The Call for Abstracts of the 7th Vienna Games Conference FROG13 (27-28 September, 2013) is out. Vienna’s annual Games Conference offers an open international platform for leading game studies researchers and scholars, game designers, researchers and scholars from various other fields, education professionals, and gamers from around the world. The topic of the FROG13 is “Context Matters” and we are looking for contributions that explore, study and examine the contextual and situated aspects of game, design and play. Be a part when the magnificent Vienna Town hall converts into a vibrant playground for players, fans and games researchers.

7th Vienna Games Conference- Future and Reality of Gaming – FROG13
Submission Deadline: 25 May 2013
CfP in detail: http://bupp.at/en/service-en/frog/frog-2013/

CONTEXT MATTERS!

Exploring and Reframing Games and Play in Context

Vienna City Hall, Austria, Friday 27 to Saturday 28 September 2013; http://bupp.at/frog

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FROG13 KEYNOTES

TL Taylor is a games and Internet researcher and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her research focuses on play communities and experiences in online worlds, E-Sports, and professional computer gaming. She recently published Raising the Stakes: E-Sports and the Professionalization of Computer Gaming and co-authored Ethnography and Virtual Worlds.

Sebastian Deterding is a designer and researcher working on user experience, video games, persuasive technology and gameful design. He is interested in how code shapes conduct — and how to put that knowledge into practice. He is a PhD researcher in Communications at the Graduate School of the Research Center for Media and Communication, Hamburg University. He is also an affiliated researcher at the Hans Bredow Institute for Media Research in Hamburg, and works as an independent user experience designer.

Jesper Juul is an assistant professor at the NYU Game Center. He has been working with video game theory since the early 1990′s. His previous book are the game theory classic Half-Real and A Casual Revolution. He recently published The Art of Failure a book that combines personal confessions about failure with philosophy, game design analysis, psychology and fiction theory.

More keynote speakers will be announced at www.bupp.at/frog

FROG13 THEME: “Context Matters!”

The activity of play is situated within different contextual constraints. Games contextualize the way we play and, vice versa, our play recontextualizes the rules and goals of games; culture, society and history contextualizes the way we create and experience games; language and communication are situating how we play and what games mean to us. The context of play matters and influences the impact games have on their players, on our society and culture. The study of context and frames that impact play raises the following questions: How can we understand the contextual characteristic of play? What forms of contexts and frames matter and why? What are constructive or problematic contexts of play? How can we study context and what methods appear appropriate to examine it? What context does game design and development establish? What is the contextual impact of technology on games and play? What media forms contextualize our play and how are the converging?

FROG13 focuses on questions, challenges and innovations in exploring the contexts of play – such as the cultural, personal, social, educational, theoretical, technological or historical contexts – and their impact. The organizers seek proposals covering all aspects of cutting-edge research on digital gaming, game design, game culture, game studies, therapy and economy within or across academic disciplines.

We encourage participation from a wide range of disciplines including Game Studies, Education, Psychology, Computer Science, Game Design, Cultural Anthropology, Fine Arts, Human-Computer Interaction, Media and Communication Studies, Philosophy, Social Science, Urban Studies, Digital Humanities etc … The FROG Conference facilitates the exchange of ideas and current research findings in an engaging and convivial atmosphere. Submissions are welcome on a wide range of topics, such as:

… Context, Design and Change: (Contemporary Uniqueness of Computer Games and Game Design)

Human play doesn‘t equal computer gaming: How does the appearance of computers and the emergence of a new sector of the cultural industry change our perception of playing? Is there a significant difference in growing up with digital practices? How do digital games change the way we live? And what alternate forms of play are of importance? And how do games, game design and game development determine the transformations in game culture? What does this mean for academic work, which is influenced by these circumstances as well, while dealing with these questions?

… Context and Competence: (Learning, Teaching and Experiencing with Games)

Today it is broadly accepted that computer games can trigger learning processes, that knowledge is acquired painlessly and that games foster highly demanded abilities (team-work, flexibility, multi-tasking, problem-solving,…). It seems likely to design games with specific educational intentions, while another important question waits unanswered: How does the handling of devices inform and entail these learning processes? Not only what contents and topics and to what extent they can be treated, but how is data processed, in what context are games consumed? Which competences are required to play a game, even before it can have any effects? How can we facilitate creative and unrestricted play in educational contexts that are restricted and instrumentalizing play? How can educational game designs reflect the contextual impact of play

… Context and Culture: (Signs, Symbols and Communities)

With nostalgia we look back at pixel-graphics; with pomp we stage E-Sport as mass-media events; with sincerity we fancy the creative work of game designers and the virtuosic performances of gamers. How are new signs and symbols within game culture invading our culture? Memes, emoticons, abbreviations and neologisms like „frag“ form new ways of expression, that are more and more commonly accepted. What kinds of significance do icons have that obviously come from computational or game practice and queue into pop-cultural discourse? How are ancient myths revived and refashioned through interfaces, narratives and game mechanics? How do play communities perform play and thereby impact the context games are played in?

