Erica Kleinman

Assistant Research Professor at Northeastern University

Publications

2026:

  • Trotter, M., Gredin, V., Kleinman, E., Wadenholt, G., & Svensson, J. (2026). Decision-Making and Strategic Thinking in Esports. In The Psychology of Esports Performance (pp. 75-95). Routledge. (Book Chapter)
  • Kleinman, E., Kim, S., Kim, S,. Lee, H., Kim, J., Kang, D., Park, S., Harteveld, C., Lee, B. (2026, May) “Do I really need this?”: Illuminating Challenges in Integrating Computational Training Tools in Esports Coaching. In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3772318.3791065)
  • Yang, D., Kleinman, E., & Harteveld, C. (2026, April). Bridging Pedagogy and Play: Introducing a Language Mapping Interface for Human-AI Co-Creation in Educational Game Design. In Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-6). (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3772363.3798862)

2025:

  • Kleinman, E., Jahani, R., McGivney, E., Kosa, M., Cooper, S., Harteveld, C. (2025, May). From Locked Rooms to Open Minds: Escape Room Best Practices to Enhance Reflection in Extended Reality Learning Environments. In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3706598.3713811)
  • Lee, H., Kleinman, E., Kim, N., Park, S., Harteveld, C., Lee, B. (2025, May). Crafting Champions: An Observation Study of Esports Coaching Processes. In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3706598.3713141)
  • Yang, D., Kleinman, E., Harteveld, C., GPT for Games: An Updated Scoping Review (2020-2024). IEEE Transactions on Games. (https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=10974629)
  • Issak, A., Narayan, U., Srinivasan, R., Kleinman, E., & Harteveld, C. (2025, June). Kaleidoscope Gallery: Exploring Ethics and Generative AI Through Art. In Proceedings of the 2025 Conference on Creativity and Cognition (pp. 949-963). (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3698061.3726929)
  • Olarinde, O., McGivney, E., Kleinman, E., Shyne, F., Facey, K., Cooper, S., & Harteveld, C. (2025). Reflecting in-Action: Improving Learning in Extended Reality with AI-empowered Reflection. Connected Learning Summit, Cambridge, MA. (Non-Archival)
  • Shyne, F., Agashe, S., Jahani, R., Facey, K., Kleinman, E., Cooper, S., Harteveld, C., & McGivney, E. (2025). Multi-Modal Escape Room for Reflective Learning. Foundations of Digital Games, Vienna, Austria. (Non-Archival)

2024:

  • Erica Kleinman, Jason Xu, Johannes Pfau, and Magy Seif El-Nasr. 2024. “Trust the Process”: An Exploratory Study of Process Visualizations for Self-Reflection in League of Legends. Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact. 8, CHI PLAY, Article 346 (October 2024), 28 pages. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3677111)
  • Harteveld, C., Javvaji, N., Mohaddesi, O., Kleinman, E., Daniels, K., Jackson, D., & Troiano, G. M. (2024, July). RePresent: Enabling Access to Justice for Pro Se Litigants via Co-Authored Serious Games. In Proceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (pp. 3225-3242). (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3643834.3661632)
  • Kleinman, E., Habibi, R., Powell, G. B., Reeves, B., Prather, J., & Seif El-Nasr, M. (2024, May). “Backseat Gaming” A Study of Co-Regulated Learning within a Collegiate Male Esports Community. In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-14). (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3613904.3642249)
  • Maram, S. S., Kleinman, E., Villareale, J., Zhu, J., & Seif El-Nasr, M. (2024, May). ” Ah! I see”-Facilitating Process Reflection in Gameplay through a Novel Spatio-Temporal Visualization System. In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-19). (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3613904.3642484)
  • Pfau, J., Charan, M., Kleinman, E., & Seif El-Nasr, M. (2024, May). Damage Optimization in Video Games: A Player-Driven Co-Creative Approach. In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-16). (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3613904.3642643)
  • Yang, D., Kleinman, E., Troiano, G. M., Tochilnikova, E., & Harteveld, C. (2024, May). Snake Story: Exploring Game Mechanics for Mixed-Initiative Co-creative Storytelling Games. In Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (pp. 1-11). (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3649921.3649996)
  • Yang, D., Kleinman, E., & Harteveld, C. (2024, August). GPT for games: A scoping review (2020-2023). In 2024 IEEE Conference on Games (CoG) (pp. 1-8). IEEE. (https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=10645548)
  • Erica Kleinman and Casper Harteveld. 2024. The Untapped Potential of Escape Rooms as Gamified Research Environments. In Companion Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play (CHI PLAY Companion ’24), October 14–17, 2024, Tampere, Finland. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 4 pages. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3665463.3678865)
  • Ebrahimi, A., Cox, J., Kleinman, E., & De Schutter, B. (2024, May). Hidden Heroes: A thematic analysis of a game jam designed around authentic stories. In Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (pp. 1-4). (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3649921.3656981)

