DiGRA: Morning, Day 4

After a nice afternoon in London checking out all the great shops (like Octopus and Fortnum & Mason – should have brought a larger suitcase!) and a nice dinner at the Crusting Pipe, I am headed back into the conference rooms for one last session. Unfortunately for me, and due to some poor planning on my part, I am only able to attend the first session today – luckily for me, it is a panel on avatars and identity.

The first presentation, by Kristine Jorgensen called I’m Overburdened!’ An Empirical Study of the Play, the Avatar and the Gameworld. The presentation centered around how players view the player/avatar relationship. Although this sounds eerily familiar for me, I am happy to hear that her overarching goals is to look at the relationship between the user interface and the player, in regards to the game-world and game design. When thinking about the avatar, she uses both Rune Klevjer, and Jonas’Linderoth’s conceptualization of the avatar as an extension of the player (vicarious embodiment), as role, tool, and/or prop.  The bulk of the presentation was focused on player quotes and contextualizing them into the definitional constructs of the avatar (briefly) outlined (above).

The second presentation of the session, Emma Westecott’s The Player Character as Performing Object focused on the idea that gameplay is a performance act, looking at the moment of interaction between the player and the game-world (player as puppet-artist / puppeteer). Coming from a film and performance arts perspective and literature, and primarily semiotics of puppetry (Frank Proschan), the presentation was quite theoretical from perspectives that I am not familiar with and so made it quite interesting to think about the relationship between the player and the object of the avatar – controller and game. While I don’t usually take the direction of avatar as puppet (role, prop or tool..), I appreciated seeing the player / avatar relationship explained from a different angle. Apologies for my brief and perhaps inarticulate synthesis.

The final presentation of the day is Clara Fernandez-Vara’s Play’s the Thing: A Framework to Study Videogames as Performance which essentially is a set of tools in order to look at videogames, as well as the implications these tools carry. Performance in regards of “performance studies – human action in context (showing doing) which are necessarily activities that are separate from everyday life (Schechner, 2006; Huizinga, 1955). I spent most of the time listening intently, and taking notes, so here is the basic foundation:

Performance Framework: comparative framework

Three layers

Theatre (Pavis, Schechener)
Digital media
Games (not exclusively digital) – Hunicke et al

Theatre model – how do we understand theatrical performance

-          Dramatic text (what is ready before it begins)
-          Performance (actors concretizing the text)
-          Mise-en-scene (the necessity of the audience to make sense of the text and the performance)

Performance in digital media (Software as performance)

-         Code (instead of dramatic text – this is what the computer “has” to do –
-         Run-time (computer performs the text – the performance is not complete without an interactor – as co-performer
-         Interaction (player)

Games (Hunicke, R. M. Leblanc et al) MDA : A formal approach to game design and game research

-          Mechanics (what is needed to start playing – objects as part of the mechanics) [rules attached to the objects]
-          Dynamics (rules set into motion – applied rules, not translation of the rules, but the acting out of them)
-          Aesthetics – (ambiguous in MDA) [types of fun or activities that are engaging] what happens to the player while playing .. player experience

Player as performer and spectator = making sense of the actions (spectator) and making things happen, set things in motion.

So there it is – another interesting panel to wrap up another great conference with great people in a great place. I am both sad to leave and happy to go home and see my family. Safe travels to fellow delegates.

*Please disregard typos and poor sentence structures =)

DiGRA: Morning Day 3

After spending another great evening in Uxbridge last night, and an on campus nightcap with a few friends, I woke up a bit late (seemed to have missed my alarm!), but still managed to make it to the morning’s panels on time.

This morning’s first panel – Wii play: gestures, bodies and technologies - the presentations (by Bart Simon, Rune Klevjer & Patrick Crogan) were all quite theoretical, connecting ideas about the ways in which the Wii and its controls are pushing the boundaries between the player, movement and gameplay.

The second panel I attended was on games and education – the first speaker, Kenneth Hullett presented Better Game Studies Education the Carcasonne Way which focused on using board games to teach game mechanics in design class in response to the fact that many students who enter game design have great ideas, but lack the understanding of the mechanics. The presentation was mostly a relay of results between those who participated in playing the boardgames and those who did not to measure the level of understanding of game mechanics.

