entertainment, Research, Strategy, Gamification
Staff Researcher
How Games as a Service (GaaS) and Transmedia ...

In Part II, this part of the study moves from industry context to empirical analysis, translating strategic questions into evidence-based insights drawn from primary research. While Part I established the historical and market foundations of Games as a Service (GaaS) and transmedia adaptation and framed the challenges of player retention, monetization, and franchise longevity, Part II examines how these dynamics operate in practice. Using findings from a 1,159-response U.S. consumer survey, nine industry interviews with developers, influencers, and experiential professionals, as well as supporting secondary research, this section analyzes player behavior perceptions and expectations. Part II identifies the mechanisms that drive sustained engagement and trust in live service ecosystems, evaluates the effectiveness of current GaaS and transmedia strategies, and surfaces actionable insights that inform the strategic recommendations presented in the final chapter.

How Games as a Service (GaaS) and Transmedia Strategies Sustain Video Game Franchises, Part II
entertainment, Research, Strategy, Gamification
Staff Researcher
How Games as a Service (GaaS) and Transmedia ...

This study provides a foundational analysis of how live-service game models and transmedia strategies are reshaping the contemporary video game industry, with a particular focus on Games as a Service (GaaS), player engagement, and franchise longevity. As gaming continues to outpace film and television as the world’s most lucrative entertainment sector, publishers face growing pressure to sustain player communities, balance monetization with satisfaction, and extend intellectual property beyond the game itself. Part 1 examines the historical evolution of GaaS and game adaptations, situating SEGA’s legacy within today’s competitive landscape. Drawing on existing literature, industry reports, and market context, this section frames the central research questions and methodological approach that guide the study. By establishing the strategic challenges and opportunities facing live-service games and transmedia franchises, Part 1 lays the conceptual groundwork for the data-driven analysis and recommendations presented in Part 2.

How Games as a Service (GaaS) and Transmedia Strategies Sustain Video Game Franchises, Part I
Audience Engagement, Community Building, Policies
Hales Wilson
Murals: A Right to Protest and Preserve

This article explores the evolution of murals from ancient cave paintings to modern digital advocacy, highlighting their role as a vital tool for social resistance and cultural preservation. Through this lens, the public wall is revealed as a primary battleground for community identity and the right to protest in the 21st century.

Murals: A Right to Protest and Preserve
Laws & Legal, Artificial Intelligence, Public Policy, Extended Reality
Staff Researcher
Building Digital Guardrails: Toward a ...

As immersive technologies merge with AI-driven platforms, the boundaries between physical and digital life are rapidly dissolving - bringing new ethical, legal, and safety challenges into focus. This article examines the history of virtual harm in online and XR environments, from early text-based worlds to contemporary VR gaming and performance spaces, and argues for a privacy-first framework as the foundation for immersive safety. By analyzing legal gaps, platform accountability, and global policy efforts, it proposes digital “guardrails” that prioritize user dignity, data protection, and well-being as core design principles rather than afterthoughts.

Building Digital Guardrails: Toward a Privacy-First Framework for Immersive Safety
Blockchain, Digital Futures, Emerging Technology
Staff Researcher
Blockchains or Pawprints? Furries as a ...

This article explores the intersection of digital art, NFTs, and community governance through the lens of the furry fandom, a decentralized community of artists and enthusiasts. With the rise of NFTs, the ability to authenticate digital art and protect creators' work has become a critical concern. The study examines the resistance within the furry community to adopt NFTs, highlighting their reliance on community-based trust and governance over "trustless" blockchain systems. While some see potential in NFTs to safeguard intellectual property, many furries are skeptical, valuing social trust and ethics over commercialization. By studying the furry subculture's approach to art ownership and the challenges they face, the article poses larger questions about the future of NFTs and blockchain technology in creative spaces.

