Will Balmford

Alumni

Will Balmford has, (after completing his honours at The University of Melbourne in 2014) just started his PhD here at RMIT – within the school of Media and Communication. A third of the way through 2015, his project is (aiming!) to look at gaming habits in Australian households, with a focus on the Steam gaming platform.

By asking questions around how Steam is being used, played and entangling with everyday media practices, Will hopes to explore and understand gaming habits within a broader media and social ecology. Although his work has no formal title yet, according to his ethics application his project’s working title is: Steam in the Household: An Ethnographic study.

As well as his PhD candidature, Will is also involved in the ARC discovery Games of Being Mobile, a nationwide study of mobile gaming and its relationships with play, place, mobility and embodiment.

Publications

Exploring Minecraft: Ethnographies of Play and Creativity

Drawing on ethnographic insights, this book seeks to take Minecraft seriously as a cultural practice and an interdisciplinary phenomenon.