Welcome to Cerebral Arcade! This is a space for cerebral gamers to nerd out and analyze games together! This stream primarily analyzes the narrative and design elements of games, but we welcome all kinds of insightful discussion! We're just down to geek out with other people who like to overthink things.

Stacey Mason is a professional narrative designer with a specialty in procedural narrative. She's the former creative lead for the R&D team at Telltale Games, and a former narrative designer for 2K Games. She also consults on experimental R&D work for various AAA, indie, and mobile studios. Currently, she's getting a new indie game project off the ground and serving as Creative Advisor for mobile interactive fiction platform Dorian. Stacey also keeps one foot in academic research. She has a BA in literature, an MFA in playable media design, and recently completed a PhD in Computer Science looking specifically at using AI to make game narratives feel more responsive to player choices. Before she was in the games industry, Stacey was an editor of interactive literature at literary hypertext publisher Eastgate Systems where she geeked out a lot about what the future of literature will look like. And if you love this kind of analysis, Stacey also started [ScholarsPlay](http://twitch.tv/ScholarsPlay), the first academic analysis Twitch stream, with a cast of rotating games scholars who approach games from a bunch of different angles. You should definitely give them a follow!

1.) Don't be creepy. Sexual comments, creepy questions/requests, romantic declarations, or any comments about the streamer's looks will result in a ban. 2.) Be kind. No trolling, bigotry, or hate-speech will be tolerated. 3.) No spoilers or backseating. No hints unless asked for. 4.) Politics and dissenting views are okay within reason if they are relevant to the conversation at hand. All dissent or debate must remain kind, empathetic, and respectful. 5.) Be curious and ask questions! Discussion is the heartbeat of this channel.

Want to [buy Stacey a coffee](https://ko-fi.com/stcymsn)? Donations are never required, but they are always deeply appreciated! You can also [commission an analysis stream](https://ko-fi.com/stcymsn/commissions) of your favorite game via Ko-Fi, or subscribe on a monthly basis for sneak peeks at what Stacey's working on outside of the stream!

Cerebral Arcade started as a blog! Find our writings at [CerebralArcade.com](http://cerebralarcade.com) For updates on Cerebral Arcade: * [Instagram](http://instagram.com/CerebralArcade) * [Twitter](http://twitter.com/CerebralArcade) * [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV5sHZymYiwlJb2zTuaViGA) * [Facebook](http://Facebook.com/CerebralArcade) * [Mastodon](https://mastodon.social/@stcymsn)