Justin Parsler

Justin Parsler is a lecturer in game design and has earned a living designing and running games since he was sixteen, with a three year break from that two (nearly three) decade spree to take a Humanities Degree at Greenwich University. He completed a Masters Degree in Digital Games at Brunel the first year the programme was run and has been teaching the design portion of the course ever since.

As well as lecturing, Justin presently works part time as a consulting designer for Mediatonic, one of our industry partners working on a large variety of games.

Justin is currently undertaking a PhD at Brunel, in which he is assembling a taxonomy of agency (something he will talk about at length to anyone who does not run fast enough). In a comparatively fast time he has been published in various academic journals writing about a variety of topics.

Justin has a great deal of experience, both as designer and player, of almost every type of game there is and has very eclectic tastes - as long as it is a game.

Research Overview

Agency in games (in all its multitude of forms); the use of games in unusual ways; the nature of interactivity. Justin’s interests extend beyond digital gaming: he organises and writes about live action roleplaying, uses board games in teaching practice and has a great interest in both how to teach people about games of all kinds, and how to use games to teach people.

Teaching Activity

Although mostly involved in the practical design aspects of game design, Justin is also versed in and teaches some theory classes, and is always keen to maintain both a theoretical perspective on practice, and a practical one on theory.

Publications

Journal Papers

(2010) Parsler, J., The non-player agent in computer role-playing games, Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds 2 (2) : 135- 143

(2007) MacCallum-Stewart, E. and Parsler, J., Illusory agency in vampire: The masquerade – bloodlines, New Perspectives on Digital Literature: Criticism and Analysis

Conference Papers

(2009) Parsler, J., The rhetoric of freedom and responsibility in digital games, 2009 International Association for Philosophy and Literature (IAPL 2009) Conference

(2007) Parsler, J., Passive and active: Positioning the game experience, Digital Games Postgraduate Conference 2007

(2007) MacCallum-Stewart, E. and Parsler, J., Controversies: Historicising the computer game, 2007 Digital Games Research Association International Conference (DiGRA 2007)

Book Chapters

(2011) Parsler, J., May your creations bring joy to those that need them. In: Krzywinska, T., MacCallum-Stewart, E. and Parsler, J. eds. Ringbearers: The lord of the rings online as intertextual narrative. Manchester University Press

(2008) Parsler, J., Frail realities: Design process. In: Playground worlds: Creating and evaluating experiences of role-playing games. Finland : Ropecon ry 81- 81

(2008) Parsler, J., Role-play vs. gameplay: The difficulties of playing a role in world of warcraft. In: Corneliussen, H. and Rettberg, JW. eds. Digital culture, play, and identity: A world of warcraft reader. MIT Press -

Books

(2011) Krzywinska, T., MacCallum-Stewart, E. and Parsler, J., Ringbearers: The lord of the rings online as intertextual narrative. Manchester University Press