The exists an initiative to form a leading research and educational university into Finland through close collaboration of three autonomous universities: University of Tampere, Tampere Technical University and the University of Jyväskylä (“Sisä-Suomen yliopistoallianssi”). Yesterday the collaborative initiatives awarded the status and resources to spearhead this new Alliance were revealed and I was happy to see our initiative to form a joint Centre of Games Research by joining the forces of games researchers from the Alliance was selected as one of these spearhead initiatives. Hooray!
Category: game studies
Indexing the textbook
IMG_2219.JPG
Originally uploaded by FransBadger
Today is (hopefully) the final day of the indexing marathon for my forthcoming game studies textbook — I have used the 37″ Samsung Full HD television for this phase, as it is the only screen with enough surface to display the entire PDF proof page in legible format while I do searches and synthesize names, concepts and discussions into index entries. Damned hard work, but this should be the final battle in this particular project.
STM meeting
STM meeting
Originally uploaded by FransBadger
Today will be spent in Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, where I will be presenting views of digital culture and game studies in a working seminar on children, youth and wellbeing/malaise in contemporary society. Pictured is Minister Paula Risikko.
Finnish digital culture, Finnish independence
Finnish digital culture, Finnish independence
Originally uploaded by FransBadger
Tomorrow is the 90th Anniversary for the Finnish republic, the Day of Independence. Today, somewhat appropriately, I visited one of the key coordinating institutions for the preservation of Finnish cultural heritage, Museovirasto (The National Board of Antiquities). Surprisingly lively and exiting discussion followed my brief presentation, looking deep into the possibilities for providing more shared opportunities for the “Museum 2.0” and gamelike, playful structures of collaborative construction of meaning around our national treasures – both material and immaterial treasures, like our memories that we can now attach with the digital versions of physical objects and places with much more flexibility than before.
GamesCultures.org: an open invitation
[This letter has been today also posted to the DiGRA mailing list, Games Research Network]
Dear colleagues,
This is an open invitation to a collaborative effort into mapping digital play around the world. Currently only scattered information on the popularity and forms of engagement with digital games in global context exist. Often particularly in media statements are nevertheless made that concern “all gamers”, even if researchers emphasise how both games and playing takes multiple forms and claims about some particular game or group of players do not necessarily apply to another. In the spirit of the recent “Situated Play” conference (DiGRA 2007), we propose a collaborative effort of collecting together research, observation and data about forms of play around the world. See: www.gamescultures.org, an open beta of wiki resource about global games cultures. Continue reading “GamesCultures.org: an open invitation”
Against the digital games divide
Here is something that I will be presenting in the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health next week: a one page comment paper in Finnish from the game studies point of view to the ongoing discussion about children, youth and interactive media: Kannanotto 12.12.2007 STM:n työkokoukseen. My main points in English are:
- Digital culture and games are currently unevenly distributed in our society in a manner which is likely to put them under suspicion, basically because lack of real knowledge (E.g. gameplay experience is often claimed to be more emotionally immersive than e.g. a novel or a movie, whereas according to our research, children actually talk mostly about immersion into challenge or action in games, and it is books and movies that can have really powerful “emotional effects”.)
- Children have adventures and engaging experiences with games Continue reading “Against the digital games divide”
Activision Blizzard merger
In today’s news: the merger of Activision with Blizzard aims to create “the world’s largest, most profitable pure-play video game publisher” — whatever that “pure-play” part means. More competition towards Electronic Arts, no doubt, but at the same time another example of how games industry is under similar kind of merger development and concentration into bigger units that has faced media industry previously. See e.g.:
Pohjanmaa
Pohjanmaa
Originally uploaded by FransBadger
On the road again, this time the snow covered landscape of Pohjanmaa behind the train window. I will be giving a plenary in the Finnish Communication Studies’ annual seminar (Viestintätutkimuksen päivät) in Vaasa about player-centred game studies. The northern parts of Pohjanmaa and Lapland are where I spent my childhood — memories coming back, data connection breaking down. Into the north.
John Kirriemuir's visiting lecture
John Kirriemuir visited us today and presented interesting lecture on how libraries and information studies are starting to tangle up together with games and game studies — really interesting stuff for us in University of Tampere who are currently looking into more collaboration between these two fields. The full presentation should be available in here: http://www.slideshare.net/silversprite/digital-games-in-libraries-and-information-science
Inspiration for future game interfaces?
Some of these are actually already here and in use, but most of these emerging ways of interacting are still some way from becoming mainstream experiences, in digital gaming or elsewhere. See: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/11/26/monday-inspiration-user-experience-of-the-future/.
frans goes blog 
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