Tag: research

Seminar this Friday/Saturday

Workshop at IT-University of Copenhagen
Friday 20th and Saturday 21th of May 2005

“THE THIRD PLACE” – COMPUTER GAMES AND OUR CONCEPTION OF THE REAL

Computer games have become a dominant influence in modern culture, and are set to gain an ever increasing importance in the years to come. This development gives rise to a number of questions. Among these is the question how computer games challenge and affect traditional conceptions of what it is for something to be real.

The aim of the workshop is to initiate a discussion between computer games researchers and philosophers on this question: What is the ontological status of the objects and events in a computer game, and how do they relate to objects and events outside of the game? On the one hand, an answer to this question must recognize that objects and events in computer games are real in some sense. On the other hand, it must also recognize that they are not real in quite the same sense as objects and events outside of the game are. To accommodate the reality of these objects and events, we need to consider our conception of the real as such.

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Book contract

Simon, Susana and I just (finally) received the actual/physical signed publishing contract for our text-book adventure. We will publish with Routledge (US) and have agreed to deliver the final manuscript by August 1st.
If any one of you, faithful readers, is interested in reading one or more section(s) to comment we would of course be most grateful.

Let’s not beat around the bush

Regarding the relationship between dopamine, addiction and video games, Professor Olaf Paulsen of The Neurological Research Unit at Rigshospitalet is quoted for saying:

“The reason that some researchers focus on video games is that the brain activity while playing is easier to measure and standardize than in the case of complex task-completion and sports which cannot be measured in a scanner.

“Another reason that some researchers focus on video games and gambling is that this focus can fund their research. By positing a theory that video games and gambling create addiction because of dopamine, the researcher is able to apply for money from the so-called ludomania pool of Tipstjenesten [The Danish national game service].”

That theory seems less than implausable.

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.