Tamsin Isaac

University of York

Tamsin has been a lifelong gamer ever since receiving her first Game Boy and has always been fascinated by how people engage with games—both emotionally and behaviourally. She joined the iGGi CDT in 2023 after completing a BSc and MSc in Psychology at the University of Plymouth, where she developed a growing interest in how psychological principles such as motivation and disengagement apply not just to players, but to the systems they interact with.

Her PhD research focuses on limited-time events (LTEs) in digital games—temporary content used to drive engagement and re-engagement. By exploring how LTEs influence player engagement, disengagement, and return play in live-service games, her work aims to bring clarity to this rapidly evolving area of game design. She is currently developing a cross-platform taxonomy of LTEs through large-scale content analysis of over 1,000 top-charting mobile and PC games. Alongside this, she is conducting an ongoing diary-plus-interview study to explore how players experience these events in everyday play.

Tamsin’s research investigates how different LTE formats affect sustained engagement, disengagement, and re-engagement, with the goal of informing more ethical and effective event design for both players and developers.

She is open to Knowledge Exchange opportunities with game studios interested in analysing live-service events, player behaviour, and re-engagement strategies using live data or design insights.

When not writing about or analysing games, Tamsin enjoys baking, reading, playing cosy indie games, and quietly grinding dailies.