In the book we collect essays and research papers by scholars with backgrounds in philosophy, theology, psychology, cultural studies and communication science. We address questions like ‘under which circumstances is it morally wrong to engage in virtual violence?’ or ‘can games like Fallout 3 or Heavy Rain have a positive effect on our ethical reasoning?’. These and many others! We did not want to restrict ourselves to the ‘games-and-violence’ debate because we are convinced that games are about a lot more than violence and pornography. We think the different chapters together make a good case for considering games as a mature and versatile medium (or art form).

Check it out!

I had two presentations myself – both scheduled on Friday – the second day of the conference. During the morning I presented a paper I co-wrote with Thomas Laureyssens, discussing the main results of last year’s ‘Play’ module. We focused on the design challenges one faces while developing games to be used on the workfloor – including the fact that one is targeting a very a-typical gaming public, that one has to consider emplyer-employee relationships (and more specific, the fact that a worker feels uncomfortable being caught playing at work), and that games have to be integrated in a specific public context. I introduced the design philosophy of Streetwize VZW, which is very well suited to address these challenges, given the importance it attributes to aspects such as a low learning treshold. Finally I described the four games that were developed in the context of the module, and pointed out which were the main design desicions made by our students. I include our presentation as an attachment to this post. The session was about ‘designing games for work’, and I was co-hosting the session with Finnish researcher Perttu Heino. His work targeted a similar research goal, as he is in the process of developing games that may enhance the abilities of engineers in a large professional country. During debate, which was structured as a meta-game in order to increase audience participation, it appeared that we could both learn a lot from one another’s results – even though we had been working in completely different contexts. A lot of parrallel sessions were going on at the same time, but nevertheless the room was pretty crowded during our presentation. I had a good session.

Friday afternoon I was chairing a panel session, along with Karolien Poels, on morality in digital game play. The session was structured around our book, ‘Vice City Virtue: Moral Issues in Digital Game Play‘ (Acco Academic, 2011). We had quite an impressive lineup of speakers, with Tilo Hartmann, Garry Young and Monica Whitty discussing the subject from a physchological point of view and presenting a number of highly relevant research results, and with Jose Zagal and myself (I’ll leave in the middle how impressive that is!) addressing the subject from a cultural point of view. We had a heavily loaded session, with discussions regarding matters such as ‘rational vs. experiential processing of virtual violence’ or ‘the ethical dilemma’s contained in such games as Manhunt or Deus Ex’. It was very fun (and interesting!) to see those people in person and hear them reconstruct their arguments!

Attach: Malliet Laureyssens DiGRA 2011

In our opinion, many points of disagreement could have been solved with a more thorough understanding of the nature of digital games, and of research in the more general domain of game studies. There exist numerous definitions of digital games and of interactivity in games, and these definitions might have helped contextualizing the arguments of both sides. In the field of communication studies digital games are being intensively studied regarding the conditions under which a specific social or psychological effect might occur – this as opposed to educational research which too often focuses on finding a general effect that applies to all games or to broad game genres.

During the debate we (=colleague Bob De Schutter and I) decided to slightly change the focus of our own presentation (which was scheduled a day later) based upon these concerns. We decided to put a stronger emphasis on the usefulness of methods and theories from communication studies as aids in overcoming a number of difficulties in Digital Game-Based Learning (DGBL) research. Drawing on previous studies we had done on the application of cultivation research, Elaboration Likelihood research, and research we had done on game realism, we made a plea for an increased interdisciplinary approach in the field of educational gaming. Following our presentation we sat together with Richard Van Eck (University of North Dakota), to write down our first ideas for an upcoming paper (still in progress!) on the similarities between media research and educational research.

During other sessions different subjects were tackled that were extremely relevant to us as game researchers and (in Bob’s case) designers: How to integrate game design and game research more intensively? (Yuxin Ma presenting a very interesting case with the ‘Conquest of the Coastlands‘ game); How to integrate games in a classroom context? (William Watson and Christopher Mong presenting a case study on teachers experiences with the ‘Making History‘ game ); Numerous studies on the attitudes of teachers towards using games, and numerous case studies on the use of specific games in the classroom (of which we remember one convincing case made by Jayne Lammers regarding the Sims as an affinity space for acquiring various skills).

