About

Marientina Gotsis is a Professor of the Practice of Cinematic Arts at USC Cinematic Arts, with affiliated divisions in Interactive Media & Games and Media Arts + Practice. She has a broad background in arts, design, and engineering, with a special interest in interactive entertainment applications for health, happiness, and rehabilitation. Gotsis is co-founder and director of the Creative Media & Behavioral Health Center (CMBHC), an organized research unit between the School of Cinematic Arts and the Keck School of Medicine, where she created and directs 'The Garden,' an inclusive research environment for students of any discipline. Her team designs, develops, and evaluates educational and therapeutic interventions using entertainment media such as films, videos, animation, games, and virtual reality. She created and directs the world's first graduate degree focused on Media Arts, Games & Health, established in 2015, and the Games & Health emphasis in the USC Games MFA in Interactive Media. Gotsis is also a Visiting Professor at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki School of Medicine in Greece. Her work has been funded by numerous organizations including NIH, RWJF, DoE, DoD, and others, and she is the inventor and executive producer of The Brain Architecture Game, a tabletop game about early childhood science played worldwide. She founded and leads USC’s Games for Health Initiative since 2007, connecting health professionals with interactive media innovation. Gotsis has led and advised several USC centers and institutes, and has lectured and published extensively on her research, with presentations at the White House, NIH, NSF, and other venues. Her research spans developmental neuroscience, wellness, obesity, mental health, autism, injury prevention, and rehabilitation, among other topics. She holds a BFA in Photography/Film/Interactive Media and an MFA in Electronic Visualization from the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she was involved in large-scale networked virtual reality research. Gotsis has also taught art, design, animation, and programming at various institutions and has worked in industry and consulting roles, managing startups, providing creative services, and supporting digital production for private and public organizations.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Psychology
• Applied psychology
• Human–computer interaction
• Medicine
• Nursing

Selected publications

• Editorial: Video games for impact: design projects that can change the way we think

