Tag: research

Videogame doctors

A recent ill-informed CNN money article asked “What’s next: a Ph.D. in video gaming?“
Well, duh! – but I started a small count and actually, the number of game PhD’s to be is quite impressive.
Below is a list of people that I can think of, top of my head, who are speeding towards ludic doctor-hood.

But first the ones who made it (strong focus on games only):
– Mary Ann Buckles (see post on Ludology.org)
– Espen Aarseth (no decent link, as Dr. Aarseth believes the WWW thing will blow over)
– Lisbeth Klastrup
– Jesper Juul
– Lars Konzack
– Dmitri Williams

En route (in order of randomness):
– Gonzalo Frasca, IT University of Copenhagen
– Miguel Sicart, IT University of Copenhagen
– Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen, IT University of Copenhagen
– Sara Mosberg, IT University of Copenhagen
– Troels Folmann, IT University of Copenhagen
– Jonas Heide Smith, IT University of Copenhagen
– Chek Yang Foo, Curtin University of Technology
– Mirjam Eladhari, Gotland University
– Elina Koivisto, Nokia Research Center (Finland)
– Lisa Galarneau, University of Waikato
– Constance Steinkuehler, University of Wisconsin?Madison
– Kristine J?rgensen, University of Copenhagen
– Gitte Stald, University of Copenhagen
– Charlie Breindahl, University of Copenhagen
– Anne Mette Thorhauge, University of Copenhagen
– Marinka Copier, University of Utrecht
– Christian Ulrik Andersen, University of ?rhus
– Julian Kuecklich, Ulster University
– Peter Zackariasson, Ume? School of Business and Economics
– Laurie Taylor, University of Florida
– Sean Fenty, University of Florida

Okay, this list is hopelessly incomplete. Please tell me some of the names that my tired brain didn’t come up with.

DAC calls for papers

The Digital Arts and Cultures 2005 conference CFP was just put online:

The 6th DAC conference invites critical examinations of the field of digital arts and culture, which challenge existing paradigms. We call for papers which examine both theoretical and hands-on approaches to digital experiences and experience design. Since the inaugural DAC in 1998 much has happened, and research has matured from early investigations into the problematic nature of new media towards questions of emergent dynamics, user centered design and various forms of interactivity. At the same time, the realization has grown that users of digital media not only are active participants, but also have to be taken into account at all stages of the design and production of digital experiences
How do practitioners (programmers, artists, designers etc.) cater for this kind of active and demanding user? What kinds of experiences can we create? How can these experiences inform us? How do we as academics analyse and evaluate digital experiences? DAC has always been interested in exploring the ways in which digital media do things that traditional media cannot. We believe that the focus on ?experience? in DAC 2005 will illuminate the possibilities of digital media beyond the functional perspectives of ?usability?. What are the aesthetic and cultural implications of digital design as experience?

– Read the whole thing

Half-Life 2 made me not do it

There’s something just not right.

Here’s what effect researcher Craig Anderson writes:

…venting fails. Different terms have been used to describe this idea, but in the United States ?venting? refers to things like hitting something or playing a violent video game to get your aggressive tendencies out in a relatively safe and socially approved way. This has been called the ?catharsis hypothesis?, an idea that comes from the ancient Greeks, was brought into western civilisation by the writings of Freud, and is now a part of our culture. It is a beautiful idea, but it is not true: catharsis does not work. There was clear proof of this by the late 1960s, and catharsis is one of the most widely tested and discredited notions in all of psychology,
yet it continues to reappear in different guises again and again. An Australian government-sponsored report published in 2000, for example, quotes a socalled ?video games expert? saying that some of these violent games might actually provide a catharsis-type effect. It is incorrect.

This seems familiar, it is a conclusion on the “catharsis hypothesis” often heard.
But something’s bugging me. If I were to look inwards and explain why I enjoy playing games one very large component is certainly a catharsis-like feeling. But maybe “the release of tension” is not on target. Maybe it’s more a bracketing of the outside world to engage with a predictable (if complex) system. Either find, gaming to me is really therapeutic (some games at least). And so it is that I’m wondering: If catharsis has been so repeatedly disproved, what label should then be used for that very specific anti-stress feeling of playing a good game…?

Another world


OK, I did it. I let myself be logged on to World of Warcraft (EU beta). Just to have a look, purely for research purposes, and with no intention of staying. Taking the form of a purple-haired female gnome I went for a bit of sight-seeing. There’s no denying that this world looks extremely stylish and it all feels awfully atmospheric (in a comic book kind of way). Whether or not it’s actually fun to play (casually) remains to be seen. But I think I’ll continue the wolf-slaying a bit once the actual game opens (late feb). See you there.

Game seminar Friday next week

The University of Copenhagen is hosting the next down-to-Earth but often pleasant public game seminar in our twice-a-year series. Program below:

To Kill or not to Kill ? and other presentations on computer games research

Friday November 12, 2004
MODINET?s Conference Room 5.2.29a (old KUA)

PROGRAMME:
09.15-09.25: Welcome
09.25-10.05: Gitte Stald Perspectives on Fascination of Death and Violence in Games
10.05-10.45: Kjetil Sandvik Game Characters with Scruples?
10.45-11.00: Coffee
11.00-11.40: Susana Tosca To Kill or not to Kill: the Butterfly Effect in Blade Runner
11.40-12.20: Troels Degn-Johansson On Death and Destruction in Strategy Games
12.20-13.15: Lunch
13.15-13.55: Jesper Juul What the Game Means: About Grand Theft Auto 3
13.55-14.10: coffee
14.10-14.50: Charlie Breindahl Racing Games
14.50-15.30: Jonas Heide Smith Games, Peacocks, and the Theory of Conflict

Risk-free societies

I’m quite bored with the Disneyworld approach to social interaction strived for by several MMORPGs. I think I’m ready for something more PvP soon – and a bit of permadeath wouldn’t hurt either. Also, it seems increasingly self-defeating to me to instate rules that roleplaying can never be an excuse to violate the be-nice rules of EULAs. I think my dream MMORPG would have PvP, permadeath (or at least something close) and an advancement system which made sure that even newbies could “physically” threaten experienced players. Oh, and now that I’m reading from the wish-list I would also like to see worlds in which choices actually had long-term consequences even if it meant upsetting carefully established gameplay balances. But I guess I’ve ranted on this before.

Twinked!

Moving rapidly from frog-fighting street thug into the ranks of the newly rich, I met up with Chek in Star Wars Galaxies. Chek, being accomplished in the arcana of the game’s mechanics was throwing around goodies like credits and a nice hover bike now residing comfortably in the… well, pocket of yours truly. Biking in the sunset I was given a great tutorial and was later taken to see the stately – postcardly situated – houses of certain esteemed game researchers.
Oh, and Chek keeps some dragons around. And I think he is closer to the emperor than he cares to admit :-)

The World will have to do

The game center gets a writeup at BBCs The World. My attention was caught a statement by one Jonas Schmidt:

“It was weird to think that there would be some sort of payoff for all of the hours spent,” Smith says. “You know, telling our parents this, but they didn’t believe us. They should see this.”

The depth of wisdom within this one sentence, not to mention its daring position on the issue of internal coherence, boggles the mind.
In one of the pictures my office mate can be seen hard at work doing basic research.

But seriously, it’s a nice piece. There’s supposed to be a companion webcast but I can’t seem to find a working URL.