Missing Link: How Video Games Impact Culture and Individuals

Date: 30th March 2023 Time: 15:00 Location: Black Box, Esplanade building

The Missing Link aims to link the worlds of academia and video games. At this 7th annual symposium, we will be dealing with the impact of video games on society and individuals. This symposium is not only of interest to gamers. (English / SG-Certificate*)

Time: 15:00 - 17:00 hrs.
Admission is free, no registration required, but be in time: limited number of seats available.

In the past decade(s), Video Games have become ever more influential in the world, be that through small mobile games that billions play, to larger AAA titles that make headlines, to smaller individual projects that find their home in more niche communities.

But how has the medium evolved, and how has that evolution and growth altered its impact on society and our perception of it? In this year’s Missing Link we’re going to take a few facets of these interactions between games and culture, from the level of the individual to the larger impacts it might have on society, and see what we might learn about this ever more influential digital medium.

Our speakers

Matti Vuorre
Assistant professor at the department of Social Psychology at Tilburg University

Matti Vuorre is a psychological researcher at the Department of Social Psychology, where he studies psychological functioning in the context of digital technologies and online/virtual environments. Much of his most recent research has focused on the roles that digital technologies—particularly video games—play in individuals’ well-being. In his work, he applies statistical methods to large-scale datasets and conduct controlled experiments. He also places great emphasis on the transparency and reproducibility of all his work.
Argyrios 'Aris' Emmanouloudis
Coordinator of the Game Art & Animation Programme at the SAE Institute Amsterdam

Argyrios "Aris" Emmanouloudis is the Coordinator of the Game Art & Animation Programme at the SAE Institute Amsterdam and Head of the Games Department. Aris has a PhD on Cultural Analysis at the University of Amsterdam, focusing on the interplay between fan communities and the gaming industry. In addition, he is a guest researcher at the University of Amsterdam. He has been following the industry for over 25 years and has also worked as a video game journalist.
Hendrik Engelbrecht
PhD Candidate at the department of Communication and Cognition at Tilburg University.

Hendrik Engelbrecht is a lecturer and PhD candidate at Tilburg University. Starting his career as a gamification designer, he has been teaching game design for serious- as well as entertainment-games for the past five years. In his research he is looking into the persuasive power of games as enabled by procedural rhetoric. His latest publication discusses the potential of player agency in preventing risky drinking behavior in young adults.