2023:

  • Kleinman, E., Villareale, J., Shergadwala, M. N., Teng, Z., Bryant, A., Zhu, J., & El-Nasr, M. S. (2023, April). ” What else can I do?” Examining the Impact of Community Data on Adaptation and Quality of Reflection in an Educational Game. In Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-12). (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3544548.3580664)
  • Kleinman, E., Lynn, S., Loyall, B., Seif El-Nasr, M., (2023). Towards a Human-in-the-Loop System for Authoring Game AI using Behavior Languages, In The First Workshop on Human-AI Interaction through Play, Foundations of Digital Games. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3582437.3587179)

2022:

  • Kleinman, E., Habibi, R., Yao, Y., Gayle, C., & Seif El-Nasr, M. (2022). “A Time and Phase for Everything”-Towards A Self Regulated Learning Perspective on Computational Support for Esports. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 6(CHI PLAY), 1-27. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3549481)
  • Kleinman, E., Shergadwala, M., Teng, Z., Villareale, J., Baryant, A., Zhu, J., Seif El-Nasr, M. (2022). Analyzing Students’ Problem-Solving Sequences: A Human-in-the-loop Approach. Journal of Learning Analytics. (https://par.nsf.gov/servlets/purl/10351840)
  • Kleinman, E., Villareale, J., Shergadwala, M., Teng, Z., Bryant, A., Zhu, J., Seif El-Nasr, M. (2022). Towards an Understanding of how Players Make Meaning from Post-Play Process Visualizations. ICEC 2022. (https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-20212-4_4)
  • Kleinman, E., Shergadwala, M., Seif El-Nasr, M. (2022). Kills, Deaths, and (Computational) Assists: Identifying Opportunities for Computational Support in Esport Learning. 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3491102.3517654)

2021:

  • Kleinman E, Gayle C, and Seif El-Nasr M (2021) “Because I’m Bad at the Game!” A Microanalytic Study of Self-Regulated Learning in League of Legends. Front. Psychol. 12:780234. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.780234 (https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.780234/full)
  • Kleinman, E., Preetham, N., Teng, Z., Bryant, A., & Seif El-Nasr, M. (2021). ” What Happened Here!?” A Taxonomy for User Interaction with Spatio-Temporal Game Data Visualization. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 5(CHI PLAY), 1-27. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3474687)
  • Partlan, N., Kleinman, E., Howe, J., Ahmad, S., Marsella, S., and Seif El-Nasr, M. (2021). Design-Driven Requirements for Computationally Co-Creative Game AI Design Tools. Foundations of Digital Games. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3472538.3472573)
  • Kleinman, E., Chojnacki, S., and Seif El-Nasr, M. (2021). The Gangs All Here: How People Used Games to cope with COVID19 Quarantine. CHI 2021. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3411764.3445072)
  • Carstensdottir, E., Kleinman, E., Williams, R., and Seif El-Nasr, M. (2021). “Naked and on fire”:Examining Player Agency Experiences in Narrative-Focused Gameplay. CHI 2021. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3411764.3445540)
  • Kleinman, E., Seif El-Nasr, M.. (2021). Using Data to “Git Gud”: A Push for a Player-Centric Approach to the Use of Data in Esports, In EHPHCI: Esports and High Performance HCI Workshop, 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. (Non-Archival)
  • NON-AUTHOR CONTRIBUTOR: Seif El-Nasr, M., Nguyen, T., Canossa, A., Drachen, D. (2021). Sequence Analysis of Game Data. In Game Data Science (pp. 266-305). Oxford University Press. (Book)

2020:

