I was perusing the top 10 best-selling games for August and noticed something--there's not a single original title on the list. Every game is a sequel, spin-off or derivative work.

Just to make sure that this was as out-of whack as I suspected, I even compared the top 10 films for the end of August to see how much that industry relies on sequels to fill up its summer fun.

Imagine a game based on Frogger where you guide Mexican immigrants across the border. Or how about the same theme played out in a Space Invader's format, with border guards trying to stop the invasion?

Welcome to the world of games as social commentary.

LEVEL UP
Digital Games Research Conference 2003


www.gamesconference.org

4-6 November 2003

University of Utrecht, The Netherlands


CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

University of Utrecht, Faculty of Arts, Department of New Media and Digital Culture organizes the inaugural world conference in digital games research. The conference will be the first official event of the new Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA). The Department of New Media and Digital Culture is collaborating closely with DiGRA, the Research Institute for History and Culture, the Institute for Media and Re/presentation (TFT & CIW) and numerous other academic and non-academic partners in the conference implementation.

The conference aims to promote high-quality research of games, recognition of game studies as an academic field of enquiry, as well as interdisciplinary collaboration in games research, design and development. The conference will include keynote lectures, paper sessions, symposia, workshops, poster presentations, a Gamefair and numerous social events.

Frans Mäyrä, President, Digital Games Research Association: “The program for the inaugural Digital Games Research Conference 2003, ‘Level Up’, organized by the University of Utrecht in collaboration with DiGRA, looks very promising. The emphasis has been on providing a showroom for the variety and scope of academic games research as it is currently practiced. As you take a look at the program, you will see that it is quite many things. Yet, this is just the opening: the young researchers, students and veterans of academia as well as games research and design professionals meeting in Utrecht will no doubt continue to create even more stimulating, challenging and quality research in the future. On behalf of the DiGRA Executive Board, I welcome you all to Utrecht in November!”

Go to www.gamesconference.org to have a look at the complete program. You can now register for the conference through the website. To make sure you are among the participants, send your registration as fast as possible.



Mailinglist

For up to date info on the conference please register for the conference newsletter on the website (news> mailinglist).



We’re all hoping to see you in Utrecht in November!



Contact/University of Utrecht:

info@gamesconference.org

Dr. Joost Raessens, Conference Chair
Drs. Marinka Copier, Conference Manager; marinka.copier@let.uu.nl
Prof. Dr. Jeffrey Goldstein


Contact/DiGRA:
Prof. Frans Mäyrä, President; frans.mayra@uta.fi
Dr. Jason Rutter, Vice-President; Jason.Rutter@man.ac.uk
Celia Peirce, Liaison Officer; celiap@uci.edu
Chris Crawford

If you haven’t read the recent article on the IGDA site: Violence & Social Issues: Key Points, you should do so now. This concise article outlines the big issues behind the big complaints about video games. It provides some measured perspective and links to useful resources that helps clarify some of the most egregious misunderstandings on the subject of game violence and social relevance.

It also was an inspiration (although in no way responsible!) for this list:

The Orc camp was a smoking ruin and I looked down and said, “It is good.”

This time it was virtual fun in the world of Divine Divinity. Next time it might be some other planet or plane. But that unique perspective on the game world, up-high, looking down from roughly a 45 degree angle--the isometric perspective--gives any game of any genre a certain feel.

Isometric perspective games, from Diablo and Starcraft through to SimCity 4 all provide a view of the action from an eye in the sky that many equate to a godlike presence on the part of the player. At least, the player is supposed to feel more like god than someone floating above the map in a blimp.

Stephen Poole speaks for a common conception when he writes in Trigger Happy:

“Foreshortening implies a subjective, individual viewpoint, so it’s absence in isometric graphics, along with the elevated position of survey, conspired to give the user a sense of playing God in these tiny universes.” (p.122)

Poole is as good a critic as video games has. But something has occurred to me lately, and that is this interpretation is actually wrong in a sort of inside out way.

Talk about guys and dolls.

While most people think of motor sports as a macho past time, leave it to a videogame to show their softer side. Auto Modellista bleeds testosterone and gasoline right up to the point where you select the option to dress up your car.

MSNBC.com columnist Tom Loftus has tackled the subject of games and theology in a story posted today:

God in the Console

Loftus does a good job of quickly surveying the area of games and religion. He also quotes buzzcut!

I'll be the first to say that my thoughts on the subject have only just scratched the surface. In fact, the buzzcut article on the topic of games and theology was intended as a placeholder to remind me to come back to the subject for further thought. With Loftus' article as motivation, I'm going to return to the subject soon to collect some additional ideas and see what people think.

If you have ideas, please contribute--whether stories or comments, let's hear your thoughts.

What makes the videogame generation different?

I've suspected for a long time that it wasn't videogames. But to a growing contingent of educators, policymakers and parents, there is a growing concern that videogames are making kids, well, if not stupid, at least different.

To my mind, the people who talk about revising curriculum to keep up with the demanding and supposedly short attention spans of the videogame kids always strike me as the sort of folks who haven't spent much time around kids. At least not listening to them.

The argument they make, as I see it, is this:

Saturated in information, weaned on the immediate gratification of Google and videogames, kids these days lack the mental discipline to learn using traditional methods. So, either you attack the problem at the systemic root--try to teach kids the old ways, or you update your pedagogy to reflect the videogame lifestyle of the average videot.

When I look at the videogame generation, I see something else. Sure, something is going on and the next generation looks to be shaping up differently than those preceding it. But it’s not videogames, cell phone and the Internet per se. I am now thinking it might come down to a little cognitive pysch concept called metacognition.

Welcome to the world of the metacog kids.

In Denver lately, video games have been all over the papers. That's because there is an effort underway to legalize off-track gambling and other video gaming machines.

By any measure, these "video games" are in spirit and in fact actually video games. Unlike Doom or The Sims you can win money from them. But really, how different is a machine spewing quarters from a couple of pals betting on a game of Madden? What if the same two buddies bet on a game of Madden, then let the computer run the game--no skill involved.

"The magic of a computer lies in its ability to become almost anything you can imagine, as long as you can explain exactly what that is. The hitch is in explaining what you want. With the right programming, a computer can become a theater, a musical instrument, a reference book, a chess opponent. No other entity in the world except a human brain has such an adaptable, universal nature. Ultimately all these functions are implemented by the Boolean logic blocks and finite-state machine described in the previous chapter...."

Daniel HIllis, "The Pattern on the Stone" 1998, p 39.