CAS SEE Seminars with Guests: Eric Champion

Over the past decade, video games have evolved into complex social environments where young people gather, build communities, negotiate identities, and express political views. Open-world and moddable games—alongside platforms such as Discord and Twitch—have become spaces for collective action, creative participation, and new forms of activism. In regions such as Southeast Europe, where democratic processes are often fragile and contested, these digital spaces offer young people opportunities to articulate dissent and imagine alternative political futures.

The conversation will reflect on games as sites of cultural memory and heritage-making as virtual environments increasingly serve as platforms for reconstructing, reinterpreting, and sometimes challenging cultural narratives through interactive design and community engagement. Bringing together community dynamics, youth political agency, and cultural heritage, this discussion highlights how digital play is becoming a significant arena for contemporary political and cultural life.