Author Archives: Jessica 'jynnie' Tang

About Jessica 'jynnie' Tang

3rd Year Comparative Media Studies Undergraduate at MIT

Postdoctoral position in Games, Northeastern University

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Description
They are seeking one or two Post Doctoral Research Associates (Post Docs) to join our fast-growing game research group. The research position involves assisting in developing games for impact, empirical studies using quantitative and qualitative data, and writing research papers on the main topic of gaming and decision making. Additional responsibilities include grant proposal preparation, lab management, and supervision of graduate and undergraduate students.

Playing games is about making decisions. The Post Doc will be involved in advancing the use of games as a research environment to study how people make decisions as well as to improve their decisions and develop tools to assist in this. We also find it of great importance to educate the next generation of problem solvers and, therefore, a significant amount of our work is dedicated toward improving existing education. We are currently pursuing these topics across a dozen projects: from a crowdsourcing game where players can participate in and create social experiments (httsp://studycrafter.com) to the development of a curriculum where students create games about climate change. A complete list of projects can be viewed at http://www.northeastern.edu/casperharteveld.

The work will be performed under the guidance of Dr. Casper Harteveld, an Associate Professor of Game Design. As most projects will involve collaborations with faculty from across Northeastern University (Computer Science, Engineering, School of Law, School of Public Policy, and Marine Science Center), the Post Doc will experience a wide variety of interactions with researchers and students.
Qualifications
They seek candidates who have a PhD in Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Cognitive Science, Learning Science, Management Science, Industrial Engineering or related areas. A successful candidate will have an interdisciplinary background and an interest in games for impact. Although they will consider a wide range of candidates, we welcome candidates with strong technical expertise in empirical research (quantitative preferred) or in machine learning/data science. Candidates should ideally also have experience with game design, in particular using game engines such as Unity.
Details
  • Deadline: July 1st; applications after will be considered
  • Start date: Very flexible but looking at Sept 1, 2019
  • Funding is for one year, renewal contingent on performance and funding
To apply

https://neu.peopleadmin.com/postings/62022

CfP: BCI for (Media) Art and Games, Aalborg

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Brain-computer interfaces (BCI) have been used for entertainment, gaming, and artistic expression. These application areas for BCI have been explored in the previous decades. Although commercial applications hardly exist, the general public has been able to get acquainted with BCI and use BCI in artistic installations in urban public spaces, in museums, or during public scientific events. There are also BCI games. Such games can serve different purposes: entertainment (just fun), treatment of mental disorders, or rehabilitation. Affordable BCI devices and BCI software platforms have made it possible for artists and game designers to develop ideas and design installations and applications that do not require them to invest extensive and frustrating time in getting a BCI to work or tuning it to their application. Whether it is about games or artistic BCI installations, multiple users are often involved, and there is direct two-sided interaction between the user(s) and the BCI controlled environment. Moreover, in contrast to clinical BCI research, efficiency and robustness are not the most important issues.

The aim of this workshop is to review current (research) activities in BCIs for games, entertainment, and artistic expression and to identify research areas that are of interest for both BCI and HCI researchers as well as for game designers and media artists using BCI for their interactive installations. Hence, in addition to BCI researchers, game designers, artists, and performers are asked to contribute to this workshop with papers, presentations, and demonstrations.

Topics of the submissions may include, but are not limited to:

  • Design, implementation, and evaluation of BCI games and artistic BCIs;
  • Affective BCI in game, art and entertainment environments
  • BCI, Augmented and Virtual Reality, serious games;
  • The impact of BCI Hackathons on research and applications;
  • Multi-brain and multimodal interaction in game and artistic environments;
  • BCI environments for self-reflection, empathizing, and therapy;
  • BCI control of instruments and tools for games and artistic expression; and
  • Agency in BCI games and interactive art installations

Publication

All registered papers will be published by Springer and made available through SpringerLink Digital Library.

ArtsIT proceedings are indexed in leading indexing services, including Ei Compendex, ISI Web of Science, Scopus, CrossRef, Google Scholar, DBLP, as well as EAI’s own EU Digital Library (EUDL).

