Nisha Devasia
@nishadevasia.bsky.social
PhD @ UW studying meaningful game experiences | prev. SWE @ Twitch. MIT '21, game credit on God of War: Ragnarok | https://ndevasia.github.io
Pinned
Nisha Devasia
@nishadevasia.bsky.social
· Sep 30
There's an article about this paper now! Especially in the ✨current political climate✨, I try to remember what games (especially FF7) have instilled in me: hope in times of despair, and that fighting back can defeat the bad guys and their systems of oppression. www.washington.edu/news/2025/09...
Since I don't think any high schoolers follow me...for parents, if your high school aged kids like to game, send them this study for our gaming book club! I'll buy them a game and they'll play it while testing out some reflection tools that I've built. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Interest form for gaming book club!
docs.google.com
November 5, 2025 at 7:45 AM
Since I don't think any high schoolers follow me...for parents, if your high school aged kids like to game, send them this study for our gaming book club! I'll buy them a game and they'll play it while testing out some reflection tools that I've built. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Reposted by Nisha Devasia
Reposted by Nisha Devasia
Fuck Waymo. Long live KitKat.
October 29, 2025 at 11:45 PM
Fuck Waymo. Long live KitKat.
Just wanted to "so true" re. @stolisomancer.bsky.social's Geekwire article on my paper, specifically: "Video games often have a positive impact on the people who play them. That impact simply doesn’t get a fraction of the press of gaming’s various downsides." Thanks for writing about this!
Trending: From stress relief to self-discovery: UW researchers reveal the deeper impact of video games https://www.geekwire.com/2025/from-stress-relief-to-self-discovery-uw-researchers-reveal-the-deeper-impact-of-video-games/
October 28, 2025 at 9:04 AM
Just wanted to "so true" re. @stolisomancer.bsky.social's Geekwire article on my paper, specifically: "Video games often have a positive impact on the people who play them. That impact simply doesn’t get a fraction of the press of gaming’s various downsides." Thanks for writing about this!
me at CHI PLAY (positive)
October 15, 2025 at 11:15 PM
me at CHI PLAY (positive)
Reposted by Nisha Devasia
How do video games shape who we are?
HCDE & @ischool.uw.edu researchers found that 78% of gamers reported life-changing experiences from play—from coping with stress to building identity.
Findings will be presented at @chiplay.bsky.social later this month.
www.washington.edu/news/2025/09...
HCDE & @ischool.uw.edu researchers found that 78% of gamers reported life-changing experiences from play—from coping with stress to building identity.
Findings will be presented at @chiplay.bsky.social later this month.
www.washington.edu/news/2025/09...
Q&A: How video games can lead people to more meaningful lives
UW researchers discuss their study which surveyed 166 gamers about how video games sparked meaningful changes in their lives.
www.washington.edu
October 1, 2025 at 6:42 PM
How do video games shape who we are?
HCDE & @ischool.uw.edu researchers found that 78% of gamers reported life-changing experiences from play—from coping with stress to building identity.
Findings will be presented at @chiplay.bsky.social later this month.
www.washington.edu/news/2025/09...
HCDE & @ischool.uw.edu researchers found that 78% of gamers reported life-changing experiences from play—from coping with stress to building identity.
Findings will be presented at @chiplay.bsky.social later this month.
www.washington.edu/news/2025/09...
There's an article about this paper now! Especially in the ✨current political climate✨, I try to remember what games (especially FF7) have instilled in me: hope in times of despair, and that fighting back can defeat the bad guys and their systems of oppression. www.washington.edu/news/2025/09...
September 30, 2025 at 6:19 PM
There's an article about this paper now! Especially in the ✨current political climate✨, I try to remember what games (especially FF7) have instilled in me: hope in times of despair, and that fighting back can defeat the bad guys and their systems of oppression. www.washington.edu/news/2025/09...
Reposted by Nisha Devasia
The folks who manage our building put a flyer in the elevator every week. Along with the weekly weather and notes about building rules being broken, they often add a quote. This is one I snapshotted a few weeks ago:
September 26, 2025 at 2:59 AM
The folks who manage our building put a flyer in the elevator every week. Along with the weekly weather and notes about building rules being broken, they often add a quote. This is one I snapshotted a few weeks ago:
Reposted by Nisha Devasia
Mainstream pundits have instantly sanitized and ignored Charlie Kirk's core political project and its impacts. He has been remembered by the mainstream press as someone they merely disagreed with, a debate me-guy whose words and actions had zero consequences:
www.404media.co/charlie-kirk...
www.404media.co/charlie-kirk...
