People_

Dr Mark Johnson

Senior Lecturer in Digital Cultures
Discipline of Media and Communications

Email

mark.r.johnson@sydney.edu.au

Address

A20 - John Woolley Building

The University of Sydney

Websites

Dr Mark Johnson is Senior Lecturer in Digital Cultures in the Discipline of Media and Communications. He is the Co-Director of the University of Sydney Game and Play Lab and a globally leading authority on website Twitch.tv, and game live streaming / live streaming more generally. He has published extensively on these topics, as well as on esports and competitive gaming, and the gamblification of digital games. Alongside his academic research Dr Johnson is also an independent game developer, a regular games blogger and podcaster, and a commentator on gaming news in radio, print and television. He is best known outside the academy as the developer of the roguelike game Ultima Ratio Regum, and he tweets regularly about games research and game design from mrj_games.

Research interests

Twitch and game live streaming, especially labour, monetisation, culture, gambling, and contrasts and comparisons across cultural, linguistic, and nation boundaries.

Esports, especially labour and gamer culture.

Game design, especially "masocore" games, worldbuilding, and procedural content generation.

Platform studies, in particular monetization methods, governance and infrastructure regimes, algorithms and recommendation systems, digital stores and marketplaces, and content creation.

Teaching and supervision

ARIN3640 - Games and Play (2022-Present)
ARIN6905 - Digital Creators and Audiences (2020-Present)
ARIN3620 - Researching Digital Cultures (2020-2021, 2024)

Current projects

Gambling live streaming - Dr Johnson is currently carrying out the first major research project into gambling-related live streams on sites like Twitch and Kick. Generously funded by the New South Wales Office of Responsible Gambling, this study is deploying a comprehensive mixed-methods approach to survey viewers of gambling channels; interview gambling live streamers themselves; study news and coverage of the controversies around gambling live streams; and carry out extensive ethnographic work in the channels themselves. Dr Johnson is assisted on this project by Dr Nathan Jackson as a research assistant.

Culture and language in game streaming - Dr Johnson is also currently studying linguistic, national, and cultural differences across game live streamers through a comparative study between English-speaking and Japanese-speaking broadcasters. Generously funded by the Hoso Bunka Foundation via two grants in the last several years, data collection on this project has almost finished - through both interviewing straemers and collecting large-scale survey data on viewers of Australian and Japanese channels - and findings are currently being written up for publication.Dr Johnson is assisted on this project by Mr James Baguley as a research assistant.

He is currently supervising four PhD projects and a number of MA Dissertation & UG Honours projects exploring these and other related areas.

Awards and honours

Dr Johnson is currently the recipient of grants from the Hoso Bunka Foundation and the New South Wales Office of Responsible Gambling.

Current research students

Project title	Research student
Building worlds at the end of the world: Worldbuilding in video games under late capitalism	Finn DAWSON
When jokes overflow: how does humour transition from one platform to many	Geoffrey LEE
Taboo Play: Ludic Pleasure and the Transgressive Erotics of Dating Simulations	Kelly LI
Discourse on the green transformation ---- Greening Infrastructure: China Supercomputing and the Dual Carbon Goals (DCGs)	Yu YAN

Selected publications

The Casino, Card and Betting Game Reader: Communities, Cultures and Play

(Bloomsbury Academic, 2021)

The Unpredictability of Gameplay

(Bloomsbury, 2018)

Publications

By Type

Expand all

Books

Johnson, M. (2018). The Unpredictability of Gameplay. New York, United States: Bloomsbury. [More Information]

Edited Books

Johnson, M. (2021). The Casino, Card and Betting Game Reader: Communities, Cultures and Play. London, UK; New York, NY: Bloomsbury Academic. [More Information]