… Context and Communication: (Media, Convergence and Controversy)

Not only multiplayer-games are social events, the act of play always references a broader social and communicative context. In consequence, social forms of play open possibilitites for meaningful experiences but also for conflict, discrimination, racism, and hate speech. FROG13 specifically wants to provide room to explore the problematic phenomena of hate speech. How is our society answering to the potentials but also problematic issues of virtual worlds? And what novel insights does the violence and addiction debate offer? Here as well, content is not the only matter of interest: What kind of thinking about interactivity and sociability are provided through out the gaming discourse? What policies are executed and on what are they based on? How do we address questions related to violence in games? What ethics are applying to games and how are they negotiated? How did the awareness for the communicative aspect of gaming change design paradigms? How does the media influence the way our society thinks about games? How do different media forms collide in games and how are they influencing each?

Abstract Submission:

All authors are invited to submit an abstract of research work relating to FROG13 subject of “Context Matters!” in either English or German and according to the specifications of the different forms of presentation. Authors are required to submit their abstracts online at: http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=frog13 no later than 25 May 2013 in the forms of:

PRESENTATIONS: In assignment to FROG13 topics authors are required to submit a short mini-abstract (150 words) and a profound extended abstract (PDF File) outlining the topic, thesis and methodology of the paper abstracts (1000 words) for their talks (30 min.).

FROGA KUCHA: This is the Viennese Version of Pecha Kucha but limited to 5-7 mini-presentations in a row, in which you show 20 slides, each for 20 seconds (exactly 6’40” in total). The images forward automatically and you talk along…. and the audience will give immediate feedback. (Abstracts 500 words as a PDF File + 150 word mini-abstract).

FROG POSTER, GAME & PROTOTYPE PRESENTATION: At FROG13 a poster, game and prototype session is providing space for classical Viennese Coffee Culture. You bring your ideas, games, prototypes concepts and research topics and results, we provide a unique atmosphere, a beautiful space, good coffee and time for you to discuss your ideas with colleagues (Abstracts 300-500 words as a PDF File + 150 words mini-abstract).

All abstracts will be reviewed and judged on originality, quality and relevance to the Conference. All accepted abstracts will be printed in a book of abstracts, which will be distributed during the Conference. Authors of accepted abstracts (for regular presentations) will be invited to prepare a full paper for publication in the printed proceedings of FROG13 at New Academic Press (f.e. see the FROG13 proceedings http://www.newacademicpress.at/index.php/applied-playfulness.html).

Important Dates:

Abstract submission: 25 May 2013

Notification: 20 June 2013

Conference: 27-28 September 2013

Full paper: 21 October 2013

Proceedings Publication: March 2014

Registration for the Conference & Conference Fee:

Early bird: 15 June – 15 August 2013; Registration: 16 August – 26 September 2013

Conference fee: € 125,- / Early bird: € 100,-

Conference fee for students & staff members of youth organizations: € 60,- / Early Bird: € 50,-

The registration fees includes admission to all sessions, a printed copy of the Book of Abstracts, coffee breaks, lunch on 28 September and the Conference Dinner on 27 September.

Conference Program Co-Chairs:

Jason Begy (Concordia University); Jennifer Berger (University of Vienna); Mia Consalvo (Concordia University); Clara Fernández-Vara (The Trope Tank, Massachusetts Institute of Technology); Henrik Schønau Fog (Aalborg University Copenhagen); Simon Huber (Universität Wien); Fares Kayali (University of Applied Arts Vienna); Christoph Klimmt (Hanover University of Music, Drama, and Media); Nikolaus König; Jonas Linderoth (University of Gothenburg); Konstantin Mitgutsch (MIT Game Lab; Massachusetts Institute of Technology); Scot Osterweil (Education Arcade); Alexander Pfeiffer (Danube University Krems); Alenka Poplin (HafenCity University Hamburg); Herbert Rosenstingl (Austrian Federal Ministry of Economy, Family and Youth); Steve Schirra (MIT Game Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology); Abe Stein (MIT Game Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology); Jaroslav Švelch (University in Prague); Michael Wagner (Drexel University); Jeffrey Wimmer (TU Ilmenau)

For any questions, please contact frog@bupp.at or visit the Conference website http://bupp.at/frog.