player community. In Playing to belong: Community across gaming contexts symposium at Games Learning Society (GLS) 3.0, Madison, WI.

2005. Addressing social dilemmas and fostering cooperation through computer games. Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA), Vancouver, Canada.

2005. Chen, M., Kolko, B., Cuddihy, E., and Medina, E. Modeling and measuring engagement in computer games. Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA), Vancouver, Canada.

2005. Chen, M., Cuddihy, E., Thayer, A., and Zhou, Q. Creating cross-cultural appeal in digital games: Issues in localization and user testing (ppt). Society for Technical Communication (STC), Seattle, WA.

NON-PUBLISHED WORKS

• General Exams #1 – pros and cons of video games (June 2007)
• General Exams #2 – learning theories and games (June 2007)
• General Exams #3 – research proposal (November 2007) (the link is to my Spencer fellowship proposal… essentially the same paper. Back in June I posted a different design proposal that includes a copy of the exam question, so that might be handy.)
• A comparison between the interactions of a goal-oriented guild and a free-form guild in World of Warcraft (2005) – methods proposal
• Communication and map tools for use in the Warsong Gulch Battleground in World of Warcraft (2005) – an instructional design approach to software design spec
• Ethical tensions between the roles I play (2005) – one of my favorite papers
• Using the How People Learn framework to build a sustainable cooperative community in World of Warcraft (2004)
• The Tragedy of the Commons: Using Computer Games to Analyze Behavior in Social Dilemmas (2004)
• Measuring Flow in a computer game simulating a foreign language environment (2004)
• Addressing Social Dilemmas through Role-Playing Identities in Computer Games (2004)
• Histories of Computer Games and Educational Software (2003)
• Virtual Worlds Spill-Over (2003)
• Eliot Chapel Stair Hall: A Study in Re-Creation (1995)
• The Transformation of the Avant-Garde: a book review (1993)

MEDIA

• The Daily (University of Washington’s daily paper). Interviewed for Game On: World of Warcraft by Sarah Anderson, April 19, 2007.
• Seattle Post Intelligencer. Interviewed for Second Life Enjoys Perks, Problems of Population Boom by Amy Rolph, February 26, 2007.
• The Ballard News Tribune. Photo taken by Amber Trillo for BLOGGERS: They can give niche coverage to new subjects by Rebekah Schilperoort, December 26, 2006.

I am an independent games researcher most recently at the University of Washington in the Advancing Gaming in Innovative Learning Ecologies (AGILE) group with the LIFE Center, Institute for Science and Math Education, and the Center for Game Science. I focus on ethnographies of gamers and gaming culture and how this helps us think about games and learning. This blog is about my experience as a gamer in academia. I both love it and hate it.

"mark danger chen" Academia academic conference actor-network theory art ben devane bikeusa blog boardgames conferences constance steinkuehler copenhagen digital literacy distributed cognition dml2010 dragon age expertise Games Games Research games studies gls2008 google reader humor icls2008 ir9 ir10 leet noobs LIFE Center mark chen MMOG mod moses wolfenstein racism roger altizer sara grimes sarah walter sean duncan social justice the old republic The Witcher tl taylor twitter utrecht visualization World of Warcraft