Tag: PhD

Oh, the media…

Last week I had the pleasure of speaking at a public library as part of the nicely idealistic “Day of research” (where researchers meet “the public”). I spoke about media panic, public perceptions of games and of games as media/art.
Business-oriented Danish daily newspaper Børsen was there covering the event. Let me quote one of the funnier captions in this Tuesday’s edition: [Below a portrait of yours truly, worthy of early German movie expressionism] “PhD student Jonas Heide Smith of the IT University has no problem with violent and crime-glorifying computer games like ‘Grand Theft Auto’ which is about stealing cars“.

The article itself has a few confusing points and a Jonas Heide Smith quote that initially made me sigh deeply: “Discussions about giving government support to computers is far more serious than it was five years ago”. Now, of course I said computer games, not computers. But on second thought, is it so outrageous? After all, the poor machines are slaving away day after day under our desks – are they not in fact entitled to government support? Where is the minister of equality in all this?

Considering the number of individuals entitled to government support in this country the thought is hardly outlandish. If Blade Runner had been made in this country, the big question would of course had been: If entities have memories and emotions, how can we then deny them government support?

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).