Cfp: "Video Game Cultures and the Future of Interactive Entertainment," Mansfield College, University of Oxford, July 7-9, 2010.

This inter- and multi-disciplinary conference aims to examine, explore and critically engage with the issues and implications created by the mass use of computers and videogames for entertainment and focus on the impact of innovative videogame titles and interfaces for human communication and ludic culture. In particular the conference will encourage equally theoretical and practical debates which surround the cultural contexts within which videogames flourish. Papers, presentations, workshops and reports are invited on any of the following themes: 1. Videogames and Gaming: Theories and Concepts of Gaming. Identifying Key Features and Issues. Critical Theory for Videogames: Moving past the Narratology/Ludology Debate. 2. Videogame Cultures: Emerging Practices in Online and Offline Gaming. Social Dimension of Online Gaming and Presence in Virtual Worlds. Videogame Modifications. 3. Ethical Issues in Videogames: Videogames for children. Depiction of Violence, Sex, Morality and their relation to Maturity. Propaganda Games. Censorship. 4. Videogame Technologies and the Future of Interactive Entertainment: New Forms of Interaction, Immersion and Collaboration in Videogames. The Role of Innovative Interfaces. 4. Reception, Temporality and Video Games: Player Generations. Old Originals vs. Retro games. Indie Games and Low-Tech Aesthetic. 5. The Relations between Cinema and Videogames: Crossmedia and Transmedia Approach to Videogames. Cutscene Production. Machinimation. Interactive Storytelling. 6. Art and Experimental Games: The Aesthetic Aspects of Videogames. Performative Use of Videogames. Art-Mods. 7. Serious Games and Virtual Worlds: Social Impact Simulations. Educational Use of Videogames. Documentary Videogames. Political Issues. The Steering Group welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 15th January 2010. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 28th May 2010. 300 word abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order: a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract. Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend. Joint Organising Chairs: Daniel Riha Charles University Prague, Czech Republic E-mail: rihad@inter-disciplinary.net Rob Fisher Network Founder and Network Leader Inter-Disciplinary.Net Priory House, Freeland, Oxfordshire OX29 8HR United Kingdom E-mail: vg2@inter-disciplinary.net For further details about the conference please visit: http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/critical-issues/cyber/videogame-cultures-the-future-of-interactive-entertainment/call-for-papers/

Cfp: The Philosophy of Computer Games 2009, University of Oslo, August 13-15, 2009.

We hereby invite scholars in any field who take a professional interest in the phenomenon of computer games to submit papers. Accepted papers will have a clear focus on philosophy and philosophical issues in relation to computer games. They will also attempt to use specific examples rather than merely invoke"computer games" in general terms. We invite submissions focusing on, but not limited to, the following three headings: Fictionality and Interaction Computer games are often conceived as a setting for fictional narratives, facts, objects and events, although the interactive setting is thought to give fictionality a special character and to be intertwined with non-fictional aspects in various ways. We invite papers on relevant discussions of fictionality, narrative, fictional objects, simulation, virtuality, and kindred cognitive notions like make-believe, pretense, and imagination. Defining Computer Games Is it possible to point to some defining characteristic(s) of computer games? We are especially interested in discussions of formal definitions of computer games in terms of characteristics such as rules, play, representation, computation, affordances, interaction, negotiable consequences, and so on. We welcome both constructive and critical discussions, as long as they are directed at clearly articulated proposals. Ethical and Political Issues What are the ethical responsibilities of game-makers in relation to individual gamers and society in general? What role, if any, can games serve as a critical cultural corrective in relation to traditional forms of media and communicative practices, for example in economy and politics? Also, what is the nature of the ethical norms that apply within the gaming context, and what are the factors that allow or delimit philosophical justifications of their application there or elsewhere? Your abstract should not exceed 1000 words. If your submission falls under one of the three headings, please indicate which one. Send your abstract to submissions@gamephilosophy.org. All submitted abstracts will be subject to double blind peer review, and the program committee will make a final selection of papers for the conference on the basis of this. Full manuscripts must be submitted by August 8, and will be made available on the conference website. Deadline for submissions is June 1, 2009. Notification of accepted submissions will be sent out byJune 10, 2009. Visit the conference homepage here: http://www.gamephilosophy.org/.

Smith, Joanna. "Pursuing a PhD? Consider Wii Studies." TORONTO STAR November 24, 2007.

