For more information about my research, and to sign up for studies, please see www.melissarogerson.com

I am a PhD candidate in the Interaction Design Lab at The University of Melbourne. In early 2015, I joined the Microsoft Research Centre for Social Natural User Interfaces.

My (provisional) topic is “Between Cardboard and Computer: Modern European boardgames and digitisation“. I am exploring the ways in which digitising boardgames transforms the experience of play.

My research is supported by an Australian Postgraduate Award scholarship, as well as a Top-Up scholarship from the Microsoft Research Centre for Social NUI.

Current Research

Warhammer 40K

To participate, please email rogersonm@student.unimelb.edu.au 

** As an adjunct to my PhD research, I am doing an exploratory study with A/Prof Martin Gibbs, Dr Marcus Carter and Mitchell Harrop, following up on some research they did previously on Warhammer 40K. Martin and I visited Arc40K in February 2016 and talked with a few players, and are keen to talk to more of you! ** Please see the Consent Form and Plain Language Statement for Study 1 – but we are only wanting to do a single interview, so please ignore the diary element.

Study 1: Interviews with boardgamers

If you are interested in participating, please contact me at rogersonm@student.unimelb.edu.au .

As part of my first research study (commenced in January-February 2015), I am looking for boardgamers who play Eurogames like Ticket to Ride, Settlers of Catan, or Agricola, who would be willing to participate in a small research project over about a 3-4 week period. You can download a Consent Form and Plain Language Statement , here. You must be aged over 18 to participate. (As at July 2015: there are a very few slots still available, if you are interested).
If you know someone who you think might be interested in this project, please feel free to pass on the details to them.

Study 2: Interviews with game industry

If you are interested in participating, and are involved in the game industry (e.g. as designer, publisher, developer, artist), please contact me at rogersonm@student.unimelb.edu.au .

My second study is based on interviews with people in the tabletop and digital boardgame industries.
If you know someone who you think might be interested in this project, please feel free to pass on the details to them.

Study 3: Recorded play sessions

To participate, Sign up here (currently scheduling 4 sessions in February-March; more to be added later)

My third study will involve getting groups of people to come to the University to play games and then participate in a short focus group session about the game(s) they have played. Both sessions will be audio and video recorded for later analysis.

• Plain Language Statement
• Consent Form
• Poster – “Play board games for science!”

Publications and Conferences

Rogerson, M.J. and Gibbs, M. (2015). Finding Time for Tabletop: Boardgame Play and Parenting. Paper presented at the Adult Play Seminar (Tampere Game Research Lab International Spring Seminar), Tampere, Finland.

Rogerson, M.J., Gibbs, M., Smith, W. (2015). Digitising Boardgames: Issues and Tensions. Paper presented at DiGRA 2015: Diversity of play: Games – Cultures – Identities. Lüneburg, Germany.

Björk, S., Dormans, J., Deterding, S., Rogerson, M., Zagal, J.P. (2015). Tabletop Game Studies Panel at DiGRA 2015. Lüneburg, Germany.

Rogerson, M.J., Gibbs, M., Smith, W. (2015).‘Funky little amoebas and poos’ – Customising the play experience of board games. Paper presented at DiGRAA (DiGRA Australia) 2015. Sydney, Australia.

Rogerson, M. J., Gibbs, M., & Smith, W. (2016, May 07 – 12, 2016). “I love all the bits”: the materiality of boardgames. Paper presented at CHI 2016, San Jose, CA, USA.

Other talks & activities

Sztajer, P., Jaffit, M., Kusters, T., Coyle, E., Ng, C., and Rogerson, M.J. (2014). Dice or Byte: The Convergence of Tabletop and Digital. Panel discussion conducted at PAX Australia. Melbourne. (http://aus.paxsite.com/schedule/panel/dice-or-byte-the-convergence-of-tabletop-and-digital)

Morrison, M., Rogerson, M.J., Cocks, N., and McKenzie, B. (2015). Board Games Up Late. Panel discussion conducted at The Freeplay Independent Games Festival. Melbourne, Australia, http://www.freeplay.net.au/2015-program/board-games-up-late/.

Teaching

2015

Semester 1

• Tutor, Usability Engineering, The University of Melbourne.
  Third year unit in the Department of Computing and Information Systems, taught by Dr Bernd Ploderer.

Semester 2

• Senior Tutor, Impacts of Digitisation, The University of Melbourne
  Unit in the Master of Information Systems program, taught by A/Prof Martin Gibbs & Dr Wally Smith.
• Tutor, Principles of Game Design, Swinburne University of Technology
  First year unit in the Bachelor of Games and Interactivity, taught by Dr Troy Innocent.

2016

Semester 1

• Lecturer (0.3), Impacts of Digitisation, The University of Melbourne
  Unit in the Master of Information Systems program, co-ordinated by A/Prof Martin Gibbs.
• Tutor, Introduction to Game Studies, Swinburne University of Technology
  First year unit in the Bachelor of Games and Interactivity, taught by Dr Steven Conway.
• Tutor, Usability Engineering, The University of Melbourne
  Third year unit in the Department of Computing and Information Systems, taught by Dr Jenny Waycott and A/Prof Martin Gibbs.

Contact

• Twitter: @melissainau
• Linked In: https://au.linkedin.com/pub/melissa-rogerson/1/850/8bb