The second speaker, Suzanne de Castell, presented a paper titled  As If or Just Like:  From Simulation to Imitation in Educational Games. The presentation was relatively conceptual, but raised a very interesting point about videogames that claim to be simulation but are controlled with a traditional handheld controller. There is a disconnect between the actions on the screen and the physical actions required to make the actions occur. Whereas more ‘embodied’ games such as Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero have more (intrinsic) connection between the actions that occur on the screen and what actions are required by player to make it happen. This differentiation is important when considering educational games.

The third paper The Gigue is Up: High Culture Gets Game, presented by Jen Jenson, focused on a game project they had done for the Toronto Baroque Orchestra  Tafelmusik. The presentation focused on the challenges they faced making an accessible ‘edutainment’ game to introduce Baroque music to a new generation.

DiGRA Side Notes

I haven’t been able to blog yesterday and this morning, I was preparing my presentation and it sort of consumed all of me. We (Shanly Dixon and I) got to speak in a “Canadian Consortium” panel, with Alison Harvey and Nick Taylor. Our panel really flowed well – actually, the Women in Games sessions all had a really nice flow into one another.  We got a few questions at the end of our presentation – always a sign that you did something right (if even just pushing some buttons…).

On the social side of things (a big part of any conference), the weather has been great which has allowed for a lot of walking about. We spent the first day figuring out where things were in and around campus. Since we arrived on a Sunday, not much was open, so we took a walk to the closest town (village?) – Uxbridge. On Monday, we took the tube into London proper (45 minutes!) and spent the day seeing the sights (Buckingham Palace, Picadilly Circus and of course, a fish and chips early dinner at a local pub). Monday night was pre-conference pub night at a great little local place called Load of Hay quite close to the campus (small picture here). A good 30 people gathered on their outside terrace – which was absolutely beautiful as the tables and seats were carved out of an old forest tree stumps that were cut down some 80 years ago. We took some pictures, so I will post them when I get home and upload my pictures. We had ordered the game pie – well worth the wait and the kazillion calories in the mash and gravy!

Yesterday was the first formal day of the conference, we attended the panel on horror and videogames, where we saw some great presentations on the uncanny and on the heuristic cycle of gameplay (which encompassed issues of gameplay time, and game ‘completion’ based on external goals). Afternoon was spent writing and powerpointing. Early evening  began with the conference wine and cheese – which was really more Flemish beer (there was wine though) and candies/chips. Interesting conference fare indeed. Before heading back to our dorm rooms, it was back to the Load of Hay for a bite to eat, and nice pint of Guiness. Mind you, perhaps having the mash and sausage drowned in beans and gravy was not necessarily the best pre-presentation meal to have!

We are heading into the Women in Games Keynote, and then off to their wine and cheese. Perhaps afterwards, if I am not too full, we will venture back into town for a drink and yet another search for good food.

Off To London

I am off this evening to London for the Digra: Breaking New Ground: Innovation in Games, Play, Practice and Theory conference where I am presenting with my colleague Shanly Dixon on girls and videogames (will post abstract eventually). As always I am rushing around trying to finish up the last bit of packing, trying to find all my papers/articles/books that I will need to tweak and edit our presentation, and a few fun things for the plane. In the spirit of procrastination (because it seems when the clock is ticking, this is what I do!), here is a fun Army of Two: 40th Day trailer filmed here in Montreal.

Depending on internet connections and my access to a proper power adapter, I will try to blog the panels / events that I attend. Have a great week!

The Day After

I have posts from pre-CGSA (friday night fun in Ottawa) and Day 1 to wrap up and post, but I have to say, the day after any conference, there is always a feeling of both relief and exhaustion. A mix of feeling a bit lighter (something you have been working on and stressing about over the last while is over and done, and if we are lucky, done well heh), and a returning feeling of stress – having to get back to the other things on my to-do list that have been pushed aside in the final week leading up to the conference.