  Frontiers in Computer Science · 2025-11-10

  editorialOpen accessSenior author

  The academic and research community has used different terms over the years to define and frame video games that go beyond entertainment. The term serious games has proven the most enduring, particularly since the early 2000s. Since then, it has been applied to computer games, video games, and, more recently, hybrid and XR games whose primary design purpose is not entertainment (Sawyer, 2007). Every legacy, however, carries its own advantages and disadvantages. The qualifier serious introduces a tension between games marked by serious content and those considered non-serious, reproducing the traditional dichotomy between leisure and work, or between productive and unproductive time. Rooted in classical social theory, free time has rarely been imagined as world-saving; from Weber's moral work ethic to neoliberal ideology, leisure has been equated with idleness and, ultimately, civic irrelevance. This is where serious games change the narrative: an artifact from the land of the 'lazy,' designed to educate, train, inform, sensitize, empower -or at least to try. Video games have emerged as significant cultural forms, carrying the potential to engage diverse audiences across social, political, and cultural contexts. Beyond entertainment, they increasingly demonstrate the potential to foster empathy, challenge stereotypes, raise awareness of social and environmental issues, and broaden access to meaningful play. These games are classified as serious games and forms of serious play, highlighting that their purpose goes beyond mere fun.The term "serious," however, is a broad category including different game genres and types of gamesfrom simulation and corporate training games to social awareness and radical games, as well as educational or newsgames. Some of them have more instrumental goals than others, focusing on the development of technical skills, soft skills, specific pedagogical knowledge and professional competencies. While such objectives are valuable to their target audience, they are narrow in scope and moral purpose, or at least in what we could call a movement toward positive social change, and do not self-evidently entail a moral purpose (Czauderna, 2013;Voulgari et al., 2024). The Games for Impact Award, established in 2014, reflected the need to acknowledge and promote games that, as the description mentions, entail social or emotional change. The term impact emphasizes this dimension-games that are designed to leave something behind-social, cultural, political. But this is exactly where things become complicated. Even among the editors of this topic, the term "impact" brings with it conversations about binaries such as high morality versus unethical design, the dangers of relativism, and, of course, how we frame, measure or evaluate the term impact itself.The aim of the Research Topic is to foster a dialogue on how games can serve as vehicles for social, cultural, and interpersonal change. It seeks to bring together projects and perspectives that highlight design practices, research frameworks, and gameplay experiences that might shed light on this matter. Our sense is that Games for Impact differ from serious games in that they make a distinct claim: that games can act as catalysts for embedding significant social and cultural issues into the public consciousness. In its literal sense, impact refers to a force of impression that brings two "things" into contact, even forcefully. The question we raise-whether and under what circumstances games can acquire this role, and how design thinking and design methodologies can be applied to foster-or even evaluate-such impact-remains an open and interdisciplinary area of exploration.The four contributions collected here exemplify this diversity of approaches.The article Negotiating artefacts: student game creation for education and introspection explores how students engage in the creative process of game-making, using artefacts not only as design outputs but also as tools for reflection, learning, and self-discovery. By highlighting the educational and introspective dimensions of game creation, it points to the transformative potential of design practice itself.In Virtual play and real connections: unpacking the impact of rice farming simulation video games the authors analyze how simulation games can mediate cultural knowledge and social connection. By focusing on rice farming simulations, the study illustrates how virtual play can translate into meaningful awareness of real-world practices, values, and community ties.The study Spontaneous recognition of impactful video games: a user-centric classification framework addresses the methodological challenges of defining and assessing impact in games. Proposing a framework based on player recognition and categorization, it offers a structured approach to understanding how users themselves identify which games are impactful and why.Finally, Inclusive gaming through AI: a perspective for identifying opportunities and obstacles through codesign with people living with MND emphasizes accessibility and inclusivity. By centering the experiences of people living with motor neuron disease, this perspective piece demonstrates how co-design and AI technologies can contribute to more inclusive play experiences and broaden participation in gaming.Taken together, these contributions showcase the breadth of what "games for impact" can mean in practice: from fostering self-reflection and cultural connection, often through the immersive mediation of new technologies (e.g., Theodoropoulos & Antoniou, 2022), to developing frameworks for evaluation and promoting accessibility. They reaffirm that impactful game design is not limited to specific genres or purposes, but rather spans education, culture, social inclusion, and methodological innovation.Looking ahead, future research should explore further how impact can be also in the long term assessed, and which design principles most effectively lead to lasting change. This includes developing robust evaluation methodologies, exploring new narrative and technological forms, and engaging with diverse player communities. By continuing to build bridges between theory, practice, and lived experience, we can appreciate the transformative potential of video games beyond entertainment, but as catalysts for empathy, awareness, and social innovation.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• What matters to you?: A medical and art student collaboration to create immersive legacy memorials with gynecologic cancer patients anticipating end-of-life

  Gynecologic Oncology Reports · 2025-06-01

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Design and evaluation of <i>Enthralled</i> : A higher education conversation game based on Euripides’ <i>Bacchae</i>

  Arts and Humanities in Higher Education · 2024-09-07

  articleSenior authorCorresponding

  This article presents the design, goals, and evaluation of Enthralled following the 2022 playtesting in three undergraduate Liberal Arts core courses. Enthralled draws on ancient Greek myths and the classical tragedy Bacchae by Euripides. As an immersive pedagogical intervention, Enthralled promotes group collaboration and rewards consideration of diverse viewpoints and cultural values. Participants vote on the motivations of dramatic characters, which allows for a deeper understanding of their preconceptions and implicit biases and offers the opportunity for self-reflection and dialogue. The game toolkit includes an original deck of cards, a role-playing script, a character sheet, ballots, a hints-and-clues deck, instructions for players and moderators, and scoring materials. The third version of Enthralled exceeded our entertainment efficacy, playability, and usability goals and contributed positively to the learning outcomes of the courses. Minor game improvements and a course-tailored implementation toolkit are the next steps for scaling this project.

  PublisherDOI

• Developing Brain-Computer Interfaces with Everyone

  2023-07-05

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Throughout its history, the field of brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) has offered people with severe motor disabilities the opportunity to engage with their environments using brain activity alone. Contemporary solutions, however, lack support for reliable evaluation by researchers, independent use by patients and their caregivers, or creative extension by students, artists, and software developers at home. This paper provides preliminary guidance on the integration of research engagement activities into BCI research to enable use at home. Alongside key principles for enabling Research Engagement Always And With Everyone, we present the initial specification for a standardized software ecosystem that could enable the rapid development of high-performance BCI applications on the Open Web. By integrating Open Web technologies alongside engagement activities in current research programs, we argue that participation in the development of a new generation of at-home BCI systems can be widened.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Ethical, Moral, and Philosophical Challenges of Creating and Evaluating the Impact of Virtual Reality Experiences

