Jimena Aguilar Rodríguez & Federico Alvarez Igarzábal 
Mental Health | Atmospheres | Video Games 
New Directions in Game Research II

Gaming has never been disconnected from reality. When we engage with ever more lavish virtual worlds, something happens to us. The game imposes itself on us and influences how we feel about it, the world, and ourselves. How do games accomplish this and to what end? The contributors explore the video game as an atmospheric medium of hitherto unimagined potential. Is the medium too powerful, too influential? A danger to our mental health or an ally through even the darkest of times? This volume compiles papers from the Young Academics Workshop at the Clash of Realities conferences of 2019 and 2020 to provide answers to these questions.

About the author

Jimena Aguilar Rodríguez is the head of digital narratives at ifs internationale filmschule köln, and is the co-founder and creative director of Alharaca, a Salvadorean feminist news media organization.
Federico Alvarez Igarzábal (Dr.) works at the Cologne Game Lab of Technische Hochschule Köln as researcher and project coordinator for the ISEDA project. The goal of this project is to deliver a series of tools and strategies, including a serious game, to combat domestic violence in Europe. Previously, he was a postdoctoral researcher for the project VIRTUALTIMES, aimed at developing virtual environments to treat and diagnose psychopathologies like depression. He conducted his Ph.D. at Universität Köln and Technische Hochschule Köln on the topic of »Time and Space in Video Games«.
Michael S. Debus is a postdoctoral researcher at the IT University of Copenhagen, entrepreneur, and industry expert. He obtained his Ph D on game ontologies in 2019.
Curtis L. Maughan holds a Ph D in German Studies from Vanderbilt University, where he is currently a postdoctoral scholar.
Su-Jin Song is a teaching and research assistant at the Cologne Game Lab of TH Köln, teaching in the field of media and game studies. She is also a film producer and director based in Germany.
Miruna Vozaru (Ph.D.) is lecturer at the IT University of Copenhagen.