Book Chapters

Johnson, M. (2024). Esports and Game Streaming. In Nicholas David Bowman (Eds.), Entertainment Media and Communication, (pp. 563-576). Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter. [More Information]
Johnson, M., Williams, J. (2023). Bottom-Up and Top-Down Tensions: Comparing the Australian and Singaporean Esports Ecosystems. In Filippo Gilardi and Paul Martin (Eds.), Esports in the Asia-Pacific. Palgrave Series in Asia and Pacific Studies, (pp. 17-38). Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan. [More Information]
Siuda, P., Johnson, M. (2022). Microtransaction Politics in FIFA Ultimate Team: Game Fans, Twitch Streamers, and Electronic Arts. In Raiford Guins, Henry Lowood and Carlin Wing (Eds.), EA Sports FIFA: Feeling the Game, (pp. 87-104). New York, United States: Bloomsbury Academic. [More Information]
Johnson, M. (2021). Why study games and money? In Mark R. Johnson (Eds.), The Casino, Card and Betting Game Reader: Communities, Cultures and Play, (pp. 1-15). London, UK; New York, NY: Bloomsbury Academic. [More Information]
Johnson, M. (2020). The Place of Culture, Society, and Politics in Video Game World-Building. In Mark J.P. Wolf (Eds.), World-Builders on World-Building: An Exploration of Subcreation, (pp. 110-131). New York: Routledge (Taylor and Francis). [More Information]
Johnson, M. (2019). Fifteen Million Merits: Gamification, Spectacle, and Neoliberal Aspiration. In Terence McSweeney, Stuart Joy (Eds.), Through the Black Mirror: Deconstructing the Side Effects of the Digital Age, (pp. 33-42). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. [More Information]
Johnson, M. (2018). Megastructures, Superweapons and Global Architectures in Science Fiction Computer Games. In William Davies (Eds.), Economic science fictions, (pp. 237-257). London, United Kingdom: Goldsmiths.
Johnson, M. (2017). Artificial Intelligence. In Tanya X. Short, Tarn Adams (Eds.), Procedural Generation in Game Design, (pp. 133-142). London, UK: CRC Press. [More Information]
Johnson, M. (2017). Glitches and Lag: Unanticipated Variables. In Jaime Banks (Eds.), Avatar, Assembled The Social and Technical Anatomy of Digital Bodies, (pp. 217-225). New York: Peter Lang.
Johnson, M. (2017). Integrating procedural and handmade level design. In Totten, C.W. (Eds.), Level design: Processes and experiences, (pp. 217-242). Boca Raton: CRC Press. [More Information]
Johnson, M. (2017). Meaning. In Tanya X. Short, Tarn Adams (Eds.), Procedural Generation in Game Design, (pp. 301-312). London, UK: CRC Press. [More Information]
Johnson, M. (2017). Names and Labels: Strategic (De)Identification. In Jaime Banks (Eds.), Avatar, Assembled The Social and Technical Anatomy of Digital Bodies, (pp. 81-89). New York: Peter Lang.
Johnson, M. (2017). The History of Cyberspace Aesthetics in Video Games. In Graham Murphy, Lars Schmeink (Eds.), Cyberpunk and Visual Culture, (pp. 139-155). New York: Routledge. [More Information]
Johnson, M. (2017). Worlds. In Tanya X. Short, Tarn Adams (Eds.), Procedural Generation in Game Design. London, UK: CRC Press. [More Information]
Johnson, M. (2016). Bullet Hell: The Globalized Growth of 'Danmaku' Games and the Digital Culture of High Scores and World Records. In Alexis Pulos, S. Austin Lee (Eds.), Transnational Contexts of Culture, Gender, Class, and Colonialism in Play, (pp. 17-42). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. [More Information]

