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SFU Surrey graduate is serious about games
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September 29, 2003
Cindy Poremba is serious about computer games.
In her master's thesis, Player as Author: Digital Games and Agency, Poremba, who graduates from the Faculty of Applied Science’s School of Interactive Arts and Technology on October 3, says that often the game player is just as much the author of the game as the game designer.
Her thesis -- probably one of the few that invites its readers to "Press ‘fire’ to start" in the introduction -- describes how computer game players modify the games they play through add-ons or modifications. In so doing, she says, they become co-authors of the game experience.
She gives as an example "The Sims Online", a web-based version of Electronic Arts’ popular lifestyle simulator. "The proliferation of player-created game additions and tools is a significant presence online; so much so that it has been said that players created ‘The Sims Online’ before lead designer Will Wright."
Poremba is only the second graduate from the School of Interactive Arts and Technology’s graduate program. (The first, Adrian Jones, graduated at Spring Convocation this year.) She’s now a lecturer at the school, which is located at Simon Fraser’s Surrey campus.
Poremba came to SFU Surrey after earning a BA in English rhetoric and professional writing from the University of Waterloo. She worked on some of the early prototypes for SFU Surrey’s proposed graduate program and enrolled in the program herself as "it was the only university in Canada that offered advanced degrees in new media."
Poremba is also interested in how women relate to technology. This past summer she coordinated a computer camp for girls at the SFU Surrey campus and last year wrote an article on "tech toys for girls" for a local newspaper’s Christmas gift-buying issue.
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Website: Cindy Poremba’s thesis, Player as Author: Digital Games and Agency: www.shinyspinning.com/THESIS_PlayerAsAuthor.pdf