Jim Malazita

Last week, we celebrated “The World of Plankton” becoming a permanent exhibit at the ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain’s new "Into the Lake" experience in Burlington, VT! #rpi #lakechamplain

Run and Jump: The Meaning of the 2D Platformer How abstract design decisions in 2D platform games create rich worlds of meaning for players.Since the 1980s, 2D platform games have captivated their audie

When I wrote Run and Jump (direct.mit.edu/books/oa-mon...) I thought that airing my thoughts on 2D platformers would let me take some distance from the genre. Actually, it has only made me pay closer attention to new releases. So, I thought I'd share what I've seen so far this year.(1/17)

In aligning their spatial orientation to Pixar/NVIDIA/MSF's OpenUSD 3D spatial file format, shifting to Y-up is a move by Epic to continue infrastructuring both Fortnite and Unreal Engine as core parts of the 3D Web. Call it the metaverse or whatever, but gaming software is the future of the web.

Enacting Platforms: Feminist Technoscience and the Unreal Engine An analysis of the game engine Unreal through feminist, race, and queer theories of technology and media, as well as a critique of the platform studies fra

Open access copy of Enacting Platforms: Feminist Technoscience and the Unreal Engine

direct.mit.edu/books/oa-mon...

While the Z-up orientation of the Unreal Engine may have been the result of either a historical oddity or a mistake (see chapter 2 of Enacting Platforms: "Orienting Z", open access and linked below from @mitpress.bsky.social ), shifting to a Y-up marks a niche, but also huge, shift for Unreal.

Tweet from Epic CEO Tim Sweeney describing Unreal Engine's move from a Z-up 3D orientation to a Y-up 3D orientation.

Sometimes there's too much to write about. But this is a fascinating and super geeky link between my first book, Enacting Platforms, and my next book project about the heterogenous infrastructure of the future of gaming:

Dr. Jim Malazita has an answer! Do game researchers like the games they play?

@jmalazita.bsky.social‬ shared his nauseating experience playing Bioshock Infinite and more research stories during The Research Left Behind livestream with @professorashley.bsky.social‬.

The full interview is available now!
🎧: open.spotify.com/episode/26IU...
📹: youtu.be/w2CAmK-zK_w

YouTube video by The Research Left Behind The Research Left Behind, Episode 2, ft Professor Jim Malazita

Thanks so much to @professorashley.bsky.social for hosting me to chat about my @mitpress.bsky.social book on the Unreal Engine. In this wild convo we chat about the US Military, BioShock Infinite, Z-axes, photorealistic rendering, race, gender, and conspiracy theories!

youtu.be/w2CAmK-zK_w

Streaming in 20 minutes!

Promotional image for The Research Left Behind Twitch livestream with Dr. Jim Malazita. Details clarify that the livestream takes place on Thursday, May 22 7 PM MT / 9 PM ET. The cover of his book "Enacting Platforms: Feminist Technoscience and the Unreal Engine" is pictured over a background that resembles a legal pad. A picture of the author is to the right.

Live on Twitch this Thursday (May 22), "Enacting Platforms" author @jmalazita.bsky.social joins @professorashley.bsky.social on The Research Left Behind—a series where game scholars share their research stories and abandoned ideas. Tune in at twitch.tv/professor_ashley.

Looking forward to hanging out with @professorashley.bsky.social on Twitch!

Today in my meeting with my doctoral student:

“Comps is a little like packing your suitcase. Our job is to help you figure out what you’ll probably need. Some of what you “pack” will be used a lot, some is for specific occasions. You don’t know everything that’s ahead. But nothing is wasted.”

I have a piece coming out about this trial (at journal speed), but this is a potentially huge deal. Epic threw a dart at a dart board from a million miles away, and the dart board decided "Hey, how about I just give you a bullseye?"

A judge just blew up Apple’s control of the App Store The judge called Apple’s insubordination a “gross miscalculation.“

"The judge in Epic v. Apple has banned Apple from charging a commission on purchases made outside the App Store because of its ongoing anticompetitive behavior." www.theverge.com/news/659246/...

Society for Literature, Science and the Arts folks: I'm running for member at large! I'd be thrilled to represent you. To me SLSA is a weird, wonderful interdisciplinary home & a space for supporting each other that makes it all feel worth it. Votes are due 5/1 - thanks for considering! (link 👇)

Thanks to Anna for joining us at @rpihass.bsky.social !

i'm talking in half an hour about making art after generative AI! tune in!

Acquisitions Assistant for Environment and Games MIT - Acquisitions Assistant for Environment and Games - Cambridge MA 02139

We're hiring at @mitpress.bsky.social! I'm looking for a new assistant to work on my list and the environmental policy list. You can find more details and apply directly here: careers.peopleclick.com/careerscp/cl...

Congrats!

Not a fan of this take but appreciate that the reposts are connecting me to really great folks who blur and destroy the academia/industry boundary!

Ditto--I'm actually surprised we haven't seen this yet, as the hiring freeze has become the go-to first line of action for universities post 2008. In a way it's a tacit acknowledgement from universities that while eventual cuts will be framed financially, the crisis is a political one.

Ha! I wrote about this in Enacting Platforms, through BioShock Infinite and the character Elizabeth. Bringing engine materiality into our literary analyses opens up fun and weird new forms of structuralist (and, I argue, feminist) readings of game texts. New and refreshed understandings of agency.

Appreciate the follow! :P

We also chat about the Critical Game Design Ph.D. program at RPI @rpihass.bsky.social, and the challenges and opportunities of building games graduate education and research communities that cross the critical/technical divide.

Thanks to @gamestudies.bsky.social and the @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social for hosting me and my book!

In this conversation we talk about the relationships between race and technology, and the role of STS and feminist theory in the future of game studies.

newbooksnetwork.com/enacting-pla...

I had the great pleasure to talk to JAMES MALAZITA about his book "Enacting Platforms" (by @mitpress.bsky.social )for my #podcast #Gamestudies on the @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social.

Please listen, like and share.

newbooksnetwork.com/enacting-pla...

Hivemind! Is there any particularly outstanding work I can read about contemporary and historical US Sinophobia, particularly with regard to technology/military/media? TikTok stuff aside, I'm also doing some work on Tencent which has been caught up in all of this recently, too!

Really sad to see. I've made an effort to stop by here during every holiday season, even after I moved out of Philly/PA. Second the hope that some form of preservation and access is made possible.

Very excited to see support for early career and precarious scholars built-in to DiGRA!

For folks interested in 4S this year, @kbuse.bsky.social, Ari Gass, and I are running a track for Game Studies and STS. Consider applying!