So today, although I have a mere two weeks to rework my secondary comps paper (not as bad as it sounds) and make the minor but necessary edits to my proposal (both due June 6th), I will try to rest up and recuperate. Bring the laptop to bed, dilly dally with a few books, jot down a few notes if I am so inspired and maybe even do a crossword or two. Tomorrow, life begins again – but until then… =)

CGSA – Day 2 – Panel 4 & 5

Session 4 – Alternative Play Spaces

This sessions dealt with the ever-neglected (imo) topic of health issues/education and videogames.  Fern Delamere kicked the 4^th session off with her presentation called Place Matters: social Construction, Disability Groups and the Virtual World Second Life.  Her focus is to look at the virtual worlds in respect to the social communication and the fact that space matters for people with disabilities in terms of the support. The virtual space allows people to get together and interact in ways that they may not be able to in their everyday, physical lives. Looking at the supports systems and services, the relationship between health advocacy and those who participate in these communities. These places level the playing field (physically and socially) for those who go to them – neutral places – and this is important. Fern spend a nice portion of the presentation talking about places like The Virtual Ability Island which offers those with physical disabilities to participate in things that they may not be able to do otherwise and (Virtual) Help Island that focus on health and disability information (i.e. meetings and advocacy) and multiple groups such as the American Cancer Society, Wheelies in SL (social dances for those with disabilities) and Gimp Girl, which is a group of women with disabilities who work towards re-appropriating the word gimp as something that is empowering and unifying. All of these groups and spaces broaden the scope of social meaning and education for both disabled and able bodied people.

The second presentation in the panel was presented by Bill Kapralos titled Community Health Nursing Education Comes to Life and aimed to talk about serious games, the motivation behind the project, and mSTREET, which is a modular synthetic training .. slides moving fast – I missed the last few words). Bill frames the talk by contextualizing the target audience for digitally mediated education as those who have been raised in a “sensory flooded” society (dubbed the Millennial Student – 1981-1999). They expect learning to be “fun” and therefore serious games can be an innovative tool for education. The focus of the presentation is on Community Health Nursing which encompasses home care/public health as something that is moving away from the hospital and into the community. The video game aspect is related to ways to develop its curriculum as that which is contrasted to traditional nursing education. Through serious games and simulations, it can provide the students with a safe practice environment. It would also develop critical and reflective thinking skills, and reinforce key learning concepts. Admittedly, a step or three away from topics that I am usually drawn in by, sometimes it is quite interesting to see projects that attempt to use innovative teaching and research tools to move a field (any field) further.

Session 5 – Identity in MMO’s

Probably the session that I should have presented in (oddly, I cannot remember the last time I presented my identity work in a peer public venue). That being said, there couldn’t be a better topic (imho) to wrap it all up.

Alison Harvey presented her work titled Situated Accounts in Non-Places: Doing Empirical Research on Online Gaming which dealt with methodology, specifically ANT (Actor Network Theory), SST (Social Shaping of Technology) and Post Structural Feminism. Messy methods – John Lay – After Method: mess in social science research.  It is important to keep in mind that research methods are not value neutral – this needs to be taken into consideration when one chooses their methods for research. Alison spent the first half of the presentation taking us through the bullet-pointed definitions (the best kind) of ANT, SST, SCOT and how these theories can be used in research (specifically ANT). She also makes parallels between SST and post-structuralist gender/queer theory as something that tries to move beyond dichotomous thinking. Describing games such as Club penguin which reifies gender norms in video game design – compared to how gender norms are actually performed. A few phrases that stuck out as Alison was wrapping up her presentation: Gender in action instead of as innate traits. Methods from the margins. Allow the messiness of life into the rigid boundaries of research methods.

The last presentation of the day was given by Elkan and Sheldon Richmond – The Question of Identity in Massive Multi-Player Games and Social Reality. As a game designer, philosopher and systems analyst they open the presentation off with questions for the audience about the multiplicity/singularity of identity, getting the group to collectively challenge ideas of reality, being and identity, morality. “Am I my job” ; “how do different social roles or identity related to my ‘real’ identity”; and “if my ‘real’ identity is above and beyond what I do, what is my identity” (the last question was let go, as the audience did not take the dialogue in the (potentially) desired direction). A philosophical presentation that seemed to aim to get the group to discuss the banality (or purpose?) of studying videogames. However, the presentation never really got to talk about videogames at all in an informational sort of way. Too bad really.

All in all, it was a great conference, a few good meals, a couple of good brew (Young’s Double Chocolate Stout baby!), a lot of great conversations and honestly, nothing better than being able to meet once a year with a group of similarly but just different enough-thinking peers.

CGSA 2010 – Concordia University, Montreal Canada next May.

