Designers know games can evoke empathy and intense connection. But everyday non-expert conversations about games still rarely touch on this truth. In this talk, Isbister shares insights from her new book aimed at bridging this gap, toward raising the quality of public conversations about games and their aesthetic power.

Katherine Isbister is a Professor of Computational Media, and core faculty in the Center for Games and Playable Media at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She was the founding research director of the Game Innovation Lab at NYU, and a founding faculty member of the NYU Game Center. Isbister's research focuses on designing games and other interactive experiences that heighten social and emotional connections, toward innovating design theory and technological practice. Isbister has written several books about game design, most recently How Games Move Us from MIT Press.