Natalia Casio-Lara is a fourth-year undergraduate who is majoring in Anthropology and minoring in Digital Humanities. She is a first-generation college student from Los Angeles, and her research focuses on the cultures that emerge from video-game communities of first-person shooter games. Her intent with this research is to shed light on the discrepancies and differences between how men and women are enculturated into these communities. This research will be conducted by interviewing and observing players, engaging in participant observation, and conducting fieldwork to ultimately culminate into a video game ethnography. With this, she aims to help solidify the concept of video game/virtual communities as being legitimate, cultural spaces to conduct anthropological research. The ultimate goal is to take this research to video game studios and help them in their mission of improving safety in their communities and diminishing negativity and toxicity; an issue that permeates first-person shooter game environments.