Many speakers demonstrated -once again- that motivation is a crucial and at the same time very complicated subject for those interested in instructional games. There were four entire sessions dedicated to the work of educational philosopher John Dewey, and to the different applications of his insights in DGBL. These sessions proved highly interesting for us as introductions to the field of pedagogy and educational psychology, and allowed us to broaden our scopes as researchers and thinkers.

I presented a paper I wrote together with Steven Malliet called “Considering Design Concerns in Game for Physical Rehabilitation.” In the paper we review and discuss 21 publications which deal with games for physical rehabilitation. In particular, an answer is presented to the claim that games for physical rehabilitation are too often developed from a rehabilitation-centered perspective. You can download the Powerpoint presentation here.

Before leaving Nottingham, I also visited the GameCity event on Old Market Square. The event presented many promising works by young game designers. If you’d like, take a look at their website.

During the GameHUB event several keynote speakers will talk about the actual situation of the existing game companies in Flanders and The Netherlands and share their experiences and visions on this evolving market. Workshops organized in the afternoon will illustrate the knowledge gathered in the GameHUB project and give the participants a first hands-on introduction to specific topics of the game development process.

Ondertussen, slechts drie jaar later, is veel veranderd. Games en de gamesindustrie zijn verder gegaan op verschillende vlakken. Zo is er meer verbondenheid onder spelers, al zijn ze duizenden kilometers van elkaar; de opkomst van handheld devices beïnvloedt het gedrag van de gamer en de mogelijkheden van de developer; business models in de gamesindustrie veranderen. De evoluties sinds 2008 indachtig, tonen we op deze nieuwe editie van de Games Summit wat games en de gamesindustrie anno 2011 betekenen.

Daarnaast stellen we ook de vraag naar beleid. In Vlaanderen is er heel wat talent aanwezig op gebied van game development. Dat wil echter niet zeggen dat er voldoende draagvlak is. Wat kan het beleid doen om een industrie te vormen, structureren en onderhouden? In de Noordelijke landen is alvast een industrie ontstaan, waarin de overheid een belangrijke rol speelt. Een ontmoeting met de Nordic countries (Denemarken, Finland, Zweden, Noorwegen, IJsland) en hun beleidsmakers is dan ook een van de aandachtspunten van de Games Summit.

In de prachtige Studio van Villanella in Antwerpen komen op 30 september enkele internationale sprekers samen die de state of the art van games en de gamesindustrie toelichten, is er ook aandacht voor de uitdagingen binnen het (Vlaamse) beleid, worden de projecten van het Business and Development Lab gepitcht en stellen we werk van eigen bodem tentoon. Op 1 en 2 oktober kan het grote publiek de spellen, creaties en demo’s zelf ontdekken tijdens de eerste Gamezone in De Studio.

Houd www.mediadesk-vlaanderen.eu en www.gamessummit.eu de komende tijd dus in de gaten. Daarop zullen we het programma publiceren en de inschrijvingen openen.

De Games Summit gebeurt in samenwerking met MEDIA Desk Denemarken/Duitsland en:

The goal of the course was to create play-interfaces suitable for public space that improve communication between the workers of the textile sorting centre TexOkazi in Hasselt, Belgium. The majority of the workers are immigrants who don’t fluently speak Dutch, the common language on the work floor.  These laborers come from a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds, and often stick in small group with their kin. Since the recycling centre also serves for social integration, one of the goals is to get the workers ready for the regular labor circuit where good communication skills in Dutch are a necessity.  Thomas Geusens from StreetWize, a training & development organization partnering with MobileSchool, proposed the partnership with TexOkazi to us.

The course lasted 9 full days spread over a duration of 11 weeks in which we let the students experience user-centered design through rapid iterations of prototype building and successive play-testing.
On Week 3 of the course, the students observed the factory floor and had focus-group sessions in which they got feedback on their first ideas.  These sketches had the form of paper prototypes in which the interaction could be simulated.  The students had both feedbacks from groups of 4 workers, as well as feedback from both the staff of TexOkazi, StreetWize and the teachers. On Week 6 the students play-tested their first interactive prototypes, closely followed by more such sessions on Week 8. Final presentations were on Week 11 on the factory floor. The many contact moments proved very efficient as well as motivating for the students, who where highly motivated to create the best prototypes possible for their target-group.

