{"id":105284,"date":"2025-10-16T16:49:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T20:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=105284"},"modified":"2025-10-16T16:49:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T20:49:18","slug":"grad-student-sprints-ahead-with-gaming-subculture-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2025\/10\/grad-student-sprints-ahead-with-gaming-subculture-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Grad student sprints ahead with gaming subculture research"},"content":{"rendered":"

Driven by a long-standing curiosity about the world of digital gaming and the subcultures within it, Stuart Gritter (BA ’07, BSc ’12) is looking deeper into the unique stories of the humans behind the controllers.<\/p>\n

A member of the inaugural cohort of Master of Arts in Game Studies<\/a> students, Gritter will graduate with his third Brock degree on Friday, Oct. 17 during the University\u2019s 118th Convocation. He already holds undergraduate degrees in English Language and Literature and Computer Science and Interactive Arts and Science.<\/p>\n

Gritter spent a decade working in computer software and as a musician before pursing a graduate degree focused on interactive media.<\/p>\n

\"Five<\/a>

Stuart Gritter (BA ’07, BSc ’12) was the first student to complete a thesis in the Master of Arts in Game Studies program. Pictured from right are committee members Karen Louise Smith, Associate Professor of Communication, Popular Culture and Film; Aaron Mauro, Associate Professor of Digital Media and Chair of the Department of Digital Humanities; Jason Hawreliak, Associate Professor of Digital Humanities; Gritter; and Gritter\u2019s Supervisor, Professor of Educational Studies and Digital Humanities David Hutchison at his defense on Aug. 22.<\/p><\/div>\n

His master\u2019s research explores the world of \u201cspeedrunning,\u201d a subculture of video gamers who compete to finish games in the fastest time possible, bypassing obstacles in unintended and creative ways.<\/p>\n

Described by Gritter as a distant cousin organized, multiplayer sport video games known as electronic sports, or eSports, speedrunning requires a blend of technical precision and persistence.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpeedrunning is about so much more than doing something quickly; it\u2019s about mechanical execution and dedication to chasing perfection and simultaneously building community with players who share the same drive,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Gritter\u2019s thesis research, \u201cSpeedrunners and Motivation: Self-Determination Theory Applied to a Speedrunning Community\u201d, focused on the intensely dedicated group of players who speedrun Nintendo\u2019s iconic Super Mario Bros. 3<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Through interviews and data analysis, Gritter explored participants\u2019 motivations and emotional experiences while playing.<\/p>\n

His findings demonstrated the emotional investment and personal meaning for players in unlocking new levels of mastery in speedrunning video games.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was most interesting was the level of intensity speedrunners felt when achieving a personal best time, with more than one participant comparing the intense feeling to the birth of their children,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Participants also shared similar analytic minds, ways of system-based thinking and personality traits, such as persistence, focus and attention to detail.<\/p>\n

The speedrunning trend has gained traction in recent years with the emergence of global leaderboards and livestreams shared by a worldwide community of gamers.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if it\u2019s a game I am not familiar with, watching people perform these games at peak capacity is fascinating to me; it takes so much effort and intentionality, not to mention time,\u201d Gritter says.<\/p>\n

Aaron Mauro, Associate Professor of Digital Media and Chair of the Department of Digital Humanities, says that while speedrunning is well known online, it is rarely studied as a cultural phenomenon.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpeedrunning is a lively gaming subculture that rarely gets attention from the mainstream media or academia. For those in the know, speedrunners can elicit awe from other gamers for their precision and dedication, and Stu\u2019s work seeks to better understand the drives and motivations for these very active online communities,\u201d Mauro says.<\/p>\n

Mauro says the MA in Game Studies is an interdisciplinary and interfaculty program designed to provide students with a well-rounded, high-quality venue for studying and designing games in all their forms.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on returning to Brock and academia as a mature student, Gritter says he felt very supported in the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am grateful for the Department of Digital Humanities and entire Brock community.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Driven by a long-standing curiosity about the world of digital gaming and the subcultures within it, Stuart Gritter (BA ’07, BSc ’12) is looking deeper into the unique stories of the humans behind the controllers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":105278,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[119,188,55,37,1,5],"tags":[8542,124,1368,2749,3330,30,14893],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105284"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105284"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105287,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105284\/revisions\/105287"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}