show 12 more

Journals

Williams, J., Johnson, M., Kumar, V. (2025). "A Little Bit Like Psychological Torture": A Grounded Theory of the Sociocultural Challenges Surrounding Expertise Development in an Emerging Esports Ecosystem. Games and Culture. [More Information]
Jackson, N., Johnson, M. (2024). Frictions and flows in Twitch’s platform economy: viewer spending, platform features and user behaviours. Information, Communication and Society, 27(10), 1924-1944. [More Information]
Stanton, R., Johnson, M. (2024). “You Can’t Work for Somebody Who Doesn’t Exist”: The Decline of Games Journalism and the Rise of Independent Gaming News. Games and Culture. [More Information]
Stanton, R., Johnson, M. (2023). Inclusivity and diversity in 'Actual Play': Studying 'The Adventure Zone'. Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds, 15(3), 229-245. [More Information]
Johnson, M., Abarbanel, B. (2022). Ethical judgments of esports spectators regarding cheating in competition. Convergence, 28(6), 1699-1718. [More Information]
Anderson, S., Johnson, M. (2022). Gamer identities of video game live streamers with disabilities. Information, Communication and Society, 35(13), 1900-1915. [More Information]
Johnson, M. (2022). Humour and Comedy in Digital Game Live Streaming. New Media and Society, 26(6), 3045-3067. [More Information]
Fitzgerald, R., Johnson, M. (2022). Mind the Gap: The Fantasy and Facades of Macao's Themed Resort Casinos. Critical Gambling Studies, 3(2), 185-193. [More Information]
Johnson, M., Jackson, N. (2022). Twitch, Fish, Pokemon and Plumbers: Game Live Streaming by Nonhuman Actors. Convergence, 28(2), 431-450. [More Information]
Johnson, M. (2021). Behind the Streams: The Off-Camera Labour of Game Live Streaming. Games and Culture, 16(8), 1001-1020. [More Information]
Anderson, S., Johnson, M. (2021). Cultivation play: Video games and the labour of character progression. Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds, 13(3), 233-248. [More Information]
Brock, T., Johnson, M. (2021). The gamblification of digital games. Journal of Consumer Culture, 21(1), 3-13. [More Information]
Brock, T., Johnson, M. (2021). Video gaming as craft consumption. Journal of Consumer Culture, 22(3), 598-614. [More Information]
Johnson, M., Woodcock, J. (2021). Work, play, and precariousness: An overview of the labour ecosystem of esports. Media, Culture and Society, 43, 1449-1465. [More Information]
Abarbanel, B., Johnson, M. (2020). Gambling engagement mechanisms in twitch live streaming. International Gambling Studies, 20(3), 393-413. [More Information]
Luo, Y., Johnson, M. (2020). How do players understand video game hardware: Tactility or tech-speak? New Media & Society, 22(8), 1462-1483. [More Information]
Johnson, M., Brock, T. (2020). The 'Gambling Turn' in Digital Game Monetization. Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds, 12(2), 145-163. [More Information]
Johnson, M., Woodcock, J. (2019). "And today's top donator is": How Live Streamers on Twitch.tv Monetise and Gamify Broadcasts. Social Media + Society, 5(4). [More Information]
Johnson, M., Woodcock, J. (2019). 'It's like the gold rush': the lives and careers of professional video game streamers on Twitch.tv. Information, Communication and Society, 22(3), 336-351. [More Information]
Johnson, M. (2019). Casual Games Before Casual Games: Historicizing Paper Puzzle Games in an Era of Digital Play. Games and Culture, 14(2), 119-138. [More Information]
Johnson, M. (2019). Deep play and dark play in contemporary cinema. New Review of Film and Television Studies, 17(4), 405-422. [More Information]
Abarbanel, B., Johnson, M. (2019). Esports consumer perspectives on match-fixing: implications for gambling awareness and game integrity. International Gambling Studies, 19(2), 296-311. [More Information]
Johnson, M., Luo, Y. (2019). Gaming-value and culture-value: Understanding how players account for video game purchases. Convergence, 25(5-6), 868-883. [More Information]
Johnson, M. (2019). Inclusion and exclusion in the digital economy: disability and mental health as a live streamer on Twitch.tv. Information, Communication and Society, 22(4), 506-520. [More Information]
Woodcock, J., Johnson, M. (2019). Live Streamers on Twitch.tv as Social Media Influencers: Chances and Challenges for Strategic Communication. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 13(4), 321-335. [More Information]
Woodcock, J., Johnson, M. (2019). The Affective Labor and Performance of Live Streaming on Twitch.tv. Television and New Media, 20(8), 813-823. [More Information]
Johnson, M., Woodcock, J. (2019). The impacts of live streaming and Twitch.tv on the video game industry. Media, Culture and Society, 41(5), 670-688. [More Information]
Johnson, M., Carrigan, M., Brock, T. (2019). The Imperative to be Seen: the Moral Economy of Celebrity Video Game Streaming on Twitch.tv. First Monday, 24(8 - 5 August 2019). [More Information]
Johnson, M. (2018). 'The biggest legal battle in UK casino history': Processes and politics of 'cheating' in sociotechnical networks. Social Studies of Science, 48(2), 304-327. [More Information]
Woodcock, J., Johnson, M. (2018). Gamification: What it is, and how to fight it. The Sociological Review, 66(3), 542-558. [More Information]
Johnson, M., Woodcock, J. (2017). Fighting games and Go: Exploring the aesthetics of play in professional gaming. Thesis Eleven, 138(1), 26-45. [More Information]
Johnson, M., Mejia, R. (2017). Making Science Fiction Real: Neoliberalism, Real-Life and Esports in Eve Online. Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, 10(3), 1-13.
Johnson, M. (2017). The Use of ASCII Graphics in Roguelikes: Aesthetic Nostalgia and Semiotic Difference. Games and Culture, 12(2), 115-135. [More Information]
Johnson, M., Martin, D. (2016). The Anticipated Futures of Space Tourism. Mobilities, 11(1), 135-151. [More Information]