Blockchains or Pawprints? Furries as a case-study for understanding digital art provenance through NFTs and community governance
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How Games as a Service (GaaS) and Transmedia Strategies Sustain Video Game Franchises, Part II

, , ,
How Games as a Service (GaaS) and Transmedia Strategies Sustain Video Game Franchises, Part II

In Part II, this part of the study moves from industry context to empirical analysis, translating strategic questions into evidence-based insights drawn from primary research. While Part I established the historical and market foundations of Games as a Service (GaaS) and transmedia adaptation and framed the challenges of player retention, monetization, and franchise longevity, Part II examines how these dynamics operate in practice. Using findings from a 1,159-response U.S. consumer survey, nine industry interviews with developers, influencers, and experiential professionals, as well as supporting secondary research, this section analyzes player behavior perceptions and expectations. Part II identifies the mechanisms that drive sustained engagement and trust in live service ecosystems, evaluates the effectiveness of current GaaS and transmedia strategies, and surfaces actionable insights that inform the strategic recommendations presented in the final chapter.

, , ,

How Games as a Service (GaaS) and Transmedia Strategies Sustain Video Game Franchises, Part I

, , ,
How Games as a Service (GaaS) and Transmedia Strategies Sustain Video Game Franchises, Part I

This study provides a foundational analysis of how live-service game models and transmedia strategies are reshaping the contemporary video game industry, with a particular focus on Games as a Service (GaaS), player engagement, and franchise longevity. As gaming continues to outpace film and television as the world’s most lucrative entertainment sector, publishers face growing pressure to sustain player communities, balance monetization with satisfaction, and extend intellectual property beyond the game itself. Part 1 examines the historical evolution of GaaS and game adaptations, situating SEGA’s legacy within today’s competitive landscape. Drawing on existing literature, industry reports, and market context, this section frames the central research questions and methodological approach that guide the study. By establishing the strategic challenges and opportunities facing live-service games and transmedia franchises, Part 1 lays the conceptual groundwork for the data-driven analysis and recommendations presented in Part 2.

, ,

Murals: A Right to Protest and Preserve

, ,
Murals: A Right to Protest and Preserve

This article explores the evolution of murals from ancient cave paintings to modern digital advocacy, highlighting their role as a vital tool for social resistance and cultural preservation. Through this lens, the public wall is revealed as a primary battleground for community identity and the right to protest in the 21st century.

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AI-Powered Robots in the Art World: Applications in Contemporary Art and Museums

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From algorithmic computation to human-machine collaboration, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is reshaping how society produces knowledge and imagines the future. AI-powered robots are now appearing not only in factories but also in art studios, galleries, and museums, signaling a crucial cultural shift, transforming technology from a tool of production to an active participant in artistic creation and curatorial practice.

This article explores the dual applications of AI-powered robots in contemporary art and museum settings, analyzing how they function as creative agents and cultural ambassadors in diverse global contexts. It argues that these intelligent systems challenge traditional concepts of creativity while redefining how cultural institutions think about the relationship between humans and machines in the new era.

Historical Origins: From Mechanical Performance to Creative Agency

The history of robots in art can be traced to post-war experiments that blurred boundaries between engineering and aesthetics. In 1948, British neurophysiologist William Grey Walter built Elmer and Elsie - two “mechanical tortoises.” They could move toward light and avoid obstacles using only a few simple circuits. Although they were not complex by modern standards, these early “mechanical tortoises” showed that even simple machines could behave in surprising and creative ways.

By the late 20th century, artists began using robots not merely as curiosities but as expressive tools. In 1999, Sony’s AIBO, the first consumer-grade robotic dog, entered both homes and galleries, inspiring discussions about empathy and artificial emotion. 

A family poses indoors holding Sony AIBO robotic dogs alongside a plush toy dog, illustrating early consumer robots designed to evoke emotional connection and empathy in domestic settings.

Figure 1: Sony AIBO and Human–Robot Affection. Source: Ieee Spectrum

In the 21st century, advances in artificial intelligence, computer vision, and multimodal perception have transformed robots from pre-programmed devices into learning entities capable of perception and adaptation. This evolution has paved the way for the emergence of AI-powered robots in studios and museums. 

The Contemporary Landscape: Why Visual Arts Matter

AI-powered robots are emerging across virtually every sector of modern life. In healthcare, they assist surgeons with precision operations and provide companionship to elderly patients suffering from dementia. In manufacturing, “more than half a million industrial robots were installed in factories around the world in 2022”, assembling products with superhuman accuracy and efficiency. In hospitality, service robots deliver room service items, guide guests, and communicate in multiple languages across hotels globally. In the performing arts, robotic dancers share stages with human choreographers, while robotic musicians perform in orchestras, expanding the boundaries of live performance.