Submission

Papers should be from 6 to 9 pages long and submitted via the Confy submission system. See: http://artsit.org/

Deadlines

  • Submission Deadline: 10 August 2019
  • Notification Deadline: 10 September 2019
  • Camera-ready Deadline: 10 October 2019

CfP: GamiFIN 2020

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Conference website: http://gamifinconference.com/
Full CFP: http://gamifinconference.com/cfp2020/

=== IMPORTANT DATES
- October 20, 2019:  Submissions deadline for papers
- December 20, 2019: Notifications of acceptance sent to authors of papers
- January 15, 2020: Submissions deadline for posters and doctoral consortium
- January 31, 2020: Acceptance for posters and doctoral consortium entries
- February 28, 2020: Registration deadline for authors
- March 8, 2020: Deadline for camera-ready
- April 1-3, 2020: Conference

=== THEMES
Gamification is a multi-faceted phenomenon that affects many domains of
human life. Therefore, they welcome submissions related to this ludic
transformation of reality under several domains and related (but not
limited) to the following keywords:

- Users: e.g. Engagement, experience, user types
- Education: e.g. Gamification in education, serious games, game-based
learning, games & math
- Media: e.g. Esports, streaming, social media and gamification,
gamification in journalism & media
- Commerce: e.g. Business models, free-to-play, gambling, gamification in
marketing/advergaming
- Work: e.g. Organizational gamification, gameful work, gamification in
leadership
- Technology: e.g. Virtual reality, augmented reality, Internet of things,
wearables, AI, machine learning
- Toys & play: e.g. Toy play, toy design/creation, toys in education,
internet of toys, toyfication
- Health: e.g. Quantified self, games & gamification for health
- Culture: e.g. Ludification, history of games and gamification,
gamification in society
- Theories/concepts/methods: Contributions to science around gamification
- Critical approach to gamification: e.g. detrimental effects of
gamification, metrification, aspects of poor quality of gamification and
gamification research, extrinsic control, panopticon society

=== GENERAL INFORMATION
4th Annual International GamiFIN conference, April 1-3, 2020, Levi, Lapland,
Finland!

Welcome to the gathering of international gamification research community in
the Finnish Lapland, Levi. Levi is a ski resort located in Finnish Lapland,
above the Arctic Circle and features incredible Finnish scenery, nature and
winter activities. They hope all of their guests take the time to enjoy the
surroundings and activities provided by this unique and exotic location.
Organized winter activities before and/or after the main conference days
will be announced later.

GamiFIN is a leading international conference for gamification research. The
conference is chaired by the professor of gamification Juho Hamari and
gamification scholar Jonna Koivisto. The conference is organized by the
Gamification Group and past keynotes have included notable scholars from the
field of Gamification such as Lennart Nacke, Frans Mäyrä, Sebastian
Deterding, Richard Landers and T.L. Taylor. Keynotes of GamiFIN 2020 will be
announced later.

GamiFIN 2020 conference welcomes 1) paper, 2) poster, and 3) doctoral
consortium paper submissions.

The GamiFIN conference will offer an entry to the Gamification Publication
Track (http://gamifinconference.com/gamification-track/). The gamification
publication track is a one of a kind, “gamified” way to develop your
research paper through GamiFIN conference, HICSS Gamification Track and
toward the eventual publication in an associated journal issue. The aim of
the gamification publication track is to increase the predictability and
rigorousness of the peer-review and publication processes by providing a
concise review continuum and discussion with peers.

=== PROCEEDINGS, PUBLICATIONS & PRESENTATIONS
Accepted papers will be sent for consideration for publication in CEUR
Workshop Proceedings in the GamiFIN Conference volume. CEUR-WS.org is a free
open-access publication service and recognized ISSN publication series, ISSN
1613-0073. (In the Finnish classification of publication forums,
CEUR-WS-proceedings are classified as JUFO1).

=== SUPPORTED AND HOSTED BY
Gamification Group, Tampere University, University of Turku and University
Consortium of Pori (UCPori)

=== CONTACT
Email: info@gamifinconference.com
Website: http://gamifinconference.com/

CFP: The Aesthetics of Computer Games

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The 13th International Conference on the Philosophy of Computer Games: The Aesthetics of Computer Games

Conference Committee:

Program Chair:
Feng Zhu (King’s College London)
feng.zhu@kcl.ac.uk

Conference Chairs:
Alina Latypova (St Petersburg State University)
latypova.al@gmail.com
Konstantin Ocheretyany (St Petersburg State University)
kocheretyany@gmail.com

Inviting submissions to the 13th International Conference on the Philosophy of Computer Games, organised by the Game Philosophy Network, together with the Centre for Media Philosophy and Laboratory for Computer Games Research, in St Petersburg, Russia, on October 21–24, 2019, all of the games can be cast in a TV, we recommend the use of a tv mount 65 inch to have a good view to enjoy the game.

