Innovations in Social Gaming
19 January 2026 from 7pm to 8:30pm (EST)

Games have long been used to support social interaction and create shared experiences that draw us closer together. Digital games are increasingly being used to form and maintain relationships, and in-game friendships have been shown to help satisfy our need to belong and can even combat loneliness, improving our wellbeing. In this talk, Mandryk will present her perspective on the benefits of social gaming—including in casual, esports, and streaming contexts, show how the benefits can be thwarted by toxicity and harassment, and discuss innovative game technologies that can better connect players, streamers, spectators, and fans.

Regan Mandryk is a Canada Research Chair in Digital Gaming and Immersive Social Technologies and Professor of Computer Science at the University of Victoria, Canada who has made foundational and significant contributions in modeling the emotional experience and personality of players, facilitating social connection through play, combating toxicity within multiplayer games, and harnessing games for the assessment and treatment of mental health.

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