The students were divided in 4 groups, assembled by the teachers based on the skills of the students.  CMD students often have different profiles: there are designers, developers, and some others like to fiddle with custom made electronics using Arduino. The focus was to create interfaces that would be as integrated as possible within the working environment, including objects and actions from the factory floor into the design. Students were free to use any technology they wanted, like RFID, Augmented Reality, Wii Controller and Touch Screens. One group even created a solution using a DSLR camera and an iPad.

FotoKazi

Mathijs Beks, Yolien De Moor, Robin Houdmeyers, Dennis Janssen

The idea of this project was transform the daily actions of the workers (sorting clothes), into a playful action: finding clothes and accessories as a preparation of a weekly dressing party. The students proposed the following scenario: at the start of every week, there would be a cryptic mission description to let the workers look for clothes on a specific theme.  During the user-test, the group used themes like “Winter Fun” and “Beach”. On the day of the dressing party an automated photo boot guided the people though a series of photo games like imitating a picture or fitting the player’s heads into a cut-out photo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VduA0lGoxeI
http://blog.vislab.be/2010/12/play/

JuKazi

Michiel Vanreyten, Evelien Dupont, Nicolas Schepers

This project started from the observation that in the recycling centre there is always a radio playing.  A hybrid between a skee-ball game and a jukebox was invented which enables the factory workers to choose musical genres by playful interaction. Songs can be added to a play list by hitting characters corresponding the musical genres with coins.  The coins can be thrown by aiming a Wii Controller to the screen. The workers can choose between Pop, Rock, Hip Hop, House, Russian and Arabic.

http://vimeo.com/19140178.

Fooz

Ben Mercx, Maarten Princen, Ronald Vandenbosch

Fooz is inspired by the controls of the Foosball game. In this game, two teams of 2 players control little football characters by turning bars, and thus can shoot a ball across the playing field, hopefully towards the right goal.  Anyone who has seen this being played knows it’s a good recipe for fun interaction.

The goal was to start from those physical controls and create a game in which 2 teams of 2 players should communicate and collaborate in order to win the game. The proposed solution is a box with 4 bars with 4 sensors attached. By pulling and pushing the bars the players control 2 types of game elements. Each team has 1 player who controls a pong-style-paddle that bounces back a ball. The other player has to aim the direction the ball is bounced back.

Avatar

Annelies Fleurbaey, Bob Coeradi, Gert Pellens, Johannes Govaerts

The project aims to let the factory workers communicate to each other by exchanging clothes for their personal Avatars.  Every player starts with a random set of clothes, which can be traded with other players to collect matching sets of clothes. The system identifies the players when they bring their RFID batch close to a reader. Several people can be logged in at the same time and drag clothes from one player’s wardrobe to another’s with a touch screen. Additional clothes can be obtained by playing several types of quizzes, which you answer by rotating an object with Augmented Reality tags in front of a camera.

C-MINE the new site in Genk with ambitions to promote the creative
industry is offering their under-construction location in Genk for the
next Belgian Jam!

When? Very soon!

*******6-7-8 th of MAY 2011*******

The Game Jam starts at 17h00 on Friday and end on Sunday at 17h00.
This time we’ve even got some real prizes to win!

Win a UNITY3D iphone or android indy license!
Interested? More info on: http://www.gamejam.be

CALL FOR SPEAKERS
Are you a game industry expert or do you think you have something
interesting to say to the Belgian gaming community?
You might be the person we are looking for to motivate our
participants at the start of the event on friday… contact me:
wim@grin.be

CALL FOR PROMOTIONAL PARTNERS:
The following game development companies support Game Jam Belgium:
- GriN Multimedia
- Sakari Games
If you are not on this list and would like to support the Game Jam
project by promoting our events to your fellow developers, network,
please contact me: wim@grin.be