The theme of this year’s conference is ‘The Aesthetics of Computer Games’. Playing games yields particular kinds of playful experiences or perceptions through the senses, which can be studied with an aesthetic focus, emphasising aísthēsis over noêsis. Computer games can be regarded as playful media that organise our perceptions and modify our sensibilities. For this conference, they welcome submissions on (but not limited to) the following themes and questions:

1. Aesthetics as aesthesis (aísthēsis). Is there an aesthetics or mode of experience that is specific to computer games? How do their visual, audio, and haptic aspects come together to produce distinctive experiences? How are ‘experience’ and ‘perception’ explored in computer games and shaped by them? Can concepts such as ‘affect’, ‘atmosphere’, and ‘rhythm’ be productively applied to computer games? What is the role of game interfaces on player experience?

2. Games as art? What are the conditions of possibility of games being art? How do computer games fit into established categories or conventions of aesthetics, and how do they contribute to new ones? Do games recognised as having a claim to artistic status differ from mainstream games? How do accounts of art based on necessary and sufficient conditions match up against anti-essentialist accounts in terms of gauging the status of computer games?

3. The aesthetics of gaming practices. Are games collaboratively authored? How do different kinds of play, or player-game conjunctions, bring about different kinds of gaming pleasures or aesthetic experiences? How do different bodies encounter computer games and what can be said about the way in which gameplay experience is mediated by our bodies?
Do some kinds of gameplay or extra-gamic player practices have an aesthetic orientation? Are computer games performances?

4. The ethical, political, and social dimensions of game aesthetics. What is the transformative potential of computer games and how does this compare to the transformative capabilities ascribed to artworks? How do aesthetic issues interconnect with ethical, social, and political ones – what is the autonomy or heteronomy of the aesthetic domain? How are taste, sensibility, and habit acquired with respect to gameplay and what are the social implications of this?

In addition to this central theme, the conference also features an open category, for which they invite welcome contributions that do not fit this year’s theme, but that nonetheless offer a valuable contribution to the philosophy of computer games.

Submitted proposals should have a clear focus on philosophy and philosophical (including media philosophical) issues in relation to computer games. They should also refer to specific games rather than invoke them in more general terms. Submissions should be made in the form of extended abstracts of up to 1000 words (excluding bibliography). Please indicate if you intend your paper to fit in the open category. The deadline for submissions is 23:59 GMT, Sunday, 11th August, 2019. Please submit your abstract through review.gamephilosophy.org. All submitted abstracts will be subject to a double-blind peer review process.

Notification of accepted submissions will be sent out in late August 2019. A full paper draft must then be submitted by Monday, 14th October 2019 and will be made available on the conference website.

They also invite proposals for themed panels and workshops that will take place on the 20th and 24th October, 2019. Please contact the program committee chair if you are interested in organising one.

They cannot provide grants or subsidies for participants. There will, however, be no conference fee.

For more information about the conference please visit http://gameconference.mediaphilosophy.ru/pcg2019.html and gamephilosophy.org.

CFP: Zip-Scene Conference

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II. Zip-Scene Conference on Analogue and Digital Immersive Spaces

Budapest, 10-12 November, 2019

Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design
Application deadline: 17th of June
New digital tools provide novel opportunities for interactive digital narratives (IDN) in mixed reality environments, performance art and analogue immersive spaces. But does this mean that we can tell existing stories in a better way in these environments? Or should we change our way of thinking about how we perceive our world in order to create more comprehensive narrative experiences? In a recent keynote (ICIDS 2018 conference) Janet H. Murray – author of the groundbreaking volume Hamlet on Holodeck – the Future of Narrative in Cyberspace (1997/2016), reminds us that “a kaleidoscopic habit of thinking” can help us “envision a more integrated transformational future” and “open up the possibility of expanding our understanding of the world and our cognitive capacity” (Murray, 2018:17). To better grasp the complexity of the world, it is important to enhance emerging artistic practices in order to create opportunities for critical reflection while acknowledging the changed relationship between creators and audiences turned participants/prosumers/experiencers.