show 31 more

Conferences

Johnson, M. (2020). Disability and Mental Health as A Professional Live Streamer. 21st Annual Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers AoIR2020, Chicago: Association of Internet Researchers. [More Information]
Johnson, M. (2015). Modelling cultural, religious and political affiliation in artificial intelligence decision-making. AISB Convention 2015, UK: SSAISB.

Magazine / Newspaper Articles

Johnson, M. (2023). Minecraft Legends is a reminder that lightning rarely strikes twice in gaming. The Conversation. [More Information]
Johnson, M. (2021). 5 ways Twitch's massive data leak might change live streaming as we know it. The Conversation, Media & Communications. [More Information]
Abarbanel, B., Avramidis, D., Clark, L., Johnson, M. (2021). Gambling live streams on Twitch: What are they and why do they matter? The Conversation. [More Information]

Report

Carter, M., Hardwick, T., Dawson, F., Allison, F., Butt, M., Clark, K., Johnson, M., Keogh, B., Mackenzie, M., Stanton, R., et al (2024). Maximising the Potential of SXSW Sydney Games: Report on SXSW Sydney 2023 as a Games Industry Event. [More Information]
Flew, T., Humphry, J., Gray, J., Hutchinson, J., Page Jeffery, C., Johnson, M., McKee, A., Nicholls, R. (2024). Submission to the Joint Select Committee on Social Media and Australian Society. [More Information]

Reference Works

Johnson, M. (2019). Half Life. In Robert Mejia; Jaime Banks and Aubrie Adams (Eds.), 100 Greatest Video Game Franchises. (pp. 78-80). Lanham, MD, USA: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Johnson, M. (2017). Capsuleer. In Jaime Banks, Robert Mejia, Aubrie Adams (Eds.), 100 Greatest Video Game Characters. (pp. 29-30). Lanham, MD, USA: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Johnson, M. (2017). Command and Conquer. In Robert Mejia; Jaime Banks and Aubrie Adams (Eds.), 100 Greatest Video Game Franchises. (pp. 27-29). Lanham, MD, USA: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Johnson, M. (2017). Dark Souls. In Robert Mejia; Jaime Banks and Aubrie Adams (Eds.), 100 Greatest Video Game Franchises. (pp. 32-33). Lanham, MD, USA: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Johnson, M. (2017). Gandhi. In Jaime Banks, Robert Mejia, Aubrie Adams (Eds.), 100 Greatest Video Game Characters. (pp. 63-64). Lanham, MD, USA: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Johnson, M. (2017). Halo. In Robert Mejia; Jaime Banks and Aubrie Adams (Eds.), 100 Greatest Video Game Franchises. (pp. 80-82). Lanham, MD, USA: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Johnson, M. (2017). Kane. In Jaime Banks, Robert Mejia, Aubrie Adams (Eds.), 100 Greatest Video Game Characters. (pp. 93-95). Lanham, MD, USA: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Johnson, M. (2017). Roguelikes. In Robert Mejia; Jaime Banks and Aubrie Adams (Eds.), 100 Greatest Video Game Franchises. (pp. 150-152). Lanham, MD, USA: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

