by TreaAndrea M. Russworm
about TreaAndrea M. Russworm
TreaAndrea M. Russworm is an associate professor of English at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where she teaches classes on video games, digital cultural studies, and African American popular culture. She is a co-editor of Gaming Representation: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Video Games, the author of Blackness is Burning: Civil Rights Popular Culture, and the Problem of Recognition, and co-editor of From Madea to Media Mogul: Theorizing Tyler Perry.
NBA 2K16
Abstract: The story-driven career mode in 2K Sports’ basketball series has evolved from a simple character creation system to become the most anticipated and popular component of the annually released game. In closely examining the use of face-scan technologies and the story of NBA 2K16’s MyCareer mode, which includes the Spike Lee directed film-within-a game, Livin’ da Dream, TreaAndrea M. Russworm explores the ways in which race and a lack of empathy have become central to what it means for gamers to simulate NBA superstar greatness.