Quote of the day: I guess you can call it informed, directed ignorance

CGSA – Day 2 – Afternoon ( Panel 3)

Session 3 – What Really Happened?

After a great morning, and a pretty decent lunch with pretty great people, we are head into the last two panels of CGSA 2009. Kicking things off is Cindy Poremba with her talk Frames and Simulated Documents: Indexicality in Documentary Videogames which focuses on the game JFK Reloaded, and the representation of actual (historical) events within the game, how they are related to indexicality and what purpose it serves. She argues that the game is not about the reference to the real – the actual event – but to the resurrection of the archives of the event. Bringing indexicality into videogames serve two primary functions –  (1. Bah! I was too slow to get this down before she moved on!) and anchoring the player into the “real world” in conjunction with the game-world. She continued on to talk about simulation and representation and the truth value of the claims being made through the use of them. The core of the presentation discussed the issues and problems that simulations present when used to offer motives and insights into the historical event itself. She wrapped it all up talking about the relationship between memory, experience, simulation and indexicality (apologies if my summary doesn’t actually do justice to her presentation, but I was busy paying attention  ;-)

The second presentation in this panel was presented by Stephanie Fisher (Originally titled Great Expectations: WWII Games and Informal History Education – However, the title was changed but did not have time to take it down before diving into the presentation). Dealing with the ways in which historical teaching and learning for K-12 education. Her introductory argument follows that the playing of WWII video games may lead to increase interest in, and learning opportunities about historical information (in this case WWII games such as Call of Duty and  Medal of Honor). Key statements and 4 levels of appropriation for analytical use to explore how students use videogames to learn history (Pattern/result: the larger the role/investment WWII gaming plays In their lives, the higher level of potential appropriation).

• Level 1: Tangential Learning – may encourage specific research directions
• Level 2: Preconditioned Expectations – For gamers, it structured their historical thinking Preferred military history over other branches + in-depth examinations (characteristics of WWII FPS games); for non gamers, it expanded their knowledge
• Level 3: Safe Spaces – Entertainment-based source = contested information = safe space to practice historical skills (however, historical bias as per the market/reworking of the historical accuracy of the events portrayed in games)
• Level 4: Unsafe Spaces – Using the information learned in the ‘safe space’ outside of the game i.e. In the classroom

She wrapped up the presentation saying that history is often an unpopular class in school, and perhaps there is room for games to be used/brought into the curriculum.

Both presentations inspired flurry of questions on the relationship between game design, what is real and the player experience. In such cases, it is sometimes sad that there are only 10 minutes for questions for every two presentations.

CGSA 2009 – Day 2 – Morning Sessions

Session 1 -Readerly/Writerly Play

The first session of the day was (happily) at 10am – started with Jim Bizzocchi gave an animated presentation titled Close-Reading and the Poetics of Form in an Emergent Medium (unfortunately, his co-author Joshua Tanenbaum was not present). Essentially, a presentation on methods and processes of close readings – looking at the relationships between the game design, narrative, and gameplay, keeping a journal of observations under the categories of narrative, theme, gameplay, media. The game of choice – Oblivion. Looking at elements of performativity, and adaptivity of the game. In conclusion, Jim wrapped up giving the benefits

Close-reading coming from humanities based scholarship, it can

• effective and versatility
• reveal the poetics  of game and medium
• Loosely or systematically

Overall, the presentation was interesting, unfortunately, as time was a factor, it had to be hurried through a bit towards the end.

The second presentation, by Diane Poulson (Bricolage and Emergent Gameplay) the discussion began with some introductory material on cut scenes, videogames, and interactivity. The presentation included ideas on the ways in which players alter game rules to re-author the gameplay and space. From here, she went on to discuss how players appropriate videogames for purposes other than gameplay – essentially, for pure artistic entertainment, (in the machinima spirit) making music videos around content and themes about the game. From machinima and add-ons, she continues to discuss the ways that players use outside elements and bring it into the games. Overall, it was an interesting (and entertaining – anyone who can sing a bar or two from a song during a presentation gets my vote for presentation of the day) overview of the tools and process of alternative uses of videogames from both within it, and external  elements.