This conference aims to investigate whether XR/extended reality (VR/AR/MR) works will acquire a status comparable to film, performing arts and video games in the near future. On this basis, we are looking forward to papers that address narrative experiences enabled by XR and especially VR technologies. Papers should address either one or several of the following questions:

  • What kind of narratives can be used to create possibility spaces in such immersive productions?
  • How much engagement with and control over the narrative path is desirable for the audience turned participants?
  • What design strategies can guide these participatory experiences: for example, live performers, orchestrators, and set designers using the sensorium of New Horror (see Ndalianis, 2012) or somaesthetic design concepts (see Höök, 2018) to create novel forms of immersion in these environments?
  • What kind of design strategies can we use to provide a satisfying level of agency to participant audiences and provide opportunities for co-creation?
  • What is the current status of interactive digital narrative experiences, have they completed their evolution from being media of attraction (see Rouse, 2016) or there is still a long way for them to go in order to find the right direction?
  • What can we learn from a comparison of site-specific live arts productions with those of VR projects?
  • How can we explore free-form play and rule-based gaming as different types of performances within mixed-reality theatre and immersive theatre?

In addition, we want to challenge established storytelling strategies and instead more thoroughly analyze ways of creating engaging experiences:

What kind of principles of video game design do XR productions make use of (e.g. puzzle dependency charts and plot-shaped level design – see Short, 2019)?
What design strategies createed the experience of full immersivity and presence for their users-turned-participants (see 2018/4 issue of the journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media).

Further developing Murray’s perspective on the ‘kaleidoscopic habit’, we expect presentations that engage with the practice of transdisciplinary creators to adapt video game mechanics, various sensorium settings and interactive narrative design strategies in order to create fully immersive environments. Possible analyzes can be on topics such as overall aesthetics authorial affordances, design principles and conventions (Koenitz et al, 2018) as well as the audience’s experience (especially engagement and empowering mechanisms) and, last but not least, as interactive narratives. Some possible perspectives include Murray’s affordances and aesthetic qualities of the digital medium, Bogost’s procedural rhetoric, Kwastek’s “aesthetics of interactivity”, somaesthetic design concepts (Höök), guiding strategies based on New Horror’s sensorium (Ndalianis, 2012) the trajectories offered by them (based on Benford-Giannachi’s concept) and interactive narrative systems (Koenitz, 2015).

Conference themes:

  • Interactive storytelling methods
  • Interactive videos
  • Video games
  • Location-based technology (with augmented reality)
  • Virtual reality experiences&movies
  • Augmented reality in interactive storytelling
  • Games-based performing arts practices using new technology tools
  • Interactive Museum
  • Immersive environments (media archeology and phenomenological approach)
  • Transmedia storytelling

Proposals may be for a paper or a panel and should be related to at least one of the conference themes. Deadline for submitting the proposals is June 17, 2019. Please send us your abstract (max 350 words) and a short bio (max. 300 words) to the address: zipscene@mome.hu and please in CC: bakk@mome.hu. The papers will be reviewed by the conference committee. If your proposal will be accepted you will be given 20 minutes for your presentation.

Registration fee: EUR 50

The organizers cannot cover travel, accommodation and lodging costs. Upon request we can provide you invitation letter.

For Whom
The conference addresses scientific researchers, game professionals, programmers, artists, scholars and professionals from the field of performing arts, game studies, interactive storytellers, experience designers, narrative designers, VR-professionals and philosophers concerned with the conference topics. The conference aims to bring together emerging scholars, professionals and creators in order to create a joint platform which would later help individuals to understand and to develop these types of productions.

CFP: VJ 2019 11th Conference on Videogame Sciences and Arts

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27-29 November 2019, Aveiro, Portugal
http://videojogos2019.web.ua.pt/

S1288is an agent of s128 cockfighting or commonly called a trusted online chicken gambling place in Indonesia. Gambling is usually done or where to bet on chicken matches that are played online. Now with the development of sophisticated technology, you can do chicken gambling online using your favorite computer or smartphone.

*** SCOPE ***

Ten years, and ten years more

The 11th Conference on Videogame Sciences and Arts will be held on November 27-29, organised by the Departament of Communication and Art of the University of Aveiro, and the Society of Video Games Sciences (SPCV). The annual conferences of the SPCV promote the scientific gathering of researchers in Portugal. These conferences are attended by researchers and professionals in the expanded field of videogames — Multimedia, Communication, Technology, Education, Psychology and Arts — to disseminate work and exchange experiences between the academic community and with the industry.

