Tag: Computerspil

Post-GDC

GDC 2005 has played itself out. It did so with great pomp, some fascinating talks, some entertaining talks, quite a bit of mingling, immodest amounts of high-quality coffee and a considerable number of visits to Lori’s.
Most distinctly the air was loaded with some trepidation over the coming console generation and particularly buzzing with energy during Will Wright’s “Spore” keynote (advocating a solution to next-gen woes in the form of player-generated content). See Jesper’s blog for more on this.


Oh, and here is Jesse Schell, Edward Castronova, and Jim Paul Gee discussing “What Researchers Can and Can’t Tell You About Your Games“. Castronova pitches his game design idea that will “enable social scientists to finally make studies with the precision of physicists” – yep, that’s more or less what he said.

Videogame doctors

A recent ill-informed CNN money article asked “What’s next: a Ph.D. in video gaming?“
Well, duh! – but I started a small count and actually, the number of game PhD’s to be is quite impressive.
Below is a list of people that I can think of, top of my head, who are speeding towards ludic doctor-hood.

But first the ones who made it (strong focus on games only):
– Mary Ann Buckles (see post on Ludology.org)
– Espen Aarseth (no decent link, as Dr. Aarseth believes the WWW thing will blow over)
– Lisbeth Klastrup
– Jesper Juul
– Lars Konzack
– Dmitri Williams

En route (in order of randomness):
– Gonzalo Frasca, IT University of Copenhagen
– Miguel Sicart, IT University of Copenhagen
– Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen, IT University of Copenhagen
– Sara Mosberg, IT University of Copenhagen
– Troels Folmann, IT University of Copenhagen
– Jonas Heide Smith, IT University of Copenhagen
– Chek Yang Foo, Curtin University of Technology
– Mirjam Eladhari, Gotland University
– Elina Koivisto, Nokia Research Center (Finland)
– Lisa Galarneau, University of Waikato
– Constance Steinkuehler, University of Wisconsin–Madison
– Kristine Jørgensen, University of Copenhagen
– Gitte Stald, University of Copenhagen
– Charlie Breindahl, University of Copenhagen
– Anne Mette Thorhauge, University of Copenhagen
– Marinka Copier, University of Utrecht
– Christian Ulrik Andersen, University of Århus
– Julian Kuecklich, Ulster University
– Peter Zackariasson, Umeå School of Business and Economics
– Laurie Taylor, University of Florida
– Sean Fenty, University of Florida

Okay, this list is hopelessly incomplete. Please tell me some of the names that my tired brain didn’t come up with.

The package has been delivered… I repeat…

One should not fail to mention that esteemed former PhD student, long-time Age of Kings show-off and much besides, Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen, handed in his massively multi-page PhD dissertation on games and education quite recently.

We who are about to write salute you.

Update: Simon’s timely thesis will be the third game dissertation from our center. The two first were Lisbeth Klastrup‘s Toward a Poetics of Virtual Worlds and Jesper Juul‘s Half-Real (warning: Pretty big PDFs).

CFP: Aesthetics of Play (Bergen)

Aesthetics of Play
A conference on computer game aesthetics

University of Bergen, Norway
October 14-15, 2005

http://www.aestheticsofplay.org

We invite proposals for papers to be presented at the conference Aesthetics of Play, to be held at the University of Bergen 14-15 October 2005. The conference is hosted by the Department of Information Science and Media Studies, and is arranged in collaboration with Norway’s first game-art exhibition at Bergen Kunsthall.

We invite papers that address the diversity of cultural meanings as they are expressed in computer game technology and software. The notion of ‘aesthetics’ in this context is a broad one, encompassing the formal structures and audiovisual characteristics of games and game technologies as well as the wider epistemological, cultural and political dimensions of the gaming experience. Our aim is to contribute to the continued development of a cultural aesthetics of computer games, allowing us to better understand their role as mediators of cultural change. We especially want to encourage contributions that offer analytical ‘close-playings’ of particular games or genres. We invite a broad range of game-centred approaches, hoping to attract a rich mixture of highly focussed and particular investigations as well as broader more speculative work.

Areas of interest include but are not limited to:

– Game architectures. The analysis of formal, technological and narrative conventions of computer games
– The representations of society in contemporary game-worlds
– The epistemology of computer games
– The audiovisual aesthetics of computer games
– Theories and methods of game analysis
– Aesthetics and industrial imperatives

Abstracts of maximum 300 words should be submitted by 18 April, 2005 via the conference website http://www.aestheticsofplay.org.

Notice of acceptance will be sent out by 29 April, 2005.
Presenters will be asked to submit the full papers by 16 September, 2005.

All papers will be published in the online conference proceedings.
For more information visit the conference website at http:/www.aestheticsofplay.org or contact:

Eli Lea (eli.lea@uib.no) for practical or administrative inquiries
Rune Klevjer (rune.klevjer@infomedia.uib.no) for academic inquiries

Quiet time


From the online adventures of Garrg the Warlock (Shadowmoon server).

Yep, that’s me, the adventurous Garrg. Rejoining my transludic lighthouse quest I have set out across the sprawling world of Azeroth – the picture shows me taking a brief rest from my attempt to swim around the entire continent. Join me, water lovers.

DAC calls for papers

The Digital Arts and Cultures 2005 conference CFP was just put online:

The 6th DAC conference invites critical examinations of the field of digital arts and culture, which challenge existing paradigms. We call for papers which examine both theoretical and hands-on approaches to digital experiences and experience design. Since the inaugural DAC in 1998 much has happened, and research has matured from early investigations into the problematic nature of new media towards questions of emergent dynamics, user centered design and various forms of interactivity. At the same time, the realization has grown that users of digital media not only are active participants, but also have to be taken into account at all stages of the design and production of digital experiences
How do practitioners (programmers, artists, designers etc.) cater for this kind of active and demanding user? What kinds of experiences can we create? How can these experiences inform us? How do we as academics analyse and evaluate digital experiences? DAC has always been interested in exploring the ways in which digital media do things that traditional media cannot. We believe that the focus on ‘experience’ in DAC 2005 will illuminate the possibilities of digital media beyond the functional perspectives of ‘usability’. What are the aesthetic and cultural implications of digital design as experience?

– Read the whole thing

Little did they know

Little did the inventors of the internet realize that the most valuable function their creation would allow would be the putting online of obscure manuals that always get lost in paper form (great when you need to decalcify your iron) and the ability to print old bills from phone companies (essential when doing accounts). But those two functions are quite priceless.