Figure 2: Global Robotics Industry Overview (2025). Source: Startus Insights

However, within this diverse range of applications, robots in the visual arts ecosystem occupy a unique and interesting niche. Unlike purely functional robots designed to optimize efficiency or safety, robots deployed in exhibitions and museums encounter fundamental questions about human creativity, aesthetic judgment, and cultural authority. When a robot paints, sculpts, or guides visitors through an exhibition, it enters a realm traditionally reserved for humans: imagination, interpretation, and emotional empathy.

Therefore, this research focuses specifically on public-facing robots in visual arts contexts: those that interact directly with audiences as creators (generating artworks) or cultural ambassadors (mediating museum experiences). In contemporary art, these robots challenge fundamental assumptions about authorship and artistic agency - can machines truly "create," or do they simply execute sophisticated algorithms? Meanwhile, in museum settings, robots show valuable advantages, like multilingual interpretation, intelligent assistant tour guides, or maintenance and cleaning. While the development of those applications simultaneously raises concerns about workforce displacement and the authenticity of cultural experience, the art world is making technology more accessible, inspiring people to imagine what's next.

The following cases demonstrate how artists and art institutions around the world are navigating these tensions. By examining robots as autonomous partners (Agnieszka Pilat's painting Spot dogs), humanoid artists (Ai-Da), multi-agent systems (CoFRIDA), and museum ambassadors (Ameca in Dubai and AI Docents in Seoul), we can trace how AI-powered systems are reshaping not only what visual art can be, but how we experience and understand it.

AI Robots in Contemporary Art

Agnieszka Pilat — Machines as Artists

Artist Agnieszka Pilat crouches beside a yellow industrial robotic arm as it draws chalk-like marks on a blue wall, illustrating a collaborative art-making process between a human artist and an AI-controlled robot in a contemporary gallery setting.

Figure 3: Agnieszka Pilat and Robotic Art Practice. Source: AGNIESZKA PILAT

Polish-American artist Agnieszka Pilat stands at the forefront of exploring robotics as a creative collaborator. Her installation Heterobota at the National Gallery of Victoria featured three Boston Dynamics Spot robots: Basia, Vanya, and Bunny, who lived inside the gallery for four months and autonomously painted canvases.

Pilat calls herself a “propaganda artist for technology,” situating her work within portraiture’s historical tradition. “Historically, portraiture reflects power in society and works around patronage. So I started painting portraits of technology as the new aristocracy,” she explained. Each robot possessed a distinct “personality”: Basia was a serious painter, Vanya was a nurturing guardian, and Bunny was a social media performer who captured attention through her reflection in a mirror. The robots’ paintings - over thirty completed during the residency - represent what Pilat calls “the first primitive language of a new civilization.”

Her project transforms robots from mechanical objects into artistic partners, suggesting that machines can represent creative intention. Pilat positions herself as a "Renaissance teacher" guiding her robot apprentices, redefining the human-machine relationship as one of mentor rather than apprentice. The robot is both an artist and an artistic object, and she questions whether creativity can exist without consciousness.

Ai-Da — The Humanoid Artist

The humanoid robot artist Ai-Da, created in 2019 and named after Ada Lovelace, represents another perspective in machine creativity. Ai-Da uses cameras in her eyes to capture images, translating them into drawings and sculptures via AI algorithms. But Ai-Da is "like an artist surrounded by assistants." Humans' help is essential for the artwork creation process. The human team creates the initial vision, sets up a topic or concept for Ai-Da, and provides the original data, like prompts and images. And sometimes the studio assistants will help with adding paint and texture, and lead the whole direction of the creation. 

Figure 4: The Humanoid Robot Artist Being Interviewed. Source: Ai-Darobot

The appearance of Ai-Da challenges the definitions of authorship and authenticity. While early critics noted the involvement of human programmers in her work, newer iterations of Ai-Da operate with increasing autonomy. Her exhibitions make audiences question whether emotion in art must come from a sentient source or whether algorithmic simulation can produce comparable aesthetic responses. Ai-Da functions like both a mirror and a mediator, reflecting human desires to see ourselves in machines that appear capable of feeling.