Future Play 2007, an international conference organized by Algoma University College last week, was an odd sort of conference. The kind of conference where it was perfectly normal for [one participant] . . . to brag about the pants her video-game character was sporting before launching into an elaborate thought experiment involving a feathered monster, collecting beeswax and charging $14.98 to her credit card to buy a bunch of gold. Everyone was there to talk and learn about video games and their psychological, sociological, political, technical, metaphorical – what have you – dimensions, which are all lumped together in the emerging field of game studies. That's right: video game studies, which is busy establishing itself as a bona fide academic field. Scholars might spend hours discussing avatars – the identities people adopt in online virtual reality games – but they are doing so in post-secondary institutions, peer-reviewed journals and in societies of the learned, such as the Digital Games Research Association, which held a large conference in Tokyo this year, or the fledgling Canadian Game Studies Association, which publishes a mostly online journal called Loading. Aside from specific areas of research like the oft-discussed studies linking video game violence to aggression in children, this worldwide phenomenon is still flying mostly under the public radar. Read the full article here: http://www.thestar.com/News/Ideas/article/279372.

Kucklich, Julian. "Perspectives of Computer Game Philology." GAME STUDIES 3.1 (2003).

Another example of research in the emerging field of 'game studies.' Here are the first three paragraphs of the paper:

Playing a game, like reading a novel, can be regarded as a form of semiosis, an interaction of signs. This constitutes the basic similarity between games and literature the following paper tries to explore. Taking the process of reading as a model for the process of playing might seem like an oversimplification, but this is not the fault of the critical analogy, but rather of our simplistic understanding of the interaction between reader and text. In order to understand this interaction properly, we must take into account the context, or contexts, in which the phenomenon of digital games is embedded. While it seems obvious that computer games fall into the category of games, which is notoriously hard to define, many of them transcend this category by virtue of their ability to tell a story. Therefore, games must be seen as part of the tradition of narrative literature as well as that of games. Furthermore, games can be seen as media, i.e. as devices that enable players to interact meaningfully with each other. In the following paper, I will focus on the literary context of computer games. However, this does not mean that I regard the ludic and the media context as less important. On the contrary: my interest in the study of computer games from a literary viewpoint derives from their hybrid nature, from their being neither fish, flesh nor fowl, as it were. Therefore, this attempt to locate computer games in the context of literature must not be misconstrued as an attempt to "colonize" the field of digital games. Ultimately, this approach aims at establishing computer game studies as an independent aesthetic subject, rather than a sub-discipline of literary studies. The suggestions made here should not be construed as a form of "theoretical imperialism," to use Espen Aarseth’s term, but rather as a display of what literary studies can contribute to an interdisciplinary cooperation. In the first section of this paper I will give a brief overview of attempts undertaken so far to approach the field of computer games from a literary perspective. I will then single out what appear to be the three central problems of these approaches, and try to provide solutions for them. The problematic issues I address are 1) the dichotomy of text and code, 2) interactivity and 3) narrative. Although I think that literary theory provides models to describe these phenomena, as well as a terminology that allows us to discuss them appropriately, in discussing the above-mentioned problems I rely on other theoretical concepts as well, especially from semiotics and second-order cybernetics. Thus, the approach followed here extends well beyond the field of traditional philology, while remaining firmly rooted in literary studies. . . .

Read the entire paper here: http://www.gamestudies.org/0301/kucklich/.

Brown, Douglas. "Gaming DNA: On Narrative and Gameplay Gestalts." Digital Games Research Association Conference, Japan, September 24-28, 2007.

The study of digital games is a rapidly developing new area of research to which many of the methods of conventional literary criticism are being applied in fascinating ways. Here is the abstract of Brown's paper which is a great illustration of this:

This paper takes the concept of the ‘Gameplay Gestalt’ as advanced by Craig Lindley [7] as a basis for a fresh look at how games are read and designed. Disagreeing with Lindley’s assertion of gameplay over narrative, it puts forward a model of the game as a construct of authored gestalt interplay, and concentrates on the links between the physical process of playing the game and the interpretative process of ‘reading’ it. A wide variety of games are put forward as examples, and some analyses of major ‘moments’ in classic games are deconstructed. The concept of the ‘sublime’ as applicable to games is examined as is the use of gameplay and narrative to generate ‘illusory agency’, which can make a game more than the sum of its parts.

For the full paper, please go to http://www.digra.org/dl/db/07311.40380.pdf. For the other papers, please go to http://www.digra.org/dl/order_by_author?publication=Situated%20Play.