Charlie Kirk Was Not Practicing Politics the Right Way
The mainstream media seems entirely uninterested in explaining Charlie Kirk's work.
www.404media.co
September 11, 2025 at 5:47 PM
Mainstream pundits have instantly sanitized and ignored Charlie Kirk's core political project and its impacts. He has been remembered by the mainstream press as someone they merely disagreed with, a debate me-guy whose words and actions had zero consequences:
www.404media.co/charlie-kirk...
www.404media.co/charlie-kirk...
Reposted by Nisha Devasia
“The problem that Democrats actually need to solve is how to effectively message in an information environment that is designed from the ground up to benefit reactionary narratives. If they don’t figure that out, they’ll end up… dreaming up middling solutions to non-existent problems.” Great article
My latest newsletter is a response to @jerusalem.bsky.social on the politics of immigration, and why ticky-tack policy solutions won't save Democrats.
Policy Can't Solve a Propaganda Problem
On immigration and everything else, pundits are missing the point
stringinamaze.net
September 11, 2025 at 4:29 PM
“The problem that Democrats actually need to solve is how to effectively message in an information environment that is designed from the ground up to benefit reactionary narratives. If they don’t figure that out, they’ll end up… dreaming up middling solutions to non-existent problems.” Great article
When I legitimately need to study (like for my general exam) I like listening to bland lo-fi, but sometimes it gets too bland. I also like listening to video game instrumental, but sometimes I get too emotional and it makes me cry. The solution I just found: open.spotify.com/playlist/1M3...
Final Fantasy LoFi Mix
open.spotify.com
September 3, 2025 at 5:43 AM
When I legitimately need to study (like for my general exam) I like listening to bland lo-fi, but sometimes it gets too bland. I also like listening to video game instrumental, but sometimes I get too emotional and it makes me cry. The solution I just found: open.spotify.com/playlist/1M3...
I'm at PAX West! Let me know if you are too :) (and come check out the foundry10 booth in the tabletop free play area)
August 29, 2025 at 11:55 PM
I'm at PAX West! Let me know if you are too :) (and come check out the foundry10 booth in the tabletop free play area)
Recorded my CHI PLAY presentation video, realized I was wearing my "whiskey is liquid sunshine" shirt the whole time, wondered if I should rerecord it to *not* memorialize me looking like an alcoholic into ACM YouTube for posterity, then gave up and uploaded it anyways
August 27, 2025 at 9:57 PM
Recorded my CHI PLAY presentation video, realized I was wearing my "whiskey is liquid sunshine" shirt the whole time, wondered if I should rerecord it to *not* memorialize me looking like an alcoholic into ACM YouTube for posterity, then gave up and uploaded it anyways
Reposted by Nisha Devasia
New preprint! A Crowdsourced Megastudy of 12 Digital Single-Session Interventions for Depression in American Adults
What's the best way to help someone overcome depression with just 10 minutes of their time online? We ran a trial (n=7,505) testing 12 diverse interventions.
osf.io/preprints/ps...
What's the best way to help someone overcome depression with just 10 minutes of their time online? We ran a trial (n=7,505) testing 12 diverse interventions.
osf.io/preprints/ps...
August 26, 2025 at 5:47 PM
New preprint! A Crowdsourced Megastudy of 12 Digital Single-Session Interventions for Depression in American Adults
What's the best way to help someone overcome depression with just 10 minutes of their time online? We ran a trial (n=7,505) testing 12 diverse interventions.
osf.io/preprints/ps...
What's the best way to help someone overcome depression with just 10 minutes of their time online? We ran a trial (n=7,505) testing 12 diverse interventions.
osf.io/preprints/ps...
Made a silly demo of what I'm working on right now - it's a tool for annotating while gaming, similar to annotating a book. As I mentioned in my last post, it's very inspired by ideas discussed re. critical reflection in The Well Read Game. Feedback appreciated on the MVP! youtu.be/LIdFdVaLWCI
Game Annotator (v1)
YouTube video by Nisha Devasia
youtu.be
August 20, 2025 at 6:36 AM
Made a silly demo of what I'm working on right now - it's a tool for annotating while gaming, similar to annotating a book. As I mentioned in my last post, it's very inspired by ideas discussed re. critical reflection in The Well Read Game. Feedback appreciated on the MVP! youtu.be/LIdFdVaLWCI
Reposted by Nisha Devasia
8. This has been a short and honestly rather peevish thread, so if you want read more that has been written in a more equanimous tone, here's a short piece that I coauthored a few years ago, precisely about how we deal with this kind of duplicity.