CoFRIDA - Collaborative Robotic Creativity

At Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute, a robotic research team has been exploring how AI can enable artistic collaboration. Their first outcome, FRIDA (Framework and Robotics Initiative for Developing Art), released in 2023, was designed as a kind of robotic solo artist. Using a single robot arm, FRIDA could translate human text or image prompts, like “paint a city skyline at sunset,” into expressive brushstrokes on canvas.

Diagram showing the CoFRIDA system workflow, where user drawings or text prompts are refined through a co-painting module, self-supervised fine-tuning, and robotic actions to iteratively update a canvas.

Figure 5: CoFRIDA Co-Painting System Overview. Source: CoFRIDA

A year later, the team launched CoFRIDA (Collaborative FRIDA), an upgraded system that expands this concept into a multi-agent framework. Instead of one robot painting alone, multiple FRIDA units and human participants can now collaborate, sharing sensory data and aesthetic decisions in real time. Each robot perceives the movements of its collaborators and adjusts its own behavior accordingly, creating what the team describes as a "dialogue of color and movement." Through this coordinated process, CoFRIDA redefines creativity as a collective practice rather than an individual act. It highlights how human-robot collaboration can go beyond automation, transforming technology into a partner that learns, responds, and creates art alongside humans.

Survey results comparing user preferences for sketches generated by FRIDA, CoFRIDA without fine-tuning, and CoFRIDA with fine-tuning, showing CoFRIDA favored across most responses.

Figure 6: Survey Comparison of CoFRIDA and FRIDA Outputs. Source: CoFRIDA

AI Robots in Museums

The museum is applying AI robots in three main areas: educational presentations, visitor interaction, and institutional image promotion. Each application reflects a different perspective on the role of technology in cultural dissemination. The museums are also using robots to guide tours, as interactive exhibit assistants, or for maintenance and cleaning. 

Korean National Museum — AI Docent for Education

At the National Museum of Korea, AI docents represent a new educational model, with robots acting as multilingual guides and adapting their explanations based on visitors' responses. Beyond these docents, the museum integrates AI technology throughout its exhibits: AI eyes detect visitors' emotions, and robotic singing bowls combine traditional Korean art with modern engineering, demonstrating how technology can bridge tradition and innovation. The museum's ambitious Robotic Science Museum (RSM) project takes this vision to the extreme, envisioning robots designing, building, and operating the entire museum, positioning automation as the infrastructure for cultural preservation. However, this approach raises crucial questions: When a robotic docent explains a traditional Korean artifact, is it translating culture or transforming it? While robots can speak multiple languages ​​fluently, they lack the embodied cultural knowledge that human docents possess, such as the tacit understanding of cultural context, the life experience that guides interpretation, and the ability to interpret subtle social cues. This gap between information transmission and cultural preservation suggests that while robots may excel at answering objective questions like "what" and "when," they fall short on interpretive questions requiring cultural understanding and experiential judgment, such as "why" and "how."

“The new Robot Science Museum (RSM) which plays a catalytic role in advancing and promoting science, technology, and innovation throughout society is not only going to exhibit robots but actually from design, manufacturing to construction and services robots will be in charge. In other words, RSM will start its ‘first exhibition’ with ‘its own construction’ by robots on site.”
— Melike Altınışık

Dubai’s Museum of the Future — The Robot as Exhibit-Performer

In Dubai's Museum of the Future, Ameca exemplifies a different model: the robot as both guide and exhibit-performer. Ameca's hyperrealistic facial expressions and conversational abilities create what curators call an 'immersive technological experience,' yet this fusion of function and spectacle complicates the visitor relationship. Are guests learning from Ameca or learning about Ameca? The robot becomes a medium for information and a message about humanity's technological future. This dual role reflects what media theorist Marshall McLuhan observed: the medium shapes the message as much as the content itself. When museums use humanoid robots as cultural ambassadors, they inevitably communicate values about innovation, progress, and the desirability of human-machine integration. Messages that may overshadow the cultural artifacts the robots are meant to interpret.