In 2009 the conference was held at University of Aveiro. 2019 will mark the coming back after 10 years. They intend then to show a thorough roadmap of the evolution of the national and international game research during these 10 years, as also ideas and speculations for the next 10 years. Due to the global situation, online casino games on 메리트카지노 have been soaring in popularity as a means of entertainment.

Also, this time they plan going full international, using as working language English, for the CFP, the website, as the Proceedings. Therefore, if you’ve never participated in one Videojogos, this may be the best time to do it. They are calling for papers on games research from all over the world.

*** TOPICS ***

They welcome research proposals, long and short papers, and demos. All presenting new scientific results, innovative technologies, best practices, or improvements to existing techniques and approaches in the multidisciplinary research field of Games Research.

Suggested research topics for contributions include, but are not limited to:

  • Tabletop Games
  • Hybrid Games
  • Gamification
  • Technology
  • Aesthetics
  • Culture
  • Development
  • Learning
  • Methodology
  • Design
  • Criticism
  • Transmedia
  • Narrative
  • Serious Games

*** SUBMISSIONS ***

Papers (short and full) must be in English. Only submissions that receive high ratings in the review process will be selected for publication by the Program Committee.

All submissions should follow the Springer Communications in Computer and Information Science (CCIS) format (see “Information for Authors of Springer Computer Science Proceedings” at https://www.springer.com/gp/computer-science/lncs/conference-proceedings-guidelines) use the Word Template https://resource-cms.springernature.com/springer-cms/rest/v1/content/7117506/data/v1.

Link for submission: https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=vj2019

*** IMPORTANT DATES ***

  • Submission deadline (full and short paper): July 31, 2019
  • Author notification of the review: September 15, 2019
  • Submission of the print-ready version: October 1, 2019
  • VJ2019 conference: November 27-29, 2019

*** PUBLICATION ***

Full papers: 12-15 pages
Short papers: < 12 pages

The proceedings are planned to be published by Springer in their Communications in Computer and Information Science series, pending of final approval.

The Communications in Computer and Information Science is a book proceedings series by Springer and Indexed by SCOPUS, SCImago, and ISI Proceedings. More info at https://www.springer.com/series/7899

*** Contacts ***
Ana Veloso, aiv@ua.pt
Nelson Zagalo, nzagalo@ua.pt

Job: Positions on character animation, crowd simulation, interactions and avatars in VR

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The Inria group in Rennes working on character animation, crowd simulation, interactions and avatars in VR, is recruting PhD candidates and research fellows on several of these topics. Here are some of the positions currently open, with more details available on the corresponding job offers.

PhD position:

  • Realistic, Reactive and Interactive Virtual Humans for Virtual Reality (H2020 ICT 25 PRESENT), https://jobs.inria.fr/public/classic/fr/offres/2019-01713

Postdoc positions:

  • Personalising Virtual Character Motions for Crowd Animation (ANR JCJC PER2), https://jobs.inria.fr/public/classic/fr/offres/2019-01750
  • Physio-synchronised 3D virtual avatars (INRIA IPL AVATAR), https://jobs.inria.fr/public/classic/fr/offres/2019-01477
  • Video-based crowd motion analysis, https://jobs.inria.fr/public/classic/en/offres/2019-01722

R&D technical position

  • Project manager for Robotics and Smart environments (H2020 ICT 25 CROWDBOT), https://jobs.inria.fr/public/classic/fr/offres/2019-01630
  • Engineer for video analysis of crowd movements, https://jobs.inria.fr/public/classic/en/offres/2019-01722

Book: Approaches to Videogame Discourse

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Announcing the publication of their new book, Approaches to Videogame Discourse: Lexis, Interaction, Textuality (Bloomsbury, 2019, ed. Astrid Ensslin and Isabel Balteiro):

The first significant collection of research in videogame linguistics, Approaches to Videogame Discourse features an international array of scholars in linguistics, media and communication studies exploring lexis, interaction and textuality in digital games.

In the first section, “Lexicology, Localisation and Variation,” chapters cover productive processes surrounding gamer slang (ludolects), creativity and borrowing across languages, as well as industry-, genre-, game- and player-specific issues relating to localization, legal jargon and slang. “Player Interactions” moves on to examine communicative patterns between videogame players, focusing in particular on (un)collaborative language, functions and negotiations of impoliteness and issues of power in player discourse. In the final section, “Beyond the ‘Text’,” scholars grapple with issues of multimodality, paratextuality and transmediality in videogames in order to develop and enrich multimodal theory, drawing on key concepts from ludonarratology, language ideology, immersion and transmedia studies.

