Independent Researcher

Graduate School of the Humanities

Thesis Title: Things that Go 'Spark' in the Night: The Uncanniness of Electricity and Electronic Media in Ghost Hunting Reality Television

About

Melinda S. Jacobs , M.A. is an engagement designer, specializing in gamification and social game based designs and strategies. She is the co-founder, CEO, and lead designer at Flight 1337 where she develops game-inspired experiences that engage audiences with brands, concepts, events, and products.

Education
Melinda graduated from Bowling Green State University (US) with a B.A. in Popular Culture (2007) and Utrecht University (NL) with a research M.A. in Media Studies (2010). Her undergraduate research, “Multiculturalism and Cultural Issues in Online Gaming Communities”, investigated the effects of multiculturalism in online gaming communities using the massively online role-playing game Omerta as a case study. Her research was later published in the peer-reviewed Journal for Cultural Research. As a graduate student, her second year at Utrecht University she was selected as a recipient of a highly selective prestigious HSP Huygens Scholarship and received two conference grants to present at two international conferences. Although the majority of her graduate research further addressed the sociological, psychological, and economical aspects of online gaming, her graduate thesis, “Things that go ‘Spark’ in the Night: The Uncanniness of Electricity and Electronic Media in Ghost Hunting Reality Television”, went in a different direction. In her thesis she addressed the uncanniness of electricity within electronic media specifically concerning ghost hunting reality television programming.

Academic Research
Melinda has presented her work at a variety of national and international academic conferences such as the Digital Games Research Association (2009, 2011), the International Gothic Association (2009), the International Conference on the Social Aspects of Digital Gaming (2011), and the Popular Culture Association (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011). She has been involved in several self-initiated long-term research projects including an ethnographic study on learning through online gaming entitled “The Way of the Warrior: Perception of Skill Acquisition in World of Warcraft”. Her research has addressed topics such as what gaming can teach us about multiculturalism in “Multiculturalism and Cultural Issues in Online Gaming Communities” (2008) and her newly released book chapter “Playing “Nice”: What Online Gaming Can Teach Us about Multiculturalism” (2011), the popularity of reality spoiling in “Spoiling the Future: 2012, Knowledge Communities, and Reality Spoiling“, and consumerism as gameplay in “Taking one – or three – for the Team: Consumerism as Play“. Her most recent research focuses on gamification and game-inspired design, and how and when they can be successfully applied. She has an upcoming publication on the topic in G|A|M|E entitled “Click, Click, Click, Click: Zynga and the Gamification of Clicking”. She has also helped organize an international conference on “Showing Making” and an international symposium on “Film Studies meets Iconology“. In addition to her research, Melinda also lectures on social gaming and gamification, both within the industry and at universities such as the HKU and Utrecht University. She has given talks at industry conferences on gamification, including such events as “The Social Conference” (2012) and “Games for Brands” (2011).

Collaboration and Consultancy
If you are interested in collaboration, consultancy, or further discussion, please feel free to contact Melinda at the address provided below. New collaborations or projects are always welcome. In addition to consultancy, Melinda also does lectures on social media, social gaming, and gamification.

Melinda S. Jacobs
melinda@flight1337.com

Contact Information