Promoting Cross-Cultural Interaction in Games

For the time being, this page is going to be rather incomplete. New bios may be written, but as of now, all bios are pulled from the WorldPlay homepage.

Aaron Delwiche

Aaron is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at Trinity University, where he teaches courses on game design and criticism, hacking subcultures, film studies, and propaganda. His current research investigates ways the Internet can be used to foster global dialogue, and he recently served as co-chair of an international, interdisciplinary conference (State of Play: Building the Global Metaverse) that explored the implications of transnational virtual worlds. In 2009, he received a grant from the Lennox Foundation in support of the seminar series “Reality Hackers: The Next Wave of Media Revolutionaries.”

Delwiche co-founded one of the first full-service virtual world consultancies, and — through the auspices of Elastic Collision — he regularly consults on projects that leverage the promotional power of social media. He has worked on projects for public and private clients, including Dell Computer, New York Law School, the Center on Public Diplomacy at USC Annenberg.

Ray Wang

Ray Wang is a senior at Trinity University majoring in communication and Chinese. He is currently researching transnational virtual worlds and has spent time immersed in games such as Dungeons and Dragons Online and Free Realms.

Ray is particularly interested in interactivity, the global appeal of some massively multi-player online role playing games and the elements that make these games more appealing than others. Outside of class, Ray is the station manager of Trinity’s TigerTV station after spending this past year as the station’s webmaster. He is unsure of his plans after graduation but is considering a career in the television or film industry.

Jackson Floyd

Jackson is a junior at Trinity University studying communication and music. Originally from Nashville, Jackson was first introduced to the world of MMORPGs by Diablo II. After fighting a serious addiction to the game, he is happy to enter the virtual worlds of DDO and Free Realms in a much healthier fashion.

Jackson really enjoys both music and movies, and finds it fascinating what a good soundtrack or movie score can do for a movie. His dream job would be creating music for a living, but teaching would be nice too.

Throughout the rest of this class, Jackson plans to focus his research on the cultures and communities of World of Warcraft.

Matt Tanner

Robert “Matt” Tanner is a communication major minoring in new media and political science. He came to Trinity University to play football and fell in among the like minded members of the communication department after a short stint with the engineering department.

Matt has played many online games such as Final Fantasy Eleven, NeoSteam, Aion, Digital Devil Saga, Imagine Online, and many games on Xbox Live. He prefers RPG and Shooter games mostly but has a very eclectic taste. His interest in transnational gaming revolves around social aspects and gamer interactions.

Matt is doing research in the games Earth Eternal and Digital Devil Saga. His avatar names are Mikonos on Digital Devil Saga and Borus Ironsnout on Earth Eternal.

Shelby Lenderman

Shelby Lenderman is a senior from Floresville, Texas double majoring in art and communication. Shelby is involved in several organizations on campus including Alpha Chi Lambda, Trinity Art Collective, Twain Math Mentors, and Association for Women in Communications. She is also a lifetime member of the Girl Scouts of the USA in which she is a recipient of both the silver and gold award.

Shelby is a lifelong gamer, starting out with Sega and Nintendo 64. Though she tends to play first person shooters, she is excited to learn about the world of MMORPGs. When she is not doing academics and school activities, she enjoys reading, making crafts, watching movies, spending time with family and friends, and eating Mexican food.

Mark McCullough

Mark McCullough is a junior history major at Trinity University. Originally from Phoenix, Arizona, Mark enjoys taking advantage of the sunny weather by flying a Cessna 182RG and playing golf regularly.

He has played extensively on the Call of Duty and Flight Simulator series and has played some MMOs, including Dungeons and Dragons Online, WoW, and Dark Age of Camelot.

Mark’s goals for the future include continuing study in communication and teaching, while still thinking from the historical perspective. From this perspective, transnational gaming interactions can be studied in relation to the status quo. Mark believes that these differences should be identified and studied for future progression of knowledge, technology, and development.

Ryan Darley

Ryan Darley is from Plano, TX and now attends Trinity University as a Sophomore Business Administration and Computer Science double major. His plans for after college include opening his own business, and possibly doing software design. Some of his hobbies include playing board and video games, singing, bowling, and outdoor activities.

Ryan has always been interested in MMORPGs and has played several throughout his past including World of Warcraft, Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, and Dungeons and Dragons Online. He is interested in the interactions among people who have never met before, and also is fascinated by the evolution of games from the single player Super Mario, and Legend of Zelda days to the current game market where almost every game has a multiplayer format.

Evan Barnett

Evan Barnett hails from Austin, Texas, where he was born and raised. Currently a computer science major at Trinity University, Evan is looking to expand into a possible communication major or minor. Hopefully, after all is learned and tested, it will all add up to a career in the game development industry.

Having grown up on games, Evan is interested in just about anything related to the medium. However, as he’s aged, his interests have shifted from playing to understanding (however, let’s not downplay the fact he still loves to play a ton of games), and the interactions and communities that surround games have drawn him to the WorldPlay project.