Power Up

The Play Research Group, UWE, Bristol
studying the technologies and cultures of games and play

research leave fruit

In the past month or so the following have seen the light of day (well, the dim and dusty light of the library shelf at least):

Seth Giddings 2007, Dionysiac machines: videogames and the triumph of the simulacra, Convergence, 13(3), 417-431
Seth Giddings 2007, A 'pataphysics engine: technology, play and realities, Games and Culture (special section on Baudrillard and game culture), 2(4): 392-404
Seth Giddings 2007, I'm the one who makes the Lego Racers go: virtual and actual space in videogame play', in Sandra Weber & Shanly Dixon (eds) Growing Up Online: young people and digital technologies, New York: Palgrave/Macmillan
Seth Giddings 2007, Playing with non-humans: digital games as technocultural form, in Suzanne de Castell & Jennifer Jenson (eds) Worlds in Play: international perspective on digital games research, New York: Peter Lang

posted by: sethgiddings at 12:34 | link | comments (3) |

technophilia

Members of the Play Research Group are reforging links across UWE and beyond to develop research around philosophy and technology.

see
http://technophilia.wordpress.com

posted by: sethgiddings at 12:20 | link | comments |

CfP, Nordic Serious Games Conference

Organiser: University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Date: 28th-29th February 2008
Information online: here
Abstracts deadline: 15th December 2007 (extended)
Themes:

• The use of games and game-based environments in different fields and
  contexts (Learning, Training, Health care, Social awareness, Sports, Exercise, Public policy negotiating, Disaster prevention, etc.)
• Issues and subjects related to design and development of serious games (Game design, Game programming, Game production, User-centered design, Audio & Video production, Game narratives, Multi-disciplinary production of serious games, User studies and evaluation)
• Business and societal issues of serious games (The business ecology of serious games, Business models, Legal, societal and political impact of serious games, Intellectual property rights, Distribution and end user model issues, Learning evaluation, Ethical questions)
  

posted by: urbnomad at 22:22 | link | comments |
cfp

Book, An Introduction to Game Studies: Games in Culture

SAGE has announced an estimated publishing date for Frans Mäyrä's forthcoming book An Introduction to Game Studies: Games in Culture. The book wil be published in February. Although we need to wait for the book for a while, we could start giving Frans feedback in advance here - it sounds very promising.

posted by: urbnomad at 14:33 | link | comments |
books

CfP, Breaking the Magic Circle seminar

Organiser: Game Research Lab, University of Tampere, Finland
Date: 10th-11th April 2008
Information online: here
Abstracts deadline: 15th January 2008
Themes:

• pervasive, mobile or location based gaming,
• alternate reality gaming
• casual, non-immersive or coincidental forms of play,
• professional gaming,
• money gaming, betting and gambling within digital games and play.

posted by: urbnomad at 22:39 | link | comments |
cfp

Book, The Ecology of Games

Katie Salen has edited a MIT press book published this month: The Ecology of Games. The book is divided into three themes all of which concentrate on children and learning.

"One theme looks at the kinds of participatory practices games engender for youth, asking in what ways are we seeing youth empowered through their participation in the creation, uptake, and revision of games? A second theme focuses on emergent gaming literacies, or domains of media engagement produced by games and gaming attitudes. Modding and world-building, which form the basis for much of the play of MMOs and virtual worlds, for example, might be one such literacy, while learning how to navigate a complex system of out of game resources, from game guides, FAQs, walkthroughs, and forums, to P2P learning, might represent another. A third theme interrogates pathways and points of entry into gaming. How do games act as points of departure, for example, toward other forms of knowledge, literacy, and social organization?" (source).

Authors include Ian Bogost, Anna Everett, James Paul Gee, Mizuko Ito, Barry Joseph, Laurie McCarthy, Jane McGonigal, Cory Ondrejka, Amit Pitaru, Tom Satwicz, Kurt Squire, Reed Stevens, and S. Craig Watkins. For more information, see here.

posted by: urbnomad at 00:09 | link | comments |
books

Template by motime.com  |