Amsterdam University Press has now published the edited volume. This book explores the notion of play as a heuristic lens to look at changing media practices and identity construction.
We are proud to present the latest issue New Media Studies Magazine, a magazine created by students of our MA programma New Media & Digital Culture. This issue focuses entirely on the theme The Age of Play.
Within this graduate program Game Research, excellent student can be offered a PhD position on a research project written by themselves. There is room for four such PhD positions funded by the NWO Graduate Program, two starting September 2015, two starting in September 2016.
We congratulate our colleagues in Game and Media Technology with the launch of their Gamelab, a joined venture of the Department of Computing Sciences, Utrecht University, and Microsoft Corporation.
From Microsoft’s press release (in Dutch):
In september startte Universiteit Utrecht met de nieuwe studierichting Gametechnologie, speciaal gericht op de technologische achtergronden van games. Om studenten en docenten optimaal te faciliteren werd de samenwerking gezocht met Microsoft, dat de nieuwste hard- en software beschikbaar stelt. “Zo openen we 1 maart het Gamelab, door studenten al snel omgedoopt tot Gamehol, een plek voor de ontwikkeling van nieuwe games en het experimenteren met nieuwe technologieën”, aldus Maarten-Jan Vermeulen, Academic Lead bij Microsoft.
Het Gamelab werd direct na de officieuze opening intensief gebruikt door de studenten om games te ontwikkelen voor de PC en Xbox 360. Adriaan Jansen, voorzitter van studenten game development club DGDARC is enthousiast: “Het Gamelab is een perfecte werkomgeving voor studenten die serieus aan de slag willen met game development.”
From the blog of René Glas:
I will present at the upcoming Infographics conference (March 4, 2011). I will be talking about infographics in games, with a focus on different ways information about the state of a game (for example, a charactar’s health) can be communicated to players through infographics within the game’s fictional world.
Here’s a nice video promotion of the conference:
Teun Dubbelman will present at the Ludotopia II Conference, The University of Salford, Greater Manchester. This conference on the spatial aspects of computer games is organised by Mathias Fuchs, Espen Aarseth and Stephan Guenzel.
From the conference website:
“LUDOTOPIA” is the key term and programmatic notion for spatial aspects of computergames. The questions we are interested in range from cartography in games, pervasiveness of game spaces, narrative and spatiality, theories of space as applicable to videogames, space as threat, and analyses of videogame space in terms of traditional conceptions of topology.
From the blog of Mirko Tobias Schäfer:
“Profound and meticulously researched work, which has expanded my worldview.”Howard Rheingold, author of Smart Mobs. The Next Social Revolution
“Invited or not, the brilliant and not-so-brilliant members of our digital culture are actively participating. We’re not just using but changing, repurposing, and re-inventing the technologies set before us. Bastard or not, the reality we are creating together is an odd and often unconscious collaboration between people, corporations, and technology itself. Schaefer has patiently, deliberately, and quite engagingly exposed this hidden landscape of cultural production, and shown us what we might do to direct it toward positive, even evolutionary ends.”
Douglas Rushkoff, author of Program or Be Programmed. Ten Commands for a Digital Age
From the back-cover:
New online technologies have brought with them a great promise of freedom. The computer and particularly the Internet have been represented as enabling technologies, turning consumers into users and users into producers. Furthermore, lay people and amateurs have been enthusiastically greeted as heroes of the digital era. This thoughtful study casts a fresh light on the shaping of user participation in the context of, among others, popular discourse in and around new media.
Schäfer’s research into hacking, fan communities and Web 2.0 applications demonstrates how the dynamic of innovation, control and interaction have shifted the boundaries of the traditional culture industry into the user domain. The media industry undergoes a shift from creating content to providing platforms for user driven social interactions and user‐generated content. In this extended culture industry, participation unfolds not only in the co‐creation of media content and software‐based products, but also in the development and defense of distinctive media practices.
Order the book at AUP
Download the pdf version.
In November 2003 the GAP organized Level Up, the inaugural conference of the Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) in cooperation with DiGRA and leading academic and industry partners.
Computer games have become one of the main parts of the entertainment industry and an important element in our daily life. They also challenge the academic community with opportunities in a rapidly developing field of enquiry.
Approaching computer games as an autonomous field of academic research, the presentations of the conference studied computer, console, mobile and online games from the points of view of game design and reception, from social and cultural perspectives and paid special attention to computer game methodologies. You can find the conference proceedings HERE. You can also enjoy some pictures below via Jason Della Rocca.