Session 2 – Games and Communication

The second session focused on presenting two research groups and their work. Beginning with Maude Bonenfant, presenting the research group HomoLudens which focuses on socialization and communication in videogames, focusing specifically on the player experience. She presented the main research questions through field work in mmorpg’s such as which communication tools players use, do these tools influence the ways in which they communicate; questions on cheating; player interpersonal relationships etc. She presented the early findings and challenges that they faced as they worked through with the players they were researching as well as information from the second phase of their research. As they are now entering into the last phase of the research, analysis etc, Maude clarifies that while they are working with in depth interviews with well over 50 participants, they are not aiming to make any generalizations, but aim to understand the role and meaning of gameplay in mmorpg’s in the players lives.

The fourth presentation of the day brought Nick Taylor to the podium, with his presentation titled “Shots heard ‘round the world: Halo 3 goes global. The focus was on digital competitive gaming tournament – the professionalization of gaming as sport. He conducted an ethnography of players in Toronto who play Halo competitively from local practice tournaments completing with a large scale international conference and using Actor Network Theory to think about the interactions between the players to the technology in order to further understand the embodied activities of the players both inside and outside the gameplay. With great photo images and video footage of international gaming competitions, the presentation was both informative and entertaining, a great mix for a conference presentation if you ask me =)

Both sessions had great question periods, and some compelling replies to kick off a pretty decent lunchtime discussion. Off for lunch – will wrap up the last group of panels, which gets to great topics such as documentary/indexical issues in games, alternative play spaces, and identity in mmo’s.

Conference Time

I am heading off today (well, tomorrow since I have not been to bed yet) to Ottawa, ON (Canada) to present work on new material with a colleague (and great co-author) Shanly Dixon at the Canadian Game Studies Association annual meeting. We get the hot spot for presenting – the session just before the wine and cheese =) Usually a well attended time slot given the social nature of a good conference.

While we have been working on this presentation for the last two months, and have done alot of reading, note taking and ethnography, I am still extremely anxious to actually stand up and talk. From the ridiculous “what the heck should I wear” to the paranoia infused “what if they think I’m an idiot!”, the stress of any pre-conference usually manifests itself in some of the strangest ways (from hives to verbal repitition).

So, it’s off I go to continue to tweak our presentation – torturing my wonderful co-author with last minute questions and doubtful rebuttals. But I must say, of all the jobs I have had, regardless of my persistant fear of public speaking (which I am told I hide quite well), I would still not want to do anything else!

Thinking After Dark: Day Two

After a hectic morning of family stuff, I managed to make my way to one of the sessions today – one a bit closer to my own research – on the “Corporeal Foundations of Horror” – my re-titling would be “Avatar, Bodies and Gameplay”.  Both presentations in this session were very interesting. The first one, by Brendan Main (The Imperfect Avatar: Experiences of immersion in horror video games) got pretty theoretical while talking about the differences between traditional perspectives on avatars in videogames, and avatars in horror games. Using theories of synchronization, concepts of the virtual and the actual; he focused on the different ways immersion occurs in horror games, his talk contrasted the ‘perfect avatar’ which “provides a continguous experience through familiarity, synchronicity, and responsivity” with his notion of the ‘imperfect avatar’, which in certain horror games rejects those elements “in favor of alienation, asynchronicity and irresponsive control”. While I usually try to give a run down of panel talks from my own point of view, I had to quote the abstract in the program to make sure I got it straight. I will be very interested in reading the full article when it comes out in a special issue of Loading… Journal of Canadian Game Studies.

Finally, Bernard Perron (Le Survival Horror: Prolongement du genre corporeal) spoke of his work on the relationship between the actions on the screen and the body’s (re)actions, reuniting the ‘head to the body’ – something that cinema – to some extent – failed to do. This talk was in french – but was quite interesting. Bernard always has great game clips, which always brings full animation to his talks.

At this point we had to break for lunch – for some, that meant leaving the conference venue (always a dangerous thing – spreading out the attendees!) and of course, while I was out – everyday life crashed in, and I had to go home to get ready for an evening of moderating at EA (my part time job outside of my PhD).

Hopefully, I will be able to wake up and get myself together in time to make it to the final day of the conference – I really want to see the keynote speaker – Simon Niedenthal (at 9:30am) – afterwards, I have to empty my office and get a coat of paint or two on the walls before dragging the mounds of books, files and games back in so that I can be back to work by Monday.

To anyone in town for the conference – enjoy the great spring weather we are having  and hope you get to take advantage of the great terraces Montreal is known for.