Pizer discusses ‘cozy’ gaming’s positive impacts on society at PAX West
Professor of practice Patricia Pizer attended the PAX West gaming festival on Monday to participate in the panel discussion, “Revolution but with Strawberries: The Sweet Subversiveness of “Cozy” Gaming.”
PAX West is a festival for gaming culture that joins the gaming community with game publishers and studios, new game demos, musical performances, and tournaments in an expo hall. This year, it lasted four days from Aug. 29 to Sept. 1.
Pizer participated in the panel with Sonia Michaels, a career development coach and independent consultant, and Fara Nizamani, a consultant at Odyssey Consulting and Training.
The panel examined the rise of cozy gaming, which is a growing genre of gaming that involves playing more relaxed and comforting games. Cozy games tend to have gentle atmospheres and activities such as farming, relationship-building, city/town management, and character customization.
Pizer believes the surge in popularity of cozy games can have positive effects on an increasingly polarized and fragmented society by showing the value of kindness through non-violent collaborative games.
Pizer’s research centers on social systems for games and their role in minimizing toxic game behaviors. She is currently working on developing games for young women, tweens and up, that use prosocial elements to help them navigate the difficult messaging and situations that face them in those years.