Keywords for Video Game Studies Colloquium
Saturday, May 19, 2012
8 AM to 4 PM
Communication 202
University of Washington, Seattle

The Keywords for Video Game Studies colloquium invites game scholars, artists, designers, developers, and enthusiasts to participate in roundtable discussions, presentations of individual and collaborative work, scholarship, and play.  This year’s colloquium, broadly themed by the keywords “research/design,” is the capstone event to a year-long series of workshop sessions on democracy, time, altplay/fandom, gold farming, and hack/mod.  The colloquium, now in its second year, hopes to foster the growing engagement with what it means to study or make or play digital games.

The Keywords for Video Game Studies working group, in collaboration with the Critical Gaming Project at the University of Washington and the Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory (HASTAC), is supported by the Simpson Center for the Humanities.  For more information about the Keywords group, go to: https://depts.washington.edu/critgame/wordpress/keywords/

The colloquium is free and open to University of Washington students, faculty, staff, and community.

8-9 AM Registration & Welcome

• Participants and attendees are welcome to come early, get a name tag, and help yourself to a light refreshments and pre-colloquium conversation.

9-9:45 AM Keynote

• “Structured Signifiers and Infinite Games: Serious Play @ Microsoft,” Donald Brinkman, Microsoft Research Program Manager, Games for Learning, Digital Humanities

10-11:15 AM Session I

• “A Video Game Alternative for In-Home Thermo-Energy Savings” by Sarah Churng, Stefani Bartz, Stephen Rice, & Nick Stoermer

• “Increasing Novice Learners’ Engagement in an Online Programming Game” by Michael J. Lee & Andrew J. Ko

• “Investigating Knowledge Transfer through Gaming: A Study of Implicit-to-Explicit Knowledge Extraction Promoted through Collaboration in Portal 2” by Michelle Zimmerman & Jeremy Stalberger

11:30 AM-12:30 PM Session II

• “Leet Noobs: The Life and Death of an Expert Player Group in World of Warcraft” by Mark Chen

• “Let’s Plays and Internet Content About Games” by Solon Scott, Michael Pfeiffer, & Vince Blas

12:30-1:30 PM Lunch/Break

• Modest fare will be provided but participants and attendees are encouraged to discover lunch at any number of eateries off campus (or to bring a brown bag).

1:30-2:30 PM Session III

• “Imaginary John Cage, No. 1 (for 12 Videogames)” performed by John Russell & David Baker

• “Hey, Listen! An Examination of the Importance of Audio in Gaming” by Bennett Schatz

2:45-4:00 PM Session IV: Lightning Talks

• “Games for Health: Past, Present, and Future?” by Alan Au

• “Finding it Hard to Breathe in the Cloud” by Alenda Chang

• “Examining Game Feel in Journey and Shadow of the Colossus” by Blaine Doherty

• “Practicing Paidia” by Eliot Hemingway

• “Complexities in Evaluating the Effectiveness of Games for Learning” by Theresa Horstman

• “Gaming Gender: Systems, Literacies, and Play” by Merritt Kopas

• “The Problem of Lore in Contemporary Game Design” by Terry Schenold

4:00 PM Closing

• “Project Epiphyte,” Donald Brinkman