Jul 21, 2026 · 1 hr 3 min · 21 segments
Contemporary digital gameplay is only accessible by navigating an ecosystem of interfaces that support its computational nature. Account logins, controllers, and an assortment of menus, settings, and…
Daniel GardnerGuest
Rudolf IndersHost
I'm very delighted to welcome Daniel Gardner, who joins us to talk about his book, Thresholds of Digital Gameplay.
To begin, could you briefly introduce yourself and your research background? What drew you to the often overlooked interfaces, interactions, and equalities on the edges of gameplay?
Um, I, I feel like it sort of makes sense to, to start where I'm at now, sort of work my way backward and then kinda then come, you know, pendulum swing back towards the second part of that question.
Right now, I teach, uh, interaction and game design at Robert Gordon University in Scotland.
I, I, I did my PhD in HCI, but before that I was, uh, doing science technology studies and anthropology.
Um, but I also, you know, I, I, I, uh, I, before that I, I, I came late to academics.
I worked, um, um, from the States and, and so it was just, uh, financial stresses and other things sort of led to a, a very, you know, irregular path.
So before that I was, I worked for years as a security analyst for IT systems and other sorts of stuff.
But before that I, you know, helped manage a game store, [chuckles] and before that I was an animator.
So kind of like been around all over the place with lots of little jobs in between.
Um, in part because of that irregular path and sort of some of the, you know, invisible curriculum stuff and things that sort of struct, or challenges that I ran into as I, as sort of moved into this space, but also sort of just a, a long-running c- interest in sort of systematic and structural influences on the ways we can or can't just be in the world essentially.
Uh, that sort of fueled the interest in science technology studies, which is very much about sort of networks of influence.
Um, and really got into, uh, a sort of a subgenre of STS, which is like boring studies, uh, named for, uh, by the late Season Lee Starr, which is just the, the study of all the things that are sort of underneath the interesting cool stuff, but that actually really sort of often control what we are, you know, uh, doing and seeing and, and being able to be.
Um, and sort of highlights power asymmetries within our sort of everyday life.
And that sort of informed everything, and it's why I, as I sort of moved into games somewhat acci- game stuff accidentally, I still was sort of drawn to the stuff next to fun, [chuckles] essentially.
Not so much the, the really great gameplay stuff that I, I love in my, my own life, of course, but sort of sc- from a scholarly standpoint, I was drawn to this, the periphery and all these things that were underlying that, and the ways that they enabled and often enforced very sort of observable transactions of authority, of power, of, of identity, of all these other elements, and very clearly and observably favored, you know, some groups over others in, in different ways and with different contexts.
And so I mean, that's, it sort of just kind of, it's been a theme, ongoing theme since the whole time.
It's just manifests in different ways in, in the observation of different subjects.
I'm very delighted to welcome Daniel Gardner, who joins us to talk about his book, Thresholds of Digital Gameplay.
To begin, could you briefly introduce yourself and your research background? What drew you to the often overlooked interfaces, interactions, and equalities on the edges of gameplay?
Um, I, I feel like it sort of makes sense to, to start where I'm at now, sort of work my way backward and then kinda then come, you know, pendulum swing back towards the second part of that question.
Right now, I teach, uh, interaction and game design at Robert Gordon University in Scotland.
I, I, I did my PhD in HCI, but before that I was, uh, doing science technology studies and anthropology.
Um, but I also, you know, I, I, I, uh, I, before that I, I, I came late to academics.
I worked, um, um, from the States and, and so it was just, uh, financial stresses and other things sort of led to a, a very, you know, irregular path.
So before that I was, I worked for years as a security analyst for IT systems and other sorts of stuff.
But before that I, you know, helped manage a game store, [chuckles] and before that I was an animator.
So kind of like been around all over the place with lots of little jobs in between.
Um, in part because of that irregular path and sort of some of the, you know, invisible curriculum stuff and things that sort of struct, or challenges that I ran into as I, as sort of moved into this space, but also sort of just a, a long-running c- interest in sort of systematic and structural influences on the ways we can or can't just be in the world essentially.
Uh, that sort of fueled the interest in science technology studies, which is very much about sort of networks of influence.
Um, and really got into, uh, a sort of a subgenre of STS, which is like boring studies, uh, named for, uh, by the late Season Lee Starr, which is just the, the study of all the things that are sort of underneath the interesting cool stuff, but that actually really sort of often control what we are, you know, uh, doing and seeing and, and being able to be.
Um, and sort of highlights power asymmetries within our sort of everyday life.
And that sort of informed everything, and it's why I, as I sort of moved into games somewhat acci- game stuff accidentally, I still was sort of drawn to the stuff next to fun, [chuckles] essentially.
Not so much the, the really great gameplay stuff that I, I love in my, my own life, of course, but sort of sc- from a scholarly standpoint, I was drawn to this, the periphery and all these things that were underlying that, and the ways that they enabled and often enforced very sort of observable transactions of authority, of power, of, of identity, of all these other elements, and very clearly and observably favored, you know, some groups over others in, in different ways and with different contexts.
And so I mean, that's, it sort of just kind of, it's been a theme, ongoing theme since the whole time.
It's just manifests in different ways in, in the observation of different subjects.
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