  2023-11-22

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Virtual reality’s (VR) expansion into consumer markets means more diverse makers are creating experiences now than ever before. While improved accessibility has resulted in groundbreaking progress, ethical challenges have emerged rapidly in educational settings. VR is a transdisciplinary conundrum for teacher-practitioners who must make sense of the boundaries between ethics frameworks. Whether formal or informal, the development of an experience and the evaluation of its impact present fundamental challenges for teachers regardless of their discipline. This chapter examines cases encountered in classroom and research labs. The definition of “virtual reality” is used broadly to include non-stereoscopic and non-head tracked experiences, as adjacent experiences represent a near future for consideration. A case study collection includes Darfur Is Dying, Our America, That Dragon Cancer, Alma, Adventurous Dreaming High Flying Dragon, and Becoming Dragon. Numerous challenges are encountered through the case study collection and related works, some of which can be mitigated while others are harder to manage. Challenges that can be mitigated include shallow expertise and novelty effects. Subjectivity, systemic inequality, intolerance, and legal and regulatory norms are more complex challenges to confront. Specific pedagogical are strategies shown to help include interdisciplinarity, intersectionality, and conscious self-awareness (positionality).

  PublisherDOI

• Inclusive Character Creator

  2022-07-25 · 4 citations

  article

  Inclusive Character Creator is a speculative design research project that seeks to address some of the long-standing issues of sexism, racism, ableism, and sizeism prevalent in most 3D character creators in interactive media. This project focuses on stylized and expressive features rather than hyperrealism. It seeks to redefine what it means to start a character from a “default body,” a definition that usually results in creating a biased system that relies on media norms. A version 1.0 has been built, encapsulating fundamental principles resulting from research.

  PublisherDOI

• Design and Development of a Virtual Reality-Based Mobility Training Game for People With Parkinson's Disease

  Frontiers in Neurology · 2021 · 20 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Psychology
  • Applied psychology

  , and each session was directed by their personal physical therapist. Our outcome measures included perceived sense of presence measured using the International Test Commission-Sense of Presence Inventory (ITC-SOPI), levels of motivation using the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI), overall system usability using the System Usability Scale (SUS), and setup time by the physical therapists. Both the people with PD and the physical therapists rated their sense of presence in the training system positively. The system received high ratings on the interest and value subscales of the IMI, and the system was also rated highly on usability, from the perspective of both the patient during gameplay and the therapist while controlling the experience. These preliminary results suggest that the application and task design yielded an experience that was motivating and user-friendly for both groups. Lastly, with repeated practice over multiple sessions, therapists were able to reduce the time required to help their patients don the headset and sensors and begin the training experience.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Healing Spaces: Feasibility of a Multisensory Experience for Older Adults with Advanced Dementia and their Caregivers

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2020-07-04 · 1 citations

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  Healing Spaces proposes a new approach to multisensory interventions that show potential in ameliorating the behavioral and psychological symptoms of advanced dementia in older adults. Using smart technology, the project combines both digital and physical components to transform spaces and create unified, curated sensory experiences that provide meaningful context for interaction, and are easy for caregivers to deliver. A usability study was conducted for the Healing Spaces app followed by a feasibility evaluation of the full experience in a memory care facility recruiting caregivers, and residents in advanced stages of dementia. The feasibility evaluation successfully illuminated strengths as well as areas for improvement for the Healing Spaces experience in a memory care setting with older adults with advanced dementia. Caregivers and facility managers expressed interest in continuing to use Healing Spaces with the residents of the facility. Lessons learned about the technical and logistical implementation of Healing Spaces are discussed, as well as future directions for study design and potential therapeutic value of the experience.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Abstract IA15: Mobile virtual human health care guides for young adult childhood cancer survivors

  Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention · 2020-09-01

  article

  Abstract Since the mid-1990s, a significant scientific literature has evolved regarding the mental/physical health outcomes from the use of what we now refer to as Clinical Virtual Reality (VR). While the preponderance of clinical work with VR has focused on building immersive virtual worlds for treating anxiety disorders with exposure therapy, providing distracting immersive experiences for acute pain management, and supporting physical rehabilitation with game-based interactive content, there are other emerging areas that have extended the impact of VR in healthcare. One such area involves the recent technological advances that have led to the evolution of intelligent virtual human (VH) agents. VH representations can now be designed to perceive and act in a 3D virtual world, engage in face-to-face spoken dialogues with real users, and in some cases, can exhibit human-like emotional reactions. We have reported positive outcomes from studies using VHs in the role of virtual patients for training novice clinicians, as job interview/social skill trainers for persons on the autism spectrum, and as online health care support agents with university students and military veterans. The computational capacity now exists to deliver similar VH interactions by way of mobile device technology. This capability can support the “anywhere/anytime” availability of VH characters as agents for engaging users with clinical care information and could provide opportunities for improving access to care and emotional support for childhood cancer survivors (CCS). With a survivorship rate of over 83%, CCS are living longer, with estimates indicating that there will be over 500,000 CCS in the United States by 2020. However, CCS are at high risk for late effects of treatment, including recurring or secondary cancers, unhealthy lifestyle, disengagement from care, and the lack of the social support that has been shown to be vital for health and well-being. The majority of CCS will have at least one chronic condition by age 40. Moreover, existing initiatives to serve the needs of CCS have had limited success as these populations can be hard to reach and difficult to engage. We conducted two preliminary studies to inform development and evaluate the usefulness of a mobile app that included VH interaction and guidance to help CCS navigate survivorship and maintain health. In Study 1, two rounds of focus group interviews were conducted with 15 CCS aged 13-30 years. In Study 2, a pilot VH-driven app was developed using the information collected in Study 1. The app was downloaded, tested, and evaluated for one week by 60 CCS between the ages of 13-29 years. The results indicated that dynamic, accessible, engaging and survivor-focused VH approaches could address the needs of young, “digitally native” CCS. We will present a brief introduction to the clinical use of VHs within the VR context (Rizzo), followed by a discussion of a new mobile-enabled VH project designed to promote access to health care information and emotional support in young adult CCS (Spruijt-Metz). Citation Format: Skip Rizzo, Donna Spruijt-Metz, Arno Hartholt, Bill Swartout, Kayla de la Haye, Joel Milam, David Freyer, Kimberly Miller, Anamara Ritt-Olson, Stacy Schepens-Niemiec, Shinyi Wu, Maryalice Jordan-Marsh, Amie Hwang, Anya Samek, Dennis Wixon, George Tolomiczenko, Kenneth Hayashida, Marientina Gotsis, Stefan Schneider, Swaroop Samek, Yaniv Bar-Cohen. Mobile virtual human health care guides for young adult childhood cancer survivors [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Modernizing Population Sciences in the Digital Age; 2019 Feb 19-22; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2020;29(9 Suppl):Abstract nr IA15.

  PublisherDOI

• <i>Healing spaces</i>

  2020 · 9 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Psychology
  • Applied psychology

  Healing Spaces proposes a new approach to multisensory interventions that show potential in ameliorating the behavioral and psychological symptoms of advanced dementia in older adults. Using smart technology, the project combines both digital and physical components to transform spaces and create unified, curated sensory experiences that provide meaningful context for interaction, and are easy for caregivers to deliver. A usability study was conducted for the Healing Spaces app followed by a feasibility evaluation of the full experience in a memory care facility recruiting caregivers, and residents in advanced stages of dementia. The feasibility evaluation successfully illuminated strengths as well as areas for improvement for the Healing Spaces experience in a memory care setting with older adults with advanced dementia. Caregivers and facility managers expressed interest in continuing to use Healing Spaces with the residents of the facility. Lessons learned about the technical and logistical implementation of Healing Spaces are discussed, as well as future directions for study design and potential therapeutic value of the experience.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Maryalice Jordan‐Marsh

  University of Southern California

  35 shared

• David L. Turpin

  University of Washington

  14 shared

• Vangelis Lympouridis

  University of Southern California

  13 shared

• Donna Benton

  University of Southern California

  12 shared

• Gabriela Purri R. Gomes

  University of Southern California

  12 shared

• Sydney Rubin

  Southern California University for Professional Studies

  12 shared

• Leah I. Stein Duker

  University of Southern California

  12 shared

• Fotos Frangoudes

  9 shared

Labs

• CMBHC (Creative Media & Behavioral Health Center)PI

Education

• MFA, Electronic Visualization Laboratory

  University of Illinois at Chicago

Awards & honors

• Apps for Healthy Kids challenge sponsored by the Michelle Ob…
• GE Healthymagination Student Award
• Games for Change
• Indiecade
• Alt.Ctrl.GDC