Ethical Reflections

The integration of AI-powered robots into art and museum contexts raises concerns about authorship, emotion, and the human role in creativity. In Pilat’s Heterobota, the artist frames herself as a mentor, but the robots’ works still have high market value even without her hands. Similarly, Ai-Da’s growing autonomy challenges whether a machine’s aesthetic output can - or should - be attributed to itself.

In museum contexts, ethical debates shift toward representation and empathy. Visitors often attribute emotional qualities to humanoid robots, responding to their gestures and voices as if they were sentient. Such reactions reveal what theorists call the empathy paradox: humans empathize with artificial entities while denying them moral standing. The museum robot thus becomes a test case for contemporary humanism - how far our emotional imagination extends toward nonhuman agents.

Conclusion

From the practices of contemporary artists to the galleries of major museums, AI-powered robots have become critical players in the cultural ecosystem. Among these diverse contexts, robots do not replace humans but rather reveal what it means to be human - reflecting our desire for connection, our fascination with technology, and our anxieties about authenticity.

Creativity is relational, empathy is programmable, and art - once the exclusive domain of the human imagination - is becoming a shared pursuit of organic thought and artificial intelligence.

In this evolving landscape, AI-powered robots are not merely tools or performers but rather mediators of creativity and culture, shaping a new era where the boundaries between artist, audience, and algorithm are increasingly blurred.

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Building Digital Guardrails: Toward a Privacy-First Framework for Immersive Safety

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Building Digital Guardrails: Toward a Privacy-First Framework for Immersive Safety

As immersive technologies merge with AI-driven platforms, the boundaries between physical and digital life are rapidly dissolving - bringing new ethical, legal, and safety challenges into focus. This article examines the history of virtual harm in online and XR environments, from early text-based worlds to contemporary VR gaming and performance spaces, and argues for a privacy-first framework as the foundation for immersive safety. By analyzing legal gaps, platform accountability, and global policy efforts, it proposes digital “guardrails” that prioritize user dignity, data protection, and well-being as core design principles rather than afterthoughts.

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Blockchains or Pawprints? Furries as a case-study for understanding digital art provenance through NFTs and community governance

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Blockchains or Pawprints? Furries as a case-study for understanding digital art provenance through NFTs and community governance

This article explores the intersection of digital art, NFTs, and community governance through the lens of the furry fandom, a decentralized community of artists and enthusiasts. With the rise of NFTs, the ability to authenticate digital art and protect creators' work has become a critical concern. The study examines the resistance within the furry community to adopt NFTs, highlighting their reliance on community-based trust and governance over "trustless" blockchain systems. While some see potential in NFTs to safeguard intellectual property, many furries are skeptical, valuing social trust and ethics over commercialization. By studying the furry subculture's approach to art ownership and the challenges they face, the article poses larger questions about the future of NFTs and blockchain technology in creative spaces.

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The Future is Now: Our Most-Read Articles and Most-Downloaded Podcasts of the Year

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The Future is Now: Our Most-Read Articles and Most-Downloaded Podcasts of the Year

As technology continues to reshape the arts and entertainment landscape, our readers and listeners have shown a clear appetite for understanding these transformations. From AI's role in creative processes to the evolution of virtual reality and streaming, this year's most popular content reveals the questions on everyone's minds.

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Behind the LED Wall: Technology, Labor, and Economics in Virtual Production

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Behind the LED Wall: Technology, Labor, and Economics in Virtual Production

This article explores the rise of virtual production (VP) and its impact on contemporary filmmaking through the use of large-scale LED volumes that merge physical sets with real-time digital environments. Using high-profile productions such as The Mandalorian and 1899 as case studies, it examines how VP reshapes creative workflows across departments, redistributes labor rather than eliminating it, and demands new hybrid skill sets from designers, location managers, and technicians. The piece also addresses the role of labor unions and training programs in adapting to emerging technologies, alongside the economic challenges of scalability, access, and high upfront costs. Ultimately, the article positions virtual production as a transformative - yet uneven - evolution in the entertainment industry, emphasizing the need for equitable training and infrastructure as VP becomes a lasting mode of production.