show 5 more

By Year

Expand all

2025

Williams, J., Johnson, M., Kumar, V. (2025). "A Little Bit Like Psychological Torture": A Grounded Theory of the Sociocultural Challenges Surrounding Expertise Development in an Emerging Esports Ecosystem. Games and Culture. [More Information]

2024

Johnson, M. (2024). Esports and Game Streaming. In Nicholas David Bowman (Eds.), Entertainment Media and Communication, (pp. 563-576). Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter. [More Information]
Jackson, N., Johnson, M. (2024). Frictions and flows in Twitch’s platform economy: viewer spending, platform features and user behaviours. Information, Communication and Society, 27(10), 1924-1944. [More Information]
Carter, M., Hardwick, T., Dawson, F., Allison, F., Butt, M., Clark, K., Johnson, M., Keogh, B., Mackenzie, M., Stanton, R., et al (2024). Maximising the Potential of SXSW Sydney Games: Report on SXSW Sydney 2023 as a Games Industry Event. [More Information]
Flew, T., Humphry, J., Gray, J., Hutchinson, J., Page Jeffery, C., Johnson, M., McKee, A., Nicholls, R. (2024). Submission to the Joint Select Committee on Social Media and Australian Society. [More Information]
Stanton, R., Johnson, M. (2024). “You Can’t Work for Somebody Who Doesn’t Exist”: The Decline of Games Journalism and the Rise of Independent Gaming News. Games and Culture. [More Information]

show 2 more

2023

Johnson, M., Williams, J. (2023). Bottom-Up and Top-Down Tensions: Comparing the Australian and Singaporean Esports Ecosystems. In Filippo Gilardi and Paul Martin (Eds.), Esports in the Asia-Pacific. Palgrave Series in Asia and Pacific Studies, (pp. 17-38). Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan. [More Information]
Stanton, R., Johnson, M. (2023). Inclusivity and diversity in 'Actual Play': Studying 'The Adventure Zone'. Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds, 15(3), 229-245. [More Information]
Johnson, M. (2023). Minecraft Legends is a reminder that lightning rarely strikes twice in gaming. The Conversation. [More Information]

2022

Johnson, M., Abarbanel, B. (2022). Ethical judgments of esports spectators regarding cheating in competition. Convergence, 28(6), 1699-1718. [More Information]
Anderson, S., Johnson, M. (2022). Gamer identities of video game live streamers with disabilities. Information, Communication and Society, 35(13), 1900-1915. [More Information]
Johnson, M. (2022). Humour and Comedy in Digital Game Live Streaming. New Media and Society, 26(6), 3045-3067. [More Information]
Siuda, P., Johnson, M. (2022). Microtransaction Politics in FIFA Ultimate Team: Game Fans, Twitch Streamers, and Electronic Arts. In Raiford Guins, Henry Lowood and Carlin Wing (Eds.), EA Sports FIFA: Feeling the Game, (pp. 87-104). New York, United States: Bloomsbury Academic. [More Information]
Fitzgerald, R., Johnson, M. (2022). Mind the Gap: The Fantasy and Facades of Macao's Themed Resort Casinos. Critical Gambling Studies, 3(2), 185-193. [More Information]
Johnson, M., Jackson, N. (2022). Twitch, Fish, Pokemon and Plumbers: Game Live Streaming by Nonhuman Actors. Convergence, 28(2), 431-450. [More Information]