With implications for meaningful game design and communication theory, Approaches to Videogame Discourse examines in detail how video games function as means and objects of communication; how they give rise to new vocabularies, textual genres and discourse practices; and how they serve as rich vehicles of ideological signification and social engagement.

Endorsements:

“Finally! A concerted take on the richly, intricately discursive world of gaming. Edited collections have proved to be defining moments in digital discourse studies; this one will be no exception.” –  Crispin Thurlow, Professor of Language and Communication, University of Bern, Switzerland

“Approaches to Video-Game Discourse is a field-shaping collection of essays which show how interesting and varied the study of online gaming can be. The book is impressive in its scope, including research about the micro-level features such as word formation and moving through to broader concerns such as the narrativity of particular games. The book should be commended for reaching beyond the study of individual games and paying attention to various paratexts such as video walkthroughs, manuals and the legal language relating to games. The scholars who have contributed to this collection embrace the full range of approaches that are found in discourse studies, using corpus driven analyses, ethnography, pragmatics, and multimodality to explore the texts and interactions of game-playing from empirically informed perspectives. The book will be of interest to linguists and new media scholars alike as a timely resource which helps us all understand how gaming is meaningful in m!
any different ways.” –  Dr. Ruth Page, Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics, University of Birmingham, UK

“Fueled by a new generation of scholars, this volume sketches out videogame discourse studies as a new field of research that extends from corpus-assisted lexical analysis to the multimodal study of paratexts that surround games. The authors draw on concepts and questions from applied, media and sociolinguistics, such as language ideologies, (im)politeness, plain language, and localization. This volume offers an accessible introduction to a field of practice that is massively popular on a global scale, yet quite understudied from a language and discourse perspective.” –  Jannis Androutsopoulos, Professor of German and Media Linguistics, Universität Hamburg, Germany

G|A|M|E – Call For Papers N.8 – ‘Would you kindly?’

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‘Would you kindly?’: Claiming Video Game Agency as Interdisciplinary Concept
(https://www.gamejournal.it/n-8-2019-would-you-kindly-claiming-video-game-agency-as-interdisciplinary-concept/)

The new issue of G|A|M|E proposes a re-examination of the concept of agency in games. They welcome contributions that address the idea of agency from a variety of academic perspectives, taking into account its interdisciplinary history and application, in order to expand our critical understanding of the concept more broadly. They therefore invite scholars from all fields to reflect on different notions of agency, not only in relation to physical and digital games, but also to other media and art forms as they impact on games and game studies. At the end of the influential first-person shooter Bioshock (2K Games, 2007), its critique of the rhetoric of choice and freedom emerges from the dialogue between the protagonist Jack and the visionary despot of Rapture, Andrew Rayan. Rayan’s seemingly innocent question ‘Would You Kindly?’ conceals a cognitive trigger that casts a shadow over the protagonist’s actions. By shattering the illusion of free will for both character and player, the game breaks the fourth wall and confronts the user with the question: who is being/has been controlled?

Already central to the fields of Human-Computer Interaction as well as that of design (e.g. Sherry Turkle, 1984; Brenda Laurel, 1991), agency was redefined more than twenty years ago in Janet Murray’s seminal volume Hamlet on the Holodeck (1996, p. 123) as ‘the satisfying power to take meaningful action and see the results of our decisions and choices’. To this day, the concept of agency is still prominent in scholarly debates on video game and game design: to describe a key ontological category that delineates the multiplicity of paths as well as the breadth of choices made available by interactive texts; and also –closer to Murray’s acceptation– to define a primary category of video game aesthetics, a textual effect attached to the pleasure of taking meaningful decisions within virtual environments.

On one level, agency informs media objects, texts and devices. Agency can be observed in relation to old and new game genres (adventure games with branching narratives, interactive movies, sandbox and open-world games); degrees of agency are provided by the affordances of VR/AR and mixed reality technologies (Oculus, PlayStationVR, HoloLens etc.); forms of agency are conceptualised across diverse media and art forms (interactive design, experimental film, on- demand TV, experiential theatre, museum installations) as well as in physical and digital hypertexts (Choose You Own Adventure books); agency is reallocated through new modes of distribution and fruition (VoD, streaming platforms and digital piracy); and agency is also embedded in sub-cultural practices and products (machinima, fan-fiction etc.).

