Card games, community, and crackly joints.
Last game you played? I’m still on that Minute Cryptic grind, but good weather and recently-acquired balcony furniture mean I’ve been partial to a card game in the evenings. Rummy and Fokken are in the regular rotation.
What activity that most others see as a task or chore, is something that you actually enjoy? If I’m armed with a podcast, doing dishes or deep cleaning the kitchen.
Quote from a reading you’d recommend? “The language of role-playing is not an external layer on top of the essence of role-play; every role-play interaction in its communicative form is language interaction.” From Angelina Ilieva’s Cultural Languages of Role-Playing (p. 28). This piece is a great deep dive into the processes behind communication in actual play and role-play contexts.
What’s something you’ve done, written, or helped create that you’re proud of? Earlier this month, in the span of two weeks, I presented this talk on games user research in historical game studies at DiGRA, and then this talk on sex and humor in tabletop actual play at Generation Analog. But the bigger win to me is that I had so many motivating, galaxy-brain conversations at both conferences. I feel really lucky to be able to platform my work and progress, and luckier still to be able to tune into all the wonderful research being done in the field right now. I’m proud to be a part of a community of scholars with a sense of humor and a penchant for collab-ing.
What game has some stellar/your favourite voice-acting? This is a half-answer, so forgive me, but I actually can’t stop listening to the Simlish version of Lucy Dacus’s Hot & Heavy, now that I have the Cottage Living pack. I find listening to Simlish relaxing, for some reason, across all the Sims games I’ve played. So kudos to the Sims VA team, and to musical artists covering their own songs.
What gadget would you like to try or already have and can recommend? I’m at the time of year where I consider becoming a Luddite, as an inevitable side effect of conference season, heat, and exhaustion. So like…a good book?
Where and when are you most productive? At my desk at home, first thing in the morning. If I hit the ground running (which, depending on the time of year, is a big if), I can get pretty zen about it. Bonus points if there’s cold brew and a sweet treat to be had (eg. a cardamom bun, pictured).
What’s something you used to be good at but can’t do now? Stand up from a chair without my knees cracking. Death comes for us all, etc.
What question should be swapped out for another? I’ll take What game has some stellar/your favorite voice acting? out to the farm upstate and bring in Where’s your favorite place you’ve lived or visited?
Keerthi Sridharan is a PhD candidate in the Playful Time Machines project. Their research is centered around games and play as spaces that facilitate and complicate processes of identification, identity construction, and relationality. Previous work has examined emotional play in TTRPGs, perspective in player-character interaction, and language as a playful resource in conversational interaction. They are a sociolinguist by trade, and a gamer by choice. Their spare time is spent stress-baking, making music, and drafting Twine games.