show 3 more

2021

Johnson, M. (2021). 5 ways Twitch's massive data leak might change live streaming as we know it. The Conversation, Media & Communications. [More Information]
Johnson, M. (2021). Behind the Streams: The Off-Camera Labour of Game Live Streaming. Games and Culture, 16(8), 1001-1020. [More Information]
Anderson, S., Johnson, M. (2021). Cultivation play: Video games and the labour of character progression. Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds, 13(3), 233-248. [More Information]
Abarbanel, B., Avramidis, D., Clark, L., Johnson, M. (2021). Gambling live streams on Twitch: What are they and why do they matter? The Conversation. [More Information]
Johnson, M. (2021). The Casino, Card and Betting Game Reader: Communities, Cultures and Play. London, UK; New York, NY: Bloomsbury Academic. [More Information]
Brock, T., Johnson, M. (2021). The gamblification of digital games. Journal of Consumer Culture, 21(1), 3-13. [More Information]
Brock, T., Johnson, M. (2021). Video gaming as craft consumption. Journal of Consumer Culture, 22(3), 598-614. [More Information]
Johnson, M. (2021). Why study games and money? In Mark R. Johnson (Eds.), The Casino, Card and Betting Game Reader: Communities, Cultures and Play, (pp. 1-15). London, UK; New York, NY: Bloomsbury Academic. [More Information]
Johnson, M., Woodcock, J. (2021). Work, play, and precariousness: An overview of the labour ecosystem of esports. Media, Culture and Society, 43, 1449-1465. [More Information]

show 6 more

2020

Johnson, M. (2020). Disability and Mental Health as A Professional Live Streamer. 21st Annual Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers AoIR2020, Chicago: Association of Internet Researchers. [More Information]
Abarbanel, B., Johnson, M. (2020). Gambling engagement mechanisms in twitch live streaming. International Gambling Studies, 20(3), 393-413. [More Information]
Luo, Y., Johnson, M. (2020). How do players understand video game hardware: Tactility or tech-speak? New Media & Society, 22(8), 1462-1483. [More Information]
Johnson, M., Brock, T. (2020). The 'Gambling Turn' in Digital Game Monetization. Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds, 12(2), 145-163. [More Information]
Johnson, M. (2020). The Place of Culture, Society, and Politics in Video Game World-Building. In Mark J.P. Wolf (Eds.), World-Builders on World-Building: An Exploration of Subcreation, (pp. 110-131). New York: Routledge (Taylor and Francis). [More Information]

show 2 more

2019

Johnson, M., Woodcock, J. (2019). "And today's top donator is": How Live Streamers on Twitch.tv Monetise and Gamify Broadcasts. Social Media + Society, 5(4). [More Information]
Johnson, M., Woodcock, J. (2019). 'It's like the gold rush': the lives and careers of professional video game streamers on Twitch.tv. Information, Communication and Society, 22(3), 336-351. [More Information]
Johnson, M. (2019). Casual Games Before Casual Games: Historicizing Paper Puzzle Games in an Era of Digital Play. Games and Culture, 14(2), 119-138. [More Information]
Johnson, M. (2019). Deep play and dark play in contemporary cinema. New Review of Film and Television Studies, 17(4), 405-422. [More Information]
Abarbanel, B., Johnson, M. (2019). Esports consumer perspectives on match-fixing: implications for gambling awareness and game integrity. International Gambling Studies, 19(2), 296-311. [More Information]
Johnson, M. (2019). Fifteen Million Merits: Gamification, Spectacle, and Neoliberal Aspiration. In Terence McSweeney, Stuart Joy (Eds.), Through the Black Mirror: Deconstructing the Side Effects of the Digital Age, (pp. 33-42). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. [More Information]
Johnson, M., Luo, Y. (2019). Gaming-value and culture-value: Understanding how players account for video game purchases. Convergence, 25(5-6), 868-883. [More Information]
Johnson, M. (2019). Half Life. In Robert Mejia; Jaime Banks and Aubrie Adams (Eds.), 100 Greatest Video Game Franchises. (pp. 78-80). Lanham, MD, USA: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Johnson, M. (2019). Inclusion and exclusion in the digital economy: disability and mental health as a live streamer on Twitch.tv. Information, Communication and Society, 22(4), 506-520. [More Information]
Woodcock, J., Johnson, M. (2019). Live Streamers on Twitch.tv as Social Media Influencers: Chances and Challenges for Strategic Communication. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 13(4), 321-335. [More Information]
Woodcock, J., Johnson, M. (2019). The Affective Labor and Performance of Live Streaming on Twitch.tv. Television and New Media, 20(8), 813-823. [More Information]
Johnson, M., Woodcock, J. (2019). The impacts of live streaming and Twitch.tv on the video game industry. Media, Culture and Society, 41(5), 670-688. [More Information]
Johnson, M., Carrigan, M., Brock, T. (2019). The Imperative to be Seen: the Moral Economy of Celebrity Video Game Streaming on Twitch.tv. First Monday, 24(8 - 5 August 2019). [More Information]

