About Me
Matthew E. Perks is a PhD student at the University of Waterloo in the department of Sociology & Legal Studies. He is a research assistant affiliated with SSHRC-funded digital game studies projects Indie Interfaces and ReFiguring Innovation in Games (ReFiG).
His research focuses on the socio-economics of the video game industry and how these inform and alter the design decisions and identities of video game developers. His interests surround community management & moderation, platform capitalism, and labour within the video game industry. In his doctoral work, he focuses on the increasingly embedded nature of community management in game development and how this impacts media creation and developer identity.
Outisde of his main dissertation work, Matthew is currently interviewing video game developers on projects about gender diversity policies in federal arts funding and cultural intermediary work in the creative and cultural industries.
His previous studies during his Master’s degree focused on data and gamification of pro-environmental behaviours in the Canadian population, utilizing aggregate population-level data across Canada. Matthew previously worked for the Public Health Agency of Canada where he aided in the Health Inequality Reporting Initative with the Social Determinants and Science Integration Directorate.