VIR2L: Virtual Identity and Representation Research Lab

We explore the intersections of identity, representation, and interactive systems, focusing on how virtual environments shape and reflect personal and cultural experiences.

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Our research goals are to produce breakthrough results, publications, and academic tools in three main areas:

01.

Design principles for better virtual identity systems in digital platforms

We aim to explore how virtual identity systems embody and reinforce cultural norms, paragons, stereotypes, and prejudices. We find this to be a high-stake issue in the future of digital communications as it affects the access, performance, and engagement of people from different cultures to digital media platforms.

02.

Digital narratives on cultural and personal representations

As well as investigating new methods of digital and interactive storytelling, we also develop critical analysis of algorithms and data structures in cultural, gender, and ethnic representations in virtual environments.

03.

Cross-cultural challenges in media production and use

We collect, scrape, and archive data about how relatively smaller industries and both local and global audiences interact. Towards this aim, we also study the challenges in emerging and subaltern national media scenes.

We disseminate our findings through academic publications, industry white papers, and design guides.

Identities in video games

Tabula rasa identities and passive spectatorship in video games: A case study on walking simulators

2023, Sercan Şengün
In: Digital Games 2.0 Identity.
Istanbul: Nobel Academic Press.

Contours of virtual enfreakment in fighting game characters

2022, Sercan Şengün, Peter Mawhorter, James Bowie-Wilson, Yusef Audeh, Haewoon Kwak, D. Fox Harrell
Technological Forecasting and Social Change 180(121797).

Do players communicate differently depending on the champion played? Exploring the Proteus effect in League of Legends

2022, Sercan Şengün, João M. Santos, Joni Salminen, Soon-gyo Jung, and Bernard J. Jansen
Technological Forecasting and Social Change 177(121556)

Why do I fall for the elf, when I am no orc myself? The implications of virtual avatars in digital communication

2015, Sercan Şengün
Comunicação e Sociedade 27: pp. 181-193.

A semiotic reading of digital avatars and their role of uncertainty reduction in digital communication

2015, Sercan Şengün
Journal of Media Critiques, Digital Communication Impact Special Issue.


Representations in virtual worlds

Azeroth has a workplace gender inequality problem: Gendered professions bias in virtual worlds

2022, Sercan Şengün, Jennifer Price, Lyndsie Schlink, Kristin Walker
In: Games and Narrative: Theory and Practice.
Cham: Springer.

Africa and the avatar dream: Mapping the impacts of videogame representations of Africa

2021, D. Fox Harrell, Sercan Şengün, Danielle Olson
In: The Digital Black Atlantic.
Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

The Sims franchise, a retrospective of racial representation and skin tones

2021, Lauren Elizabeth Stipp, Sercan Şengün
Encyclopedia of Computer Graphics and Games, Cham, Sweden: Springer International Publishing.


Online representations of cultures

An analysis of the use of religious elements in Assassin’s Creed Origins

2022, Özge Mirza, Sercan Şengün
In: Games and Narrative: Theory and Practice.
Cham: Springer.

Identifying regional trends in avatar customization

2018, Peter Mawhorter, Sercan Şengün, Haewoon Kwak, and D. Fox Harrell
IEEE Transactions on Games 10(2): pp.1-13.

Virtual identity systems should better support gulf nationals

2018, Sercan Şengün, D. Fox Harrell
The Oxford Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies Forum, University of Oxford.

Exploring the relationship between game content and culture-based toxicity: A case study of League of Legends and MENA players

2019, Sercan Şengün, Joni Salminen, Peter Mawhorter, Soon-Gyo Jung, Bernard Jansen
HT '19, the 30th ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media, Sept. 17-20, 2019, Hof, Germany.

Analyzing hate speech toward players from the MENA in League of Legends

2019, Sercan Şengün, Joni Salminen, Soon-Gyo Jung, Peter Mawhorter, Bernard Jansen
CHI EA '19 Extended Abstracts of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, May 4-9, 2019, Glasgow, Scotland.

Generating cultural personas from social data: A perspective of Middle Eastern users

2017, Joni Salminen, Sercan Şengün, Haewoon Kwak, Bernard Jansen, Jisun An, Soon-Gyo Jung, Sarah Vieweg, D. Fox Harrell
IEEE International Conference on Future Internet of Things and Cloud (FiCloud-2017), August 21-23, 2017, Prague, Czech Republic.

Culturally-grounded analysis of everyday creativity in social media: A case study in Qatari context

2017, D. Fox Harrell, Sarah Vieweg, Haewoon Kwak, Chong-U Lim, Sercan Sengun, Ali Jahanian, Pablo Ortiz
C&C '17: the 2017 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Creativity and Cognition, June 27-30, 2017, Singapore.


Interactive narratives

Six degrees of videogame narrative

2022, Sercan Şengün
In: Games and Narrative: Theory and Practice.
Cham: Springer.

Cybertexts, hypertexts and interactive fiction: Why shan't the prodigal children overthrow their forefathers

2013, Sercan Şengün
LIT FICTION: Innovation, Difference, Irregularity, Istanbul: Mimar Sinan University Press


Emerging media scenes

Who owns the virtual worlds: The ownership tensions between developers and players

2023, Sercan Şengün
In: Digital Games 2.0 Identity.
Istanbul: Nobel Academic Press.

"It is so good, it cannot be Turkish": A case study of local video game producers versus local gamer communities

2020, Sercan Şengün, Güven Çatak, Mustafa Feyyaz Sonbudak
In: Creative Industries in Turkey.
Berlin: Peter Lang Publishing.

A survey of marketing management for videogames industry in Turkey

2018, Sercan Şengün
In: Marketing Management in Turkey.
Bradford, UK: Emerald Publishing.

Gaze of the local vs the other: Images of Istanbul in video games

2015, Sercan Şengün
In: IMAGES (IV) - Images of the Other.
Berlin: Lit Verlag.

Re-shaped by Mobile Technologies’ Disruption: The Videogame Industry in Turkey

2020, Sercan Şengün, Selcen Ozturkcan
Studies on Marketing Insights 4(1): pp. 44-56.

We create interesting work in our research areas. For example, we create physical and digital games, as well as data visualization projects and websites.

See some selected work listed below.

Let´s start a project together!

Reach out to the VIR2L Lab to collaborate on cutting-edge research at the intersection of identity, representation, and interactive systems—shaping the future of virtual environments.

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