To Fight Misinformation, We Need to Teach That Science Is Dynamic
Science is a social process, and teaching students how researchers work in tandem to develop facts will make them less likely to be duped by falsehoods
www.scientificamerican.com
August 12, 2025 at 5:18 AM
8. This has been a short and honestly rather peevish thread, so if you want read more that has been written in a more equanimous tone, here's a short piece that I coauthored a few years ago, precisely about how we deal with this kind of duplicity.
Reposted by Nisha Devasia
Please, I beg everyone panicking about “kids these days” to just display the full scale on the y-axis of their (not so) terrifying charts. Oh wait, maybe that story would not sell 🤔 mikemales.substack.com/p/how-to-go-...
How to go viral with dire-sounding – but phony – “statistical trends”
Those bent on creating anti-internet panics keep rigging their presentations.
mikemales.substack.com
August 12, 2025 at 6:55 PM
Please, I beg everyone panicking about “kids these days” to just display the full scale on the y-axis of their (not so) terrifying charts. Oh wait, maybe that story would not sell 🤔 mikemales.substack.com/p/how-to-go-...
Reposted by Nisha Devasia
Me not writing a paper:
Epistemic chilling
August 7, 2025 at 1:27 PM
Me not writing a paper:
"To this end" "There is an opportunity to design" :melting-face:
August 5, 2025 at 7:54 PM
"To this end" "There is an opportunity to design" :melting-face:
It's probably early to be posting for #CHIPLAY2025, but I'm excited about this paper! arxiv.org/pdf/2507.18084 tl;dr Players sometimes have very personally meaningful or eudaimonic gaming experiences and we investigated what kinds of effects people reported those experiences had on their lives.
arxiv.org
August 5, 2025 at 12:19 AM
It's probably early to be posting for #CHIPLAY2025, but I'm excited about this paper! arxiv.org/pdf/2507.18084 tl;dr Players sometimes have very personally meaningful or eudaimonic gaming experiences and we investigated what kinds of effects people reported those experiences had on their lives.
Reposted by Nisha Devasia
What a fantastic accomplishment -- and what a fantastic story! www.quantamagazine.org/at-17-hannah...
At 17, Hannah Cairo Solved a Major Math Mystery | Quanta Magazine
After finding the homeschooling life confining, the teen petitioned her way into a graduate class at Berkeley, where she ended up disproving a 40-year-old conjecture.
www.quantamagazine.org
August 3, 2025 at 12:13 PM
What a fantastic accomplishment -- and what a fantastic story! www.quantamagazine.org/at-17-hannah...
Reposted by Nisha Devasia
UW researchers Aayushi Dangol and Julie Kientz (HCDE) and Jason Yip (iSchool) created AI Puzzlers—a game to show kids where AI systems still typically and blatantly fail: solving certain reasoning puzzles.
www.washington.edu/news/2025/07...
www.washington.edu/news/2025/07...
This puzzle game shows kids how they’re smarter than AI
University of Washington researchers developed the game AI Puzzlers to show kids an area where AI systems still typically and blatantly fail: solving certain reasoning puzzles. In the game, users get....
www.washington.edu
July 1, 2025 at 11:19 PM
UW researchers Aayushi Dangol and Julie Kientz (HCDE) and Jason Yip (iSchool) created AI Puzzlers—a game to show kids where AI systems still typically and blatantly fail: solving certain reasoning puzzles.
www.washington.edu/news/2025/07...
www.washington.edu/news/2025/07...
Reposted by Nisha Devasia
There may be some tiny opening to save the NSF funding. It is worth calling your Senators. This is a big deal if it can be saved.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
US senators poised to reject Trump’s proposed massive science cuts
Committee gives first hint that policymakers might preserve, rather than slash, funding for US National Science Foundation and other agencies.
www.nature.com
July 12, 2025 at 1:57 AM
There may be some tiny opening to save the NSF funding. It is worth calling your Senators. This is a big deal if it can be saved.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
fully exposing me @laurenlin.bsky.social and maya camping the food line (it was really good)
Last night's dinner reception at Mercado dos Lavradores was definitely one for the books 🎉 Thank you for joining us, hope you had fun, and see you soon for the last day of #DIS2025
July 9, 2025 at 8:31 AM
fully exposing me @laurenlin.bsky.social and maya camping the food line (it was really good)
Reposted by Nisha Devasia
“Where do you get your politics from?”
Me:
Me:
June 11, 2025 at 2:38 PM
“Where do you get your politics from?”
Me:
Me: