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

Gaming Horoscope

I just read my first "gaming horoscope" today at Gamer Girls Unite.

February 2008, Pisces:

"Could it be a prefect time and setting to meet an important / interesting person in a gamestore? He or she will make a big impression, don't be shy and don't forget to ask for a telephone number or e-mail address to keep in touch! A connection between gamers can be very strong but of course there's more to discover!"

To the gamestore! -->

posted by: urbnomad at 12:08 | link | comments (1) |

tm08: Conspire

Transmediale (29/1 - 3/2) exposed some interesting games this year. Unfortunately none of them was really playable by the audience, though they gave out free copies of one game.

So, I experienced more spectator gaming than usually and saw people playing Sonic Wargame and Hilda Yañez Monopoly. Many of the interactive art works could have been labelled as games, too. One of them was Supereye Bertram.

Sonic Wargame
Sonic Wargame was held at Maria am Ostbahnhof during the Club Transmediale. It was a deejaying contest for four pairs. In each pair one person was playing music and the other one playing with a game console - and together they were playing the game. All four pairs were competing every other pair. The game proceeded so that "[t]he players are positioned on platforms in the corners of the space. Each player has a gameconsole and a loudspeaker. The audience can move freely in between. [...] The players have to vote for each other using a switch on their console. An elecronic brain will only pass a player sound if that player has two or three votes from the other players. These votes can change at any given moment. A matrix of lightbulbs indicates who voting for whom and who is audible at the moment".

And why is it a wargame? Well, the game master in the middle of the playground had an army sort of helmet. Otherwise, I am not sure what made it war. It was very interesting to listen to the game as they played good music. However, it would be a challenge to make this work so that someone was able to dance along. Now it would have required special skills in order to change one's inner beat and dancing style in every 30 seconds or so.


There is a nice video from the second night of Sonic Wargame here.

Hilda Yañez Monopoly
I did not understand much of Hilda Yañez Monopoly as it was explained in German. However, I have a copy of the game and would be happy to try it out. If anyone is interested - let's play! It includes alternative version of the poltical structures of Monopoly and the game was played in Bilderberg Salon during Ludic Society session. The event was discussing the "mechanisms of hegemonic power, of benevolent dictatorship, on the right to freely access products of the human mind are questioned by practice and theory. Such a theory juxtaposes the structural play of a conspirational afternoon against the palaver of a command centre unfolding into a psycho-organic parallel reality".  Oh, and yes, the game is in Spanish and I do not know Spanish either. Their blog is here.


Supereye Bertram
Supereye Bertram is a little snowman plastic figure with inbuilt camera that sends pictures to flickr. I took a picture of it and sent it to my flickr. Unfortunately camera wasn't taking pictures when I was in front of it taking my picture, but thousands of photos taken by it at Transmediale are here. It was pretty nice to play with this non-human player and later see its pictures online.


I am sorry about not providing information on artists, but all the projects are collaborative and information is difficult to find online.

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Pictures by hanna wirman.

posted by: urbnomad at 00:16 | link | comments |

CfP, Vienna Games Conference: Future and Reality of Gaming

Organiser: University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
Date: 17th - 19th October 2008
Information online: here
Abstracts deadline: 28th March 2008
Themes:

• Game theory: Trans-disciplinary methods in game research; New frontiers in game studies: ludology/narratology post mortem?; Border cases: transition from games/leisure to simulation/science 
• Game design and game industry: Applied game studies: how game scholars and practitioners learn to listen to each other; Innovative forms of gaming (e.g. Alternate Reality Games); Innovations in game design, development and production; New forms of interactivity and revolutionary game interfaces; The rise of independent gaming (e.g. casual games, art games) 
• Education and society: New methods and theories for game-based learning; Theory and practice of „new media literacy“; Possibilities and limitations of teaching through digital games; The interrelation of games culture, politics and society
• Consumption and appropriation: Professionalization of gaming cultures (e.g. eSports); Community building: player generated content; Games as a new mass culture; Novel insights into game cultures

posted by: urbnomad at 22:50 | link | comments |
cfp

play research across the new faculty

The first of this year's FCA staff research seminars on Wednesday at Bush House made ludic links across the new School of Creative Arts.

Playful practices and ludic research. Chair: Prof. Jon Dovey

Dr Tom Abba: ‘Alternate Reality’ Bridging virtual environments and the real world, Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) are the latest incarnation of player-led internet narratives.  Collaborating with Licorice Films and HP Labs, Dr. Tom Abba provided expertise into the production of a high quality independent game, free of commercial constraints. The resultant project, Meigeist involved 30,000 international participants, 10 bespoke websites, hundreds of emails, letters and phone calls, affording complex player interaction. Tom will present an overview of the game structure, considering the potential of ARGs for interdisciplinary practice-led teaching in Higher Education.