show 10 more

2018

Johnson, M. (2018). 'The biggest legal battle in UK casino history': Processes and politics of 'cheating' in sociotechnical networks. Social Studies of Science, 48(2), 304-327. [More Information]
Woodcock, J., Johnson, M. (2018). Gamification: What it is, and how to fight it. The Sociological Review, 66(3), 542-558. [More Information]
Johnson, M. (2018). Megastructures, Superweapons and Global Architectures in Science Fiction Computer Games. In William Davies (Eds.), Economic science fictions, (pp. 237-257). London, United Kingdom: Goldsmiths.
Johnson, M. (2018). The Unpredictability of Gameplay. New York, United States: Bloomsbury. [More Information]

show 1 more

2017

Johnson, M. (2017). Artificial Intelligence. In Tanya X. Short, Tarn Adams (Eds.), Procedural Generation in Game Design, (pp. 133-142). London, UK: CRC Press. [More Information]
Johnson, M. (2017). Capsuleer. In Jaime Banks, Robert Mejia, Aubrie Adams (Eds.), 100 Greatest Video Game Characters. (pp. 29-30). Lanham, MD, USA: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Johnson, M. (2017). Command and Conquer. In Robert Mejia; Jaime Banks and Aubrie Adams (Eds.), 100 Greatest Video Game Franchises. (pp. 27-29). Lanham, MD, USA: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Johnson, M. (2017). Dark Souls. In Robert Mejia; Jaime Banks and Aubrie Adams (Eds.), 100 Greatest Video Game Franchises. (pp. 32-33). Lanham, MD, USA: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Johnson, M., Woodcock, J. (2017). Fighting games and Go: Exploring the aesthetics of play in professional gaming. Thesis Eleven, 138(1), 26-45. [More Information]
Johnson, M. (2017). Gandhi. In Jaime Banks, Robert Mejia, Aubrie Adams (Eds.), 100 Greatest Video Game Characters. (pp. 63-64). Lanham, MD, USA: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Johnson, M. (2017). Glitches and Lag: Unanticipated Variables. In Jaime Banks (Eds.), Avatar, Assembled The Social and Technical Anatomy of Digital Bodies, (pp. 217-225). New York: Peter Lang.
Johnson, M. (2017). Halo. In Robert Mejia; Jaime Banks and Aubrie Adams (Eds.), 100 Greatest Video Game Franchises. (pp. 80-82). Lanham, MD, USA: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Johnson, M. (2017). Integrating procedural and handmade level design. In Totten, C.W. (Eds.), Level design: Processes and experiences, (pp. 217-242). Boca Raton: CRC Press. [More Information]
Johnson, M. (2017). Kane. In Jaime Banks, Robert Mejia, Aubrie Adams (Eds.), 100 Greatest Video Game Characters. (pp. 93-95). Lanham, MD, USA: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Johnson, M., Mejia, R. (2017). Making Science Fiction Real: Neoliberalism, Real-Life and Esports in Eve Online. Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, 10(3), 1-13.
Johnson, M. (2017). Meaning. In Tanya X. Short, Tarn Adams (Eds.), Procedural Generation in Game Design, (pp. 301-312). London, UK: CRC Press. [More Information]
Johnson, M. (2017). Names and Labels: Strategic (De)Identification. In Jaime Banks (Eds.), Avatar, Assembled The Social and Technical Anatomy of Digital Bodies, (pp. 81-89). New York: Peter Lang.
Johnson, M. (2017). Roguelikes. In Robert Mejia; Jaime Banks and Aubrie Adams (Eds.), 100 Greatest Video Game Franchises. (pp. 150-152). Lanham, MD, USA: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Johnson, M. (2017). The History of Cyberspace Aesthetics in Video Games. In Graham Murphy, Lars Schmeink (Eds.), Cyberpunk and Visual Culture, (pp. 139-155). New York: Routledge. [More Information]
Johnson, M. (2017). The Use of ASCII Graphics in Roguelikes: Aesthetic Nostalgia and Semiotic Difference. Games and Culture, 12(2), 115-135. [More Information]
Johnson, M. (2017). Worlds. In Tanya X. Short, Tarn Adams (Eds.), Procedural Generation in Game Design. London, UK: CRC Press. [More Information]