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Extending Reality in Actor Training: Benefits, Repercussions, & Legal Implications

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Extending Reality in Actor Training: Benefits, Repercussions, & Legal Implications

This article explores how extended reality (XR) - including augmented, mixed, and virtual reality - is reshaping acting training by layering immersive technologies onto long-established methods like Stanislavski-based technique and the Method. Drawing on examples from Basrah to Juilliard and Odin Teatret, the piece shows how XR can deepen character work, expand dramaturgical research, and personalize feedback through data-driven simulations. At the same time, it raises urgent legal, ethical, and social questions around biometric data, FERPA and HIPAA protections, digital Blackface, and harassment in virtual spaces. Rather than treating XR as a magic solution, the article argues that thoughtful pedagogy, clear institutional policies, and equity-minded design are essential if these tools are to support - not replace - human-centered theatre education.

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Frameworks for Understanding Cultural Policy: Lessons from the Irish Model

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Frameworks for Understanding Cultural Policy: Lessons from the Irish Model

This article analyzes Ireland’s emerging position as a global cultural policy case study, focusing on the Basic Income for the Arts (BIA) program and its place within the national framework Culture 2025. While Ireland’s consensus-driven political system, strong arts advocacy networks, and history of support for artist income have enabled an ambitious, research-oriented basic income pilot, the article highlights deeper tensions within cultural policymaking. Drawing on Stephen Hadley’s concept of “cultural policy realism,” it argues that Ireland’s policies—despite their novelty—remain rooted in traditional, instrumentalist views of culture as an economic engine and national branding tool. By contrasting democratization of culture with cultural democracy, the piece situates Ireland’s model between innovation and reversion, emphasizing the need for sustained experimentation, critical evaluation, and more genuinely democratic approaches to cultural support.

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Part II - The Role of AI in Evolving Game Ecosystems and Player Dynamics

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Part II - The Role of AI in Evolving Game Ecosystems and Player Dynamics

This study advances Part II by translating Scopely’s strategy into an execution plan across three tracks - NPC innovation, intelligent monetization, and ethical LiveOps - supported by new evidence from a 1,159-response consumer survey, nine expert interviews (developers, influencers, and experiential professionals), and secondary industry research. Part I established the market context for AI’s disruptive potential and identified three priorities: live operations evolution, commerce optimization, and advanced player analytics. The goal of this phase is to pinpoint the highest-leverage AI applications that deepen gameplay engagement, convert payment resistance through demonstrated value, and safeguard community trust. Accordingly, Part II outlines actionable playbooks (context-aware NPCs and adaptive narratives), platform tactics (purchase-aligned mobile personalization and cross-play integration), and operational models (behavior-based matchmaking and transparency protocols) designed to drive scalable, technology-led growth while preserving the integrity of shared human play.

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Part I - Beyond the Screen: The Role of AI in Evolving Game Ecosystems and Player Dynamics

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Part I - Beyond the Screen: The Role of AI in Evolving Game Ecosystems and Player Dynamics

This study provides a comprehensive analysis for Scopely to enhance its position as a leader in interactive and mobile gaming, focusing on AI integration in live operations, in-game commerce, and player analytics. The research reveals the urgent need for gaming companies to navigate accelerated AI adoption and evolving player expectations for personalized experiences. The goal is to identify the most impactful AI applications over the next three years and strategies that maximize engagement and monetization while maintaining player trust. Significant to this goal is balancing innovation with ethical considerations, including data privacy and transparency, while recognizing AI's potential to enhance storytelling and create immersive experiences. Employing a mixed-methods approach with industry interviews, a survey of over 1,000 U.S. gamers, and secondary research, Part I establishes the foundation for understanding AI's transformative impact - setting the stage for Part II's empirical findings and strategic recommendations.

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Byte-Sized Culture: The Art of Stealing

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Byte-Sized Culture: The Art of Stealing

A daylight robbery at the Musée du Louvre in mid-October resulted in the theft of eight priceless pieces from the French Crown Jewels housed in the Galerie d’Apollon. The incident now serves as an in-depth analysis for arts leaders globally to confront not only external threats, like highly organized professional thieves, but also the complex, internal risk of compromised staff and the urgent need to re-evaluate their security posture, technological investment, and institutional accountability.

