While normative - "good"- game design and user experiences have been established, we look to games that challenge those notions. Intentional frustration and failure can be worthwhile. Through a reflexive thematic analysis of 31 games we identify how intentionally non-normative design choices lead to meaningful experiences. Working within the established Mechanics Dynamics Aesthetics (MDA) Game Design Framework, we lay out themes to design Shitty User Experiences (SUX). We contribute SUX MDA themes for designers and researchers to counter the status quo and identify new forms of play and interaction.

Many transgender (and cisgender) people experience gender euphoria - satisfaction and relief caused by self-actualization and gender congruence - a term that has been overlooked by the design community. Video games create intense experiences involving identities, bodies, and social interaction, providing opportunities to empower people through gender euphoria. We develop themes for creating and supporting gender euphoria in games within the Design, Dynamics, Experience Game Design Framework from a reflexive thematic analysis of 25 games, with an in-depth analysis of four of them. The analysis combines the authors' positionalities as trans gamers with close reading and content analysis of the games, employing perspectives from critical discourse analysis. We contribute an operational understanding of gender euphoria to support design, in-depth case studies of particularly euphoric game experiences, and identify themes that designers and researchers can use to develop new games and analyze existing ones.

Many trans people experience marginalization and violence in cyberspace. This violence is characterized by intricate dynamics surrounding voice, identities, bodies, and social interactions. To comprehend and provide a theoretical framework for this enduring phenomenon of digital violence, the present research introduces the concept of Trans Cyber-Necropolitics (TCN). TCN is a necropolitical system that explains how digital media enforce the disposability of trans people in cyberspace. We decompose this digital death into three steps: sensing , targeting , and invisible killing . Combining with the authors’ positionality as transgender gamers, we provide a critical analysis of how each step operates, conducted via a meticulous examination of games, as well as an exploration of the discourse from game design and community-side comments through the lens of critical discourse analysis. Building on this analysis, we ideate how each step could be disrupted with resistance strategies and technological measures.

At times, the interfaces of videogames -- gameworlds -- contain tiny details that go unnoticed. One such detail is how designers employ ! and ? to communicate to players. These punctuation marks have existed in videogames since their creation, yet remain undiscussed by designers. They are used as ways to promote curiosity, as objects, as ways to symbolize excitement, and as a prompt to react. Their varied history is deserving of attention, so we present a chronicle of two pieces of gameworld punctuation: ! and ?. We discuss current and past uses and identify more ways that these could be used in the future. These symbols may present a useful space of inquiry not only for games and games research, but more generally, in terms of the rapid communication of complex information.

Many trans people experience gender dysphoria -- distress caused by mismatches in internal and external experiences of gender. Video games engage intimately with the self, creating intense experiences involving identities, bodies, and social interaction. This combination of factors renders trans players vulnerable to gender dysphoria triggers: failures of interaction design that result in gender dysphoria. The present research undertakes a thematic analysis of four popular games, drawn from an initial corpus of 31. It contributes a definition of gender dysphoria triggers, case studies of triggering games, an initial gender dysphoria categorization to provide a useful design language, and examples of alternative designs for extant triggers. The analysis combines the authors' positionality as trans gamers; critical cultural studies methodologies, including textual analysis; a critical discourse analysis of production-side statements and interviews and player-side comments about diversity in those games; and close readings of the games themselves. The paper concludes with a call for trans inclusivity in game design, which we structure around the necropolitical concept of the relation of care.

As artificial agents proliferate, there will be more and more situations in which they must communicate their capabilities to humans, including what they can “see.” Artificial agents have existed for decades in the form of computer-controlled agents in videogames. We analyze videogames in order to not only inspire the design of better agents, but to stop agent designers from replicating research that has already been theorized, designed, and tested in-depth. We present a qualitative thematic analysis of sight cues in videogames and develop a framework to support human-agent interaction design. The framework identifies the different locations and stimulus types – both visualizations and sonifications – available to designers and the types of information they can convey as sight cues. Insights from several other cue properties are also presented. We close with suggestions for implementing such cues with existing technologies to improve the safety, privacy, and efficiency of human-agent interactions.