game studies – Page 30 – frans goes blog

Speaking about online poker player experiences in Turku

I will tomorrow present some findings from our online poker player experience study in Turku (Päihdelääketieteen päivät, see programme here: http://www.terveysportti.fi/kotisivut/sivut.koti?p_sivusto=65). My presentation is also available as a PDF here: http://www.terveysportti.fi/kotisivut/docs/f585130802/mayra060309.pdf).

GameSpace seminar in Winter Assembly

Our two-year research project that looked into design and evaluation methodologies of casual, multiplayer and mobile games (also considering money gaming issues) has now finished; today the good folks at Winter Assembly event provided us the rooms to feature the results from research. Pictured is project manager Janne Paavilainen; other speakers included Annakaisa Kultima, Petri Ikonen, Jussi Holopainen and Jussi Laakkonen. The final research report will be published online (forthcoming during this spring). Links:

GameSpace project: http://gamelab.uta.fi/GameSpace
Winter Assembly: http://www.assembly.org/winter09/
Aakoo’s blog: http://gameslices.wordpress.com/

Edit: here are some camera-phone photos I took in the event: [link].

Games researcher meeting in Tampere

Today takes place (in Telakka restaurant, Tampere) the games researcher meeting organised by DiGRA Finland, Games as Services research project, Finnish Yearbook of Game Studies and Neogames centre. Pictured is Olli Sotamaa and some of the other, c. 30 participants. Much interesting talk and good company!

Didactics symposium keynote

Today I started my morning by delivering a keynote on Digital Games Literacy (in Finnish) in the national didactics symposium (a conference of Finnish learning researchers and teacher trainers). Pictured is professor Bernadette Baker, who spoke about multiple senses of ‘subject’ and how to reform the teacher – child – content relationships. The full programme is here: http://www.uta.fi/laitokset/okl/ad2009/ohjelma.html.

Hypermedia & games Masters open again

This is a Finnish degree programme, so in Finnish:

Tervetuloa hakemaan hypermediaan syventäviin maisteriopintoihin, pääaineena informaatiotutkimus, hakuaika 2.2.-27.2.09. Lisätietoja ja linkki hakulomakkeeseen on tarjolla täällä: http://www.uta.fi/hyper/uutinen.php?item=31062

Spring lectures and visits

Looking at my calendar, I will again be talking in various contexts:

in 13/2 talking about games literacy and education in disciplinary didactics symposium (Ainedidaktiikan symposium) in Tampere;
in 6/3 talking about the profile of online gamer in drug medics day (Päihdelääketieteen päivät) in Turku;
in 16/3 acting as the examiner of Elina Ollila’s PhD thesis (about mobile game prototyping and evaluation) in Technical University of Tampere;
in 27/3 presenting a keynote about “good and bad in games” in the media education seminar, Tampere;
in 2-3/4 acting as the chair in the Playful Experiences seminar, Tampere;
in 23/4 presenting a lecture on ethics and good life in gaming in ITK conference in Hämeenlinna;
in 24/4 talking in a thematic seminar of games and education in ITK conference in Hämeenlinna.

See you in some of those — or elsewhere!

International Journal of Role-Playing

Interesting: after somewhat a long wait, the open access International Journal of Role-Playing has now got out its first issue. The journal page: http://journalofroleplaying.org/ – the direct link to the entire first issue:

http://marinkacopier.nl/ijrp/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/ijrpissue1.pdf

Last Christmas of the Hypermedia Lab

This will be the last Christmas for the Hypermedia Laboratory in the University of Tampere: our new media research unit is going to fuse together with another department at the end of this year. The new name will be Department of Information Studies and Interactive Media. We will be bigger, stronger, and able to open MA as well as PhD courses in new media and game studies. Otherwise, the location and most of the practical things will remain the same for a while — welcome to visit us in the old premises in Pinni B building of the Tampere Uni campus area. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Video Game Theory Reader 2 is out

I just received my author’s copies of the brand new The Video Game Theory Reader 2, edited by Bernard Perron and Mark J. P. Wolf. Quickly skimming, the book looks very good. My article on doing game studies in disciplinary and interdisciplinary ways is the last chapter, with more on interdisciplinarity in the extensive terminological Appendix. Some web info: http://www.routledgemedia.com/books/The-Video-Game-Theory-Reader-2-isbn9780415962834

PS3 unboxing

Our full hd television finally got a partner that can play Blu-ray movies as we got our PS3. It was a bundle deal, with Little Big Planet thrown in. Tweaking the video inputs took some time, and finally changing the HDMI cable to a better quality one changed the situation: there was a twitter and flashing in the 1080p screen mode before the cable was changed. Curious, but it looks that the gold plating is not recommended for nothing in PS3 HDMI cable connectors. After this, the quality of full hd movies was real eye-opener (the quality of digital tv signal in Finland is particularly bad, so the point of comparison was good for Blu-ray, to start with). It will take some time to experiment with the gaming capabilities of the new system more, but one thing is obvious already: the system is technically superior to anything out there, but the Sony “XrossMediaBar” user interface is a missed opportunity. I do not know the exact background of this particular choice, but it feels like a system designed by a group of nerdie engineers and cool graphic designers. No usability experts required. Pity. Great engineering, though.