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Extending Reach with Extended Reality: Live Theatre Performance and XR

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Extending Reach with Extended Reality: Live Theatre Performance and XR

This article examines how extended reality (XR) technologies are expanding theatre’s reach beyond the physical venue. Building on proshots’ successes and shortcomings, it maps liveness through four components—temporality, exclusivity, spatiality, and interaction—and tests them across emerging formats: immersive dome screenings (Cosm), phone-based AR experiments (All Kinds of Limbo, The Tempest), and avatar-led VR productions (Tender Claws, Adventure Lab). XR’s promise is real—richer presence, audience participation, and radical portability—but so are the hurdles of motion capture quality, cost, technical literacy, and scale. Rather than replacing stagecraft, XR functions as a flexible toolkit that opens new creative and accessible pathways for live performance.

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Remixing the Music Industry: Strategies for 21st Century Record Labels, PART II

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Remixing the Music Industry: Strategies for 21st Century Record Labels, PART II

This study provides a comprehensive strategy for Shaboom Records to enhance its status as an independent music label in a highly competitive market, focusing on three key areas: revenue growth, digital service provider (DSP) strategies, and fan engagement. The supportive research reveals the need for companies to effectively navigate changes in the music industry, such as globalization and the rise of streaming. The goal of this research is to identify the most effective revenue streams for U.S. independent labels expanding into emerging global markets and the digital engagement strategies that yield the highest conversion rates and retention metrics for Gen Z and Gen Alpha listeners. Significant to this goal is the recognition that DSP optimization is largely based on securing relationships with playlist curators. Furthermore, social media has democratized the music industry, giving artists control over their narrative and the ability to connect with fans. 

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Remixing the Music Industry: Strategies for 21st Century Record Labels, PART I

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Remixing the Music Industry: Strategies for 21st Century Record Labels, PART I

This study provides a comprehensive strategy for Shaboom Records to enhance its status as an independent music label in a highly competitive market, focusing on three key areas: revenue growth, digital service provider (DSP) strategies, and fan engagement. The supportive research reveals the need for companies to effectively navigate changes in the music industry, such as globalization and the rise of streaming. The goal of this research is to identify the most effective revenue streams for U.S. independent labels expanding into emerging global markets and the digital engagement strategies that yield the highest conversion rates and retention metrics for Gen Z and Gen Alpha listeners. Significant to this goal is the recognition that DSP optimization is largely based on securing relationships with playlist curators. Furthermore, social media has democratized the music industry, giving artists control over their narrative and the ability to connect with fans. 

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The Politics of Portrayal: Motherhood Narratives on Television During Policy Transformation

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The Politics of Portrayal: Motherhood Narratives on Television During Policy Transformation

Between 2017 and 2024, portrayals of motherhood on American television evolved alongside seismic shifts in reproductive rights policy. As streaming platforms expanded creative freedom, shows depicted increasingly diverse maternal experiences—grappling with infertility, childcare, abortion, and the pressures of “good motherhood.” At the same time, landmark legal changes, including the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson decision, reshaped the national conversation about reproductive agency. This article explores how television both reflected and anticipated these political transformations, revealing the cultural narratives that influence—and are influenced by—the legal realities of parenting in America.

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Byte-Sized Culture: The Business of Art in the Digital Age

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Byte-Sized Culture: The Business of Art in the Digital Age

The digital art world is long past being just a new creative medium; it has evolved into a complex economic arena. What was once a niche field is now a battleground for artists, developers, and institutions grappling with new questions of ownership, value, and creative rights. This evolving landscape is driven by emerging technologies, including AI and blockchain, which are not only reshaping how art is made but also challenging the very foundations of traditional art markets and the way artists earn a living.

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From Murals to Metadata: Digitizing Cultural Heritage in the Tech Age

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From Murals to Metadata: Digitizing Cultural Heritage in the Tech Age

Cultural heritage is a testament to millennia of civilization, but it is threatened by natural erosion, tourism, and time. Most traditional methods of conservation, though foundational, have difficulty responding to the scale and complexity of these emerging challenges. Digital technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), 3D scanning, virtual reality (VR), and blockchain, can offer new solutions. This article examines how digitization preserves and revitalizes cultural property using the Mogao Caves as a case study.