game studies – Page 32 – frans goes blog

Playing together, business panel

Continuing my blog stream from MindTrek: I went to listen to the “Business of Playing Together” session with Ville Mujunen, Joakim Achrén and Jussi Laakkonen (chaired by Peter Vesterbacka). I made some notes during Jussi’s talk:

Blizzard/Vivendi made 517 million in profit in 2007 from WoW. On the other hand, it will cost 50 million dollars to make a MMO. Facebook games are already making million dollars per year in revenue (e.g. Friends for Sale, MobWars). Introducing concept ‘FunWare’; providing games-like interaction for non-game applications.

Marc Davis in MindTrek

Today is the second day of MindTrek conference, and I am happy just to lean back, listen, and participate as an audience. This camera-photo is taken during the opening session, showing the chief scientist (Yahoo’s Connected Life) Marc Davis speaking about social media from a system oriented and ecosystem perspective.

MindTrek conference starting today

I am today, tomorrow and until Thursday participating in the MindTrek conference, first as the chair of the Games Track in Tuesday, then giving a short presentation on SoPlay project in Thursday. See the program (note two versions!) here:

J.P. Gee's lecture in Helsinki

Jim Gee is offering an interesting lecture today in Helsinki University. I wanted to hear him comment on the state of literacy and the current dilemmas the US is facing, and he did not disappoint. Games provide valuable tools for learning to understand and to handle complex systems with multiple interrelated variables. (Something that people responsible for the US economy were not apparently capable to manage.) Interesting opportunities are also opened up for future collaboration, considering that our University Alliance games & learning spearhead group will be focusing exactly on similar themes.

DiGRA 2009 CFP

The CFP for the next DiGRA conference is out — I am not sure if DiGRA site has this yet, but here is the text:

First Call for Papers

DiGRA 2009

Breaking New Ground: Innovation in Games, Play, Practice and Theory

Brunel University, West London, United Kingdom, Tuesday 1st September — Friday 4^th September 2009

The South of Britain Consortium are pleased to announce the first Call for Papers for the Digital Games Research Association 2009. DiGRA is an organisation that embraces all aspects of game studies, and the conference aims to provide a diverse platform for discussion, and a lively forum for debate. We therefore welcome papers from any discipline focused on any aspect of games, play, game culture and the games industry. Continue reading “DiGRA 2009 CFP”

New major research initiative

Positive news today: our collaboration with the games & digital culture studies centres in University of Jyväskylä and Turku gained fresh power as Academy of Finland decided to grant funding for our consortium “Creation of Game Cultures: the Case of Finland)”; see: http://gamelab.uta.fi/Gamelab/creation-of-games-cultures-consortium-gains-academy-funding/

Gambling studies seminar, Sept 24

Next week we will be presenting core findings from our online poker player study in an expert seminar — if you are interested, contact Tellervo Nenonen (tellervo.nenonen(at)hel.fi), there might still be places in the seminar. More information: http://www.stakes.fi/FI/ajankohtaista/Tapahtumakalenteri/Tapahtuma/240908b.htm

Imaginary Japan Conference

Today I am again in Helsinki, this time participating in the Imaginary Japan Conference; see: http://sets.wordpress.com/category/imaginary-japan-conference/

Much really interesting talk about Japan, its role in the world of new media and media culture. My talk is titled “Japanese Fantasy and the East-West Dialectic”. (Pictured is Ateneum, where they have a Hokusai exhibition — much of Japan going around today!)

Online poker study published

This should be of interest to all those who are focused on player experiences, and particularly to the role of money on the table: how does it affect players when they know that they are playing for real money, and against other (real) players? Unfortunately in Finnish, but an English abstract is also available: see http://www.stakes.fi/FI/Julkaisut/verkkojulkaisut/raportteja08/VR24_2008.htm

Järjellä vai tunteella? Nettipokerin pelikokemus ja pelaamisen hallinta
Svartsjö, Mikko; Kinnunen, Jani; Paloheimo, Eetu; Mäyrä, Frans
Stakes, Raportteja 24/2008
http://www.stakes.fi/verkkojulkaisut/raportit/R24-2008-VERKKO.pdf

D&D Tiny Adventures: Low-Interactivity Gaming

I admit, I am probably in the target group for these ones: I have been looking recently in the convergence of games and media and the emergence of “low interactivity” games (games that allow also other gameplay modalities on top of the classic “immersed gamer” one”). These are not exactly the same as “zero player games” that play automatically themselves, but pretty close: you can enjoy the adventure with only minimal input coming from player in key points. One of the most recent fun ones has been Dungeons&Dragons Tiny Adventures, which is a very stripped-down version of D&D that still brings back those memories of true old-school RPG adventures. Very much recommended.