show 14 more

2016

Johnson, M. (2016). Bullet Hell: The Globalized Growth of 'Danmaku' Games and the Digital Culture of High Scores and World Records. In Alexis Pulos, S. Austin Lee (Eds.), Transnational Contexts of Culture, Gender, Class, and Colonialism in Play, (pp. 17-42). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. [More Information]
Johnson, M., Martin, D. (2016). The Anticipated Futures of Space Tourism. Mobilities, 11(1), 135-151. [More Information]

2015

Johnson, M. (2015). Modelling cultural, religious and political affiliation in artificial intelligence decision-making. AISB Convention 2015, UK: SSAISB.

Selected Grants

2023

Live Streaming Gambling: Who watches, why, and what effects is it having?, Johnson M, Department of Customer Service (NSW)/Office of Responsible Gambling - Responsible Gambling Research Grant

2022

Live Streaming Audiences in Japan and Australia: A Comparative Study, Johnson M, Hoso Bunka Foundation/Hoso Bunka Foundation Grants

In the media

13/11/2024 - quoted in The Washington Post: Live commerce surges as shoppers fork out cash online in real time
12/09/2024 - featured on 2ser107.3: What is so special about “Black Myth: Wukong”?
30/08/2024 - quoted on SBS TV: Black Myth: Wukong, China's first AAA game, sold 10 million in the first 3 days
22/08/2024 - guest on ABC News online: Riverland video gamer turns passion into a career after life takes a 'nosedive'
05/07/2024 - interviewed on ABC 24 'The World' on a strike being called by workers in the video game, voice acting and motion capture industries
04/07/2024 - guest on ABC 'The World': Esports World Cup boss defends holding event in Saudi Arabia
29/04/2024 - quoted in The Sydney Morning Herald: ‘A playground for degenerates’: The dark corners of an Australian streaming giant
28/03/2024 - quoted in The Sydney Morning Herald: Female and LGBTQ gamers face constant abuse. For many, it’s enough to give up playing
23/11/2023 - quoted on ABC News Online: Gubbins, a video game by Melbourne's Studio Folly, looks to capture the genius of Wordle
20/11/2023 - quoted in WIRED: Meet Emmett Shear, OpenAI's 'Highly Intelligent, Socially Awkward' Interim CEO
04/10/2023 - quoted in The Sydney Morning Herald: One of the most popular game franchises of all time is going back to its roots
09/08/2023 - quoted in Twitch: The Twitch-Fueled Catastrophe of Kai Cenat's New York City Giveaway
16/05/2023 - interviewed on ABC News Tonight about Microsoft buying the video game company Activision Blizzard
07/04/2023 - quoted in The Sydney Morning Herald and Brisbane Times: Why video game adaptations are finally levelling up
20/12/2022 - interviewed on ABC News Hourabout the video game Fortnite having to pay $776 million in penalties
03/10/2022 - interviewed in WIRED: Success on Twitch No Longer Comes on Twitch

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

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