On another level, agency is crucial to debating conceptual categories relevant to interactive digital media. Digital artefacts are immersed in a cross- and trans-media landscape, in which the interface constantly brings into question the relationship between objects, developers and users, blurring the boundaries between authors and audiences and questioning the sovereignty over these objects on multiple fronts. Here, agency provides an opening to explore aesthetic, social and political tensions (gender, race, class), and can be used to analyse discourses that challenge the role of the spectator/reader/player in relation to media object and their creators (art and exhibition, authorship, fandom, prosumer culture).

With its eighth issue, G|A|M|E wants to investigate the agency afforded by games, software and interfaces, as well as the agency claimed by players, users and spectators. Exceeding Murray’s original aesthetic understanding of the term, they intend to expand their examination of agency within and beyond the virtual borders of game studies. Agency is, in fact, a pivotal concept in philosophy, adopted to address relations of intentionality and causality between actors and actions (e.g. Anscombe, 1957; Davidson, 1963); as well as in social sciences, which locate agency within material and immaterial networks between human and non-human agents (Latour, 2005). In light of the vast interdisciplinary history of this concept, they seek contributions that can productively inform and renew our understandings of agency in gaming and play, while also using game agency to inform larger political, philosophical and cultural issues, developing current critical debates in game studies and in other disciplines.

Topics may include:

  • agency in game studies
  • agency and gaming technologies (VR, AR, mixed reality)
  • agency and interactivity
  • agency in video game criticism
  • close textual analysis of games in relation to agency
  • player reception and agency: modding, fandom etc.
  • agency in traditional games: board games, sports etc.
  • video game agency and issues of authorship
  • agency as interdisciplinary concept, from games to: arts, social sciences, law and philosophy
  • game agency in relation to other cultural forms (experimental film, cinema, art, architecture, design)
  • agency and non-linear textuality
  • politics (race, class, sexuality, gender, geopolitics) and video game agency
  • agency and media ecologies

Scholars are invited to submit an extended abstract (between 500-1,000 words excluding references) or full papers by Friday the 19th of July, 2019 to editors@gamejournal.it

Extended Abstract deadline: 19th of July 2019; Notification of acceptance: 25th of July 2019

All accepted authors will be asked to submit the full paper by the 15th of October 2019. We expect to release this issue in Winter 2019

Editors: Ivan Girina (Brunel University London), Berenike Jung (University of Tübingen)

Two summer schools on Game Research and Design at Utrecht University (August 2019)

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Between August 12th and 23rd 2019, Utrecht University is organizing two separate, but consecutive and interrelated summer schools on digital games and play in contemporary society and culture, supported by the Center for Game Research, and conducted by senior staff members from the Department of Information and Computing Sciences and the Department of Media & Culture Studies, the University of Arts, as well as affiliated institutions.

The first summer course “Game Design and Development” (August 12-16) provides a step-by-step introduction to making games in the industry-standard game engine Unity, accompanied by workshops and lectures on topics like entrepreneurship as well as (serious) game design. Students will form teams and create a game of their own on a “games for good” topic, tying into the ongoing public and academic debate about the benefits of games in promoting e.g. wellbeing and a sustainable lifestyle. Expert feedback on the content as well as the design process will be  provided by experienced game designers.

For more information, including a day-to-day program, and to apply online, visit https://www.utrechtsummerschool.nl/courses/science/game-design-and-development.

The second summer course “Applied Games – A Multidisciplinary Research Perspective” (August 19-23) offers an overview of current research perspectives on the complex phenomenon of Applied Games, which range from (digital) serious games over interactive digital narratives (e.g. in journalism or activism) to playful interventions and pedagogies. Each day is dedicated to a different angle, starting with applied game analysis, moving on to games for learning, games in environmental communication and policy-making (Eco games), narrative aspects of Applied Games, and finally games and play experiences that involve the whole body. Apart from the interactive workshops, joint social activities with the UDS summer school ‘Exploring Culture Through Data’ and a tour of the Mo-Cap Lab at Utrecht University round off the program.

The detailed curriculum, describing all modules of the summer course, has just been uploaded on the Utrecht Summer school website. Thus, for more information and to apply online, visit https://www.utrechtsummerschool.nl/courses/science/applied_games_a_multidisciplinary_research_perspective.

While each summer course can be followed individually, the two programs are designed to be complementary, so combining them provides an even more holistic perspective on the creation, interpretation and deployment of (applied) games in contemporary society and culture.