Chum has also recently completed his thesis at Swinburne concerning social structures in online worlds, called “Killing the Noob” (H1, Pending Publishing) and is both an avid observer and participant of them. His works meld together Social Sciences, Media Communications, Political Science and Games Studies, a truly multi-disciplinary approach to theory construction. He hopes to create an understanding of online worlds and games that bridges all of these schools of study, as keeping them independent only precludes a deeper understanding of the human use of technology.

Currently, his main focus is his PhD Candidacy, and not fumbling it. His thesis, is in the early stages of construction and is subject to radically invert at any time without notice. At the moment, the main focus of it has been the historical materialist deconstruction of the historical societal structural developments within massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG), determining whether their current state is indicative of a late digital feudalism, and seeing whether real world historicity can inform the future of MMORPG social development.

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Killing the Noob 1st Ed
2011
Robert Li

Thesis on Meritocratic Social Structures effects on MMORPGs

Headphones and Hyperreality
2010
Robert Li

Short Essay on Simulacra in Society