Culture, Faith and Religion in Video Games

With the substantial rise of smartphone procurement and internet consumption across the globe during the pandemic, gaming has become more widespread. This requires game designers to create new characters, narratives, and game mechanics to keep players engaged and hooked. It is common for game designers to take inspiration from mythology and diverse cultures. Popular games such as Age of Mythology, God Of War, Smite, and Hades have been inspired by Roman, Greek, and Viking mythology. It becomes important for designers to consider cultural affordances in mind while designing new characters and game artifacts. In this set of research projects, we look to answer two primary questions: (1) How can culture and religion act as a design space for video games, and (2) How do players and cultural stakeholders perceive the projection of religion? In our attempt to answer these questions, we use UX methods, design-based research, AI, and Data-Driven methods. 

sContact:

Sai Siddartha Maram (Feel free to send an email if you are interested in collaborating or want to discuss) 

Paper Presentations and Video Lectures

Publications

1. Maram, S., Pfau, J., Kasar, M. R., Seif El-Nasr, M. (2024). A Topic Modeling Approach Towards Understanding the Discourse between Religion and Videogames on Reddit. ACM CHI Play 2024, Tampre, Finland

2. Maram, S., Malegaonkar, Y., Escarce, M. J., and Seif El-Nasr, M. (2024). Shloka: Developing Climate Change interventions through a lens of Religion and Videogames. ACM CHI PLAY 2024, Tampre, Finland

3. Maram, S.S, Malegonkar, Y., Seif El-Nasr, M. "Religion as a Game Mechanic for Climate Games"  ACM CSCW 2023 (workshop)

4. Maram, S.S, Pfau, J., Dodecheni, J and Self El-Nasr, M. "A Visual Ethnographic Study at Cultural Spaces to Identify Character Creation Opportunities" ACM FDG 2023, Lisbon, Portugal. 

5. Maram, S. S., Pfau, J., Habibi, R., and Seif El-Nasr, M. "AstraVerse: Establishing a Culturally Sensitive Framework for Integrating Elements from Mythological Backgrounds". IFIP-ICEC 2022, Hamburg, Germany

6. Maram, S. S. and Seif El-Nasr, M. (2022). AstraVerse: Gaming Beyond Mortal Borders. HCIxB workshop at CHI 2022.

7. Sisodiya S , Maram S .S, Seif El-Nasr, Carstensdottir Gender, Communication and Games (2022)