  • Kleinman, E., Ahmad, S., Teng, Z., Bryant, A., Nguyen, T. H. D., Harteveld, C., & Seif El-Nasr, M. (2020). “And then they Died”: Using Action Sequences for Data-Driven, Context-Aware Gameplay Analysis. Foundations of Digital Games. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3402942.3402962)
  • Seif El-Nasr, M., Kleinman, E. (2020). Data-Driven Game Development: Ethical Considerations. Foundations of Digital Games. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3402942.3402964)
  • Jemmali, C., Kleinman, E., Bunian, S.,Almeda, M.V., Rowe, E., & Seif El-Nasr, M. (2020). MAADS: Mixed-Methods Approach for the Analysis of Debugging Sequences of Beginner Programmers. Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3328778.3366824)
  • Almeda, M.V., Kleinman, E., Jemmali, C., Ithier, C., Rowe, E., & Seif El-Nasr, M. (2020). Labeling Debugging in May’s Journey Gameplay. Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3328778.3372624)
  • Kleinman, E., Seif El-Nasr, M. (2020). Interactive Visualization For Strategy Acquisition In Esports Spectatorship. SEEGames Workshop, 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. (Non-Archival)

2019:

  • Kleinman, E., Carstensdottir, E., & Seif El-Nasr, M. (2019). A Model for Analyzing Diegesis in Digital Narrative Games. International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling. (https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-33894-7_2)
  • Kleinman, E., Karo, K., & Zhu, J. (2019). From Immersion to Metagaming: Understanding Rewind Mechanics in Interactive Storytelling. Entertainment Computing. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1875952117301167)
  • Ahmad, S., Bryant, A., Kleinman, E., Teng, Z., Nguyen, T. H. D., & Seif El-Nasr, M. (2019) Modeling Individual and Team Behavior through Spatio-Temporal Analysis. Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3311350.3347188)
  • Carstensdottir, E., Kleinman, E., & Seif El-Nasr, M. (2019) Player Interaction in Narrative Games: Structure and Narrative Progression Mechanics. Foundations of Digital Games. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3337722.3337730)
  • Harteveld, C., Kleinman, E., Rizzo, P., Schouten, D., Nguyen, T.H., Liberty, S., Kimbrough, W., Fombelle, P., & Seif El-Nasr, M. (2019) Teamwork and Adaptation in Games (TAG): A Survey to Gauge Teamwork. Foundations of Digital Games. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3337722.3337731)
  • Jemmali, C., Kleinman, E., Bunian, S., Almeda, M. V., Rowe, E., & Seif El-Nasr, M. (2019) Using Game Design Mechanics as Metaphors to Enhance Learning of Introductory Programming Concepts. Foundations of Digital Games. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3337722.3341825)
  • Partlan, N., Carstensdottir, E., Kleinman, E., Snodgrass, S., Harteveld, C.,Smith, G., Matuk, C., Sutherland, S. C., & Seif El-Nasr, M. (2019) Evaluation of a Graph-Based Representation for Interactive Narrative. Foundations of Digital Games. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3337722.3341858)

2018:

  • Kleinman, E., Carstensdottir, E., & Seif El-Nasr, M. (2018) Going Forward by Going Back: Re-defining Rewind Mechanics in Narrative Games. Foundations of Digital Games. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3235765.3235773)
  • Partlan, N., Carstensdottir, E., Snodgrass, S., Kleinman, E., Smith, G., Harteveld, C., & Seif El-Nasr, M. (2018) Exploratory Automated Analysis of Structural Features of Interactive Narrative. Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment Conference. (https://ojs.aaai.org/index.php/AIIDE/article/view/13019)

2017:

  • Carstensdottir, E., Kleinman, E., Seif El-Nasr, M. (2017) Towards an Interaction Model for Interactive Narratives. International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling. (https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-71027-3_24)

2016:

  • Kleinman E., Fox V., Zhu J. (2016) Rough Draft: Towards a Framework for Metagaming Mechanics of Rewinding in Interactive Storytelling. International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling. (https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-48279-8_32)

2015:

  • Baranoski, J., Kleinman, E., Wang, Z., Tucker, M., Ahnert, J., Schell, J., Doshi, R., Rank, S., & Zhu, J. (2015) Matsya: A Cultural Game of Flow and Balance. Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/2793107.2810272)

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