The Play Research Group: report on research into play and games The Play Research Group is concerned with research into all aspects of play, games and culture with a particular interest in videogames and videogame culture. It has established UWE as a centre for the study of computer games with an international reputation and members have published widely and in this developing field and have organised a series of conferences and symposia. This short report will outline the group's activities and its innovations in research methods and approaches.

Dr Seth Giddings: ‘Sticks, stickers and Darth Maul: towards a microethology of play’ This is a project in progress. Building on studies that describe and define children’s play (e.g. Iona and Peter Opie, Brian Sutton-Smith) it addresses the ontological status of playing. It is developed through the writing and drawing of a microethnography of a play-event. This event was constituted by players including children, playground equipment, gestures, sticks, stickers, diegetic and embodied rules, performed actions and scenarios from diverse media worlds.

posted by: sethgiddings at 11:13 | link | comments |

CfP, 2nd IEEE International Conference on Digital Games and Intelligent

Organiser: Athabasca University, Banff, Canada
Date: 17th - 19th November 2008
Information online: here
Abstracts deadline: 30th May 2008
Themes: "We invite submission of papers reporting original academic or industrial research on the issues related to digital games and toyes based education."

posted by: urbnomad at 11:11 | link | comments |
cfp

CfP, 2nd European Conference on Games Based Learning

Organiser: The Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), Barcelona
Date: 16th - 17th October 2008
Information online: here
Abstracts deadline:  27 March 2008
Themes: The conference committee welcomes both academic and practitioner papers on a wide range of topics and a wide range of scholarly approaches including theoretical and empirical papers employing qualitative, quantitative and critical methods.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

• Technology: Innovative games-based learning technologies, applications, tools and environments; Use of mobile games for learning; Technology for massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) for learning; Implementation issues associated with games-based learning; location-based technology for game-based learning.
• Pedagogy: Learning and instructional theory for games-based learning; “Serious” games; Role playing; Assessment in games-based learning; Evaluation of games-based learning; Use of narrative and storytelling; Use of audio; Case studies and best practices in the use of games-based learning; Future of games-based learning.
• Social and Ethical Issues: Social and collaborative aspects of games-based learning; Political education using games; Gender, age, cultural and violence issues; Ethical issues; Organisational issues associated with the implementation of GBL in education and training.

In addition to the main conference, submissions are welcomed to three mini tracks: Game Based Collaborative Learning, Game Based Learning for History, Heritage and Politics and User-centered Learning Game Design.

posted by: urbnomad at 10:57 | link | comments |
cfp

Pinky analog pixel art

I bought this tiny artwork called Speedy Pinky from Berlin (House of World Cultures) last week. The artist, Norbert Bayer, uses plastic pieces in his mosaic works. The simple idea behing his art is to analogically recreate digital images from pixel-like tiles. I didn't even remember that one of the Pacman ghosts is pink until I saw this. For a long time, it has been my intention to do something very similar by cross-stitching.

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Picture by hanna wirman.

posted by: urbnomad at 10:28 | link | comments (2) |

Hello Kitty Online

Oh, Sanrio Digital will launch Hello Kitty (!!) MMO in late 2008 - how cute! But it is serious, too, as Kotaku notes that "[o]nly one MMO could possibly release World of Warcraft's death-grip on the massively multiplayer gaming market - Hello Kitty Online". I am very much looking forward to the player gender demographics of the game. I already subscribed for beta-testing, and hope they will pick me. ;) More about the game here.

posted by: urbnomad at 09:18 | link | comments (1) |

CfP, Canadian Game Studies 2nd Annual Conference 2008

Organiser: Canadian Game Studies Association, University of British Columbia
Date: 31th May 2008
Information online: here
Abstracts deadline: 28th February 2008
Themes: This years theme is “Thinking Beyond Borders | Global Ideas: Global Values”. Not all presentations need be related to this theme. Submissions are invited on all topics related to digital games and digital games research, especially those that can show an interdisciplinary or international perspective.

posted by: urbnomad at 08:33 | link | comments |

I will be speaking at an 'Innovations' strand event of this year's Birds Eye View Festival.

It is happening on Monday 10th March 6pm -9pm at the ICA in London.

Images are still being uploaded on to the page but you can see some further details

here:

http://birds-eye-view.co.uk/2008/womenandgames.htm

Helen

posted by: helen at 15:45 | link | comments |

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