Ryan Thompson is an assistant professor of media and information in the MSU College of Communication Arts and Sciences. He serves as the resident musicologist for the college’s top-ranked game design and development program, teaching and researching a variety of issues related to sonic activity in video games.
In 2017, I began streaming on Twitch, a livestreaming platform primarily focused on video game-related content, as a short-term academic project to help rework a conference presentation I was developing into a book chapter. By the end of the six-week project, I was having so much fun filming episodes with friends that we continued under the name “Ludomusicology Thursdays,” reflecting the discipline we studied — video game music and sound — and time we were available to record and broadcast.
A few months later, I interviewed at Michigan State University. During that process, I proposed a course that would teach students how to produce the kind of multi-camera, multi-source broadcasts I had been creating. That idea became MI 334: Esports Broadcasting, a course I have now taught each fall throughout my time at MSU.
Students learn how to operate the software that makes these broadcasts possible and make their own videos while learning about the ways in which online streaming more broadly has reshaped our relationship to media both in and beyond gaming. We read and discuss leading scholarship in the field, including materials from MSU’s Amanda Cote, co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of Esports. It’s also a space for students to practice their public performance skills — offering insightful commentary while playing a video game is a practiced skill unto itself.
Meanwhile, the stream, which I host alongside fellow music scholars Dana Plank, Julianne Grasso and Karen Cook, has grown into a meaningful space for community building and public musicology — the study of music’s role in history and culture. We explore video game music while also reflecting on our experiences as early- to mid-career faculty members teaching and researching in the humanities.
I view the project as a form of service to the field: a space for open-ended conversation, where questions do not always have answers and where curiosity, experimentation and even uncertainty are part of the process.
What began as a small academic exercise has evolved significantly. We have spoken at fan conventions attended by thousands, published academic work about the project and created a space that bridges fandom and scholarship.
In 2021 and 2022, we participated in VGMTogether, a fully virtual convention hosted in a digital recreation of the National Harbor resort. The stream has also featured guests from across the gaming and music communities, including scholars, fans, professional musicians and industry professionals. Courses across the country have incorporated our episodes as teaching tools, highlighting how dialogue and audience interaction can shape ideas in real time.
In 2025, an episode focused on the groundbreaking game “Shadow of the Colossus,” was nominated for a Game Audio Network Guild Award for Best Game Audio Presentation, Podcast or Broadcast. I traveled to San Francisco in March to attend the Game Developers Conference and represent the team at the awards ceremony. It was my first time attending the conference in more than a decade, and it was meaningful to reconnect with a community of game audio professionals who value scholarly perspectives on their work.
We continue to stream new episodes most Thursday evenings from 9 to 11 p.m. ET. For those interested in games, audio and their intersection, I invite you to join us at twitch.tv/bardicknowledge — we regularly have industry experts and academic colleagues on as guests, and the stream has been assigned to multiple college courses nationwide.
