I’m pleased to share the final report from my year as a Senior ICFP Fellow with the Open Technology Fund. This phase of Digital Iran focused on understanding how Iranian gamers adapt to and resist state information controls, including throttling, VPN blocking, and internet shutdowns. Over the course of the fellowship, I conducted: Key findings:
Digital Iran OTF Final Report for 2024-2025 Read More »
This spreadsheet contains structured metadata for 38 Iranian video games spanning the early 2000s to 2010s. It includes information such as titles (Persian, English, transliteration), genres, cultural themes, developer information, and ESRA ratings. This dataset is intended as a resource for researchers, librarians, and game studies scholars.
Iranian Video Games Metadata v.1 Read More »
SUBJECT LINE: Digital Iran Reloaded: Iranian Gamer Mitigation Tactics of IRI Information Controls– Monthly Report – September 2024 About the project My research aims to show the types of censorship circumvention techniques Iranian gamers use and thereafter clarify the gaps between the internet freedom community and commonly used censorship circumvention tools in the Islamic Republic
September 2024 Stakeholder Report Read More »
SUBJECT LINE: Digital Iran Reloaded: Iranian Gamer Mitigation Tactics of IRI Information Controls– Monthly Report – August 2024 About the project My research aims to show the types of censorship circumvention techniques Iranian gamers use and thereafter clarify the gaps between the internet freedom community and commonly used censorship circumvention tools in the Islamic Republic
August 2024 Stakeholder Report Read More »
SUBJECT LINE: Digital Iran Reloaded: Iranian Gamer Mitigation Tactics of IRI Information Controls– Monthly Report – July 2024 About the project My research aims to show the types of censorship circumvention techniques Iranian gamers use and thereafter clarify the gaps between the internet freedom community and commonly used censorship circumvention tools in the Islamic Republic
July 2024 Stakeholder Report Read More »
Here’s the form! This survey was available from mid-July to the end of August. I have updated this post to include the original form. I ultimately chose Google Forms over SurveyMonkey because of the paywall. I also made sure to not collect emails. Demographic data was not required.
Survey Release! Gamers in Iran and VPN Use Read More »
SUBJECT LINE: Digital Iran Reloaded: Iranian Gamer Mitigation Tactics of IRI Information Controls– Monthly Report – June 2024 About the project My research aims to show the types of censorship circumvention techniques Iranian gamers use and thereafter clarify the gaps between the internet freedom community and commonly used censorship circumvention tools in the Islamic Republic
June 2024 Stakeholder Report Read More »
SUBJECT LINE: Digital Iran Reloaded: Iranian Gamer Mitigation Tactics of IRI Information Controls– Monthly Report – May 2024 About the project My research aims to show the types of censorship circumvention techniques Iranian gamers use and thereafter clarify the gaps between commonly used censorship circumvention tools in the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI). To do
May 2024 Stakeholder Report Read More »
SUBJECT LINE: Digital Iran Reloaded: Iranian Gamer Mitigation Tactics of IRI Information Controls– Monthly Report – April 2024 About the project My research aims to show the types of censorship circumvention techniques Iranian gamers use and thereafter clarify the gaps between commonly used censorship circumvention tools in the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI). To do
April 2024 Stakeholder Report Read More »
SUBJECT LINE: Digital Iran Reloaded: Iranian Gamer Mitigation Tactics of IRI Information Controls– Monthly Report – March 2024 About the project My research aims to show the types of censorship circumvention techniques Iranian gamers use and thereafter clarify the gaps between commonly used censorship circumvention tools in the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI). To do
March 2024 Stakeholder Report Read More »
SUBJECT LINE: Digital Iran Reloaded: Iranian Gamer Mitigation Tactics of IRI Information Controls– Monthly Report – February 2024 About the project My research aims to show the types of censorship circumvention techniques Iranian gamers use and thereafter clarify the gaps between commonly used censorship circumvention tools in the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI). To do
February 2024 Stakeholder Report Read More »
Funded by Open Tech Fund (see: https://www.opentech.fund/fellows/melinda-cohoon/), Digital Iran Reloaded takes on new concerns: internet access in the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI). The funding period begins February 2024, and ends in January 2025. Digital Iran focuses on gamers as a framework to study internet access in the IRI, which will lead to a comprehensive
Digital Iran Reloaded, New Funding! Read More »
Maddy Brown, Digital Iran Project Equipment: Recording steps: Step 1: Plug microphone into iPad using adapter, make sure the mic is turned on Step 2: Hit the + on the right side of the screen and change bars to “automatic.” Step 3: Open new song in Garageband, select Audio Recorder. Step 4: Turn the metronome
Podcast Recording Guide Read More »
We are happy to announce the Digital Iran podcast as a pedagogical, didactic guide to the processes and the histories pertinent to the project. Please click the hyperlink.
Digital Iran Podcast Went Live! Read More »
One of my favorite aspects of live-streaming myself playing video games on Twitch was interacting with the viewers. On Twitch, there is a chat feature where the viewers can send messages in a group chat that the live-streamer can read. Before streams, Mindy and I would announce our streams on social media and share the
The RA Reflects, Part 2 Read More »
My experiences streaming and the potential of Twitch as a public platform During this past summer I had the opportunity to be a Research Assistant for the Digital Iran project, funded by the Simpson Center for the Humanities. Part of my responsibilities included me live-streaming myself playing and analyzing video games about Iran, all while
The RA Reflects, Part 1 Read More »
*Published and peer-reviewed article available at DOI: 10.21428/f1f23564.3d7610e0 With nearly 3 billion gamers worldwide, online games and streaming have become a pivotal part of everyday life for people across the globe, leading to new conceptions and constructions of identity, virtually (Hruska). While games have transcended national boundaries, gender, social class, and age, Iranian video games
Digital Iran: Soft Power and Affect in Video Games Read More »
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2003) invokes a nostalgia among its player base. As a gamer who never played the POP series prior to the Digital Iran project, I found POP: SOT to be a perplexing challenge. As an avid WoW gamer and Mario fan, I only had a minute experience games that
Prince of Persia and Queering the Near East Read More »
Battlefield 3 is a first person shooter (FPS) set in the fictional War of 2014 that takes place in the Iraqi-Kurdistan region and Tehran, Iran. The game is created by EA Games and has the intention of placing the player in Middle Eastern-like spaces virtually. For the majority of the game, the player plays as
Battlefield 3: The Affective Dimensions of A Virtual Middle East Read More »
Accuracy and nuance 1979 Revolution: Black Friday is an intriguing video game that attracted our attention as soon as we learned about it. The game is created by Navid Khonsari, an Iranian-Canadian video-game creator and producer. As an Iranian in the diaspora, Khonsari offers a kind of neutrality to the revolutionary narrative in his creation.
1979 Revolution: Black Friday Read More »
