From jschell at andrew.cmu.edu Sat Nov 1 15:08:23 2008 From: jschell at andrew.cmu.edu (Jesse Schell) Date: Sat, 1 Nov 2008 15:08:23 -0400 Subject: [game_edu] Vote for me! Message-ID: I was very surprised to learn that my book *The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses* was nominated for a Frontline Award by Game Developer Magazine. So, if you get an email from them entitled: Participate in the 2008 Frontline AwardsPlease do consider voting! Thanks! -- -Jesse Schell Asst. Prof. of Entertainment Technology, Carnegie Mellon University ( www.etc.cmu.edu) CEO, Schell Games (www.schellgames.com) Design Director, Sim Ops Studios (www.simopsstudios.com) Phone: (412) 303-0885 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From drew at waxebb.com Tue Nov 4 04:14:15 2008 From: drew at waxebb.com (drew davidson) Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2008 04:14:15 -0500 Subject: [game_edu] sandbox siggraph 09 - submissions open! In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <86D0BA61-6DEB-4F9C-A690-703E9426F185@waxebb.com> hi all - siggraph 09 call for submissions is now open (until 18 feb 2009) http://www.siggraph.org/s2009/submissions/focus/games/index.php thanks! drew From winnb at msu.edu Tue Nov 4 14:28:12 2008 From: winnb at msu.edu (Brian Winn) Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2008 14:28:12 -0500 Subject: [game_edu] Assistant Professor of Games and Interactive Media (job posting) Message-ID: <518B6EE0-49DA-41D5-AD20-195A8EB36293@msu.edu> Assistant Professor of Games and Interactive Media The Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media at Michigan State University is seeking an innovative, dynamic individual to fill a full-time, tenure stream position in Games and Interactive Media at the Assistant professor level. Candidates will join an enthusiastic, multidisciplinary faculty team and should be able to contribute through design experience in one or more of the following fields: digital games, serious games, virtual worlds, computational media, computational art, user-centered design, and interactive media. Experience in the field may take the form of creative practice and/or scholarly research. Expertise or experience in other disciplines is also welcome. Candidates will be expected to gain visibility through juried creative works and/or peer-reviewed academic research publications. Faculty are expected to pursue external funding to support their creative and research activity. Multidisciplinary approaches are encouraged to teach two courses a semester in our undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as advise graduate students on projects and theses. Visit http://tism.msu.edu for complete information on our majors, degrees, and specializations. Qualifications: Terminal Degree. University level teaching experience preferred. A versatile practitioner with a portfolio of innovative work and/or research. Application: Applications may be sent by email or physical mail. Applications must include: 1) a letter of application 2) a curriculum vitae 3) names and address of three references (no letters at this time, please) 4) a portfolio of work, properly labeled with any operating requirements. Emailed portfolios should contain a web link to an online portfolio or download of the work. Please send materials to: Cliff Lampe, Search Committee Chair Games and Interactive Media Faculty Search Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media Room 409, Communication Arts and Sciences Building Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824-1212. Email: lampecli at msu.edu Application review begins December 1, 2008. Search closes when a suitable candidate is hired. Duties begin August 16, 2009. MSU is an affirmative-action, equal-opportunity employer. MSU is committed to achieving excellence through cultural diversity. The university actively encourages applications and/or nominations of women, persons of color, veterans and persons with disabilities. From claypool at cs.wpi.edu Wed Nov 5 11:46:12 2008 From: claypool at cs.wpi.edu (Mark Claypool) Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2008 11:46:12 -0500 Subject: [game_edu] Professors of Practice in Game Development (job posting) Message-ID: <18705.52692.944216.300729@mira.cs.wpi.edu> WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE FACULTY POSITIONS in INTERACTIVE MEDIA AND GAME DEVELOPMENT (starting August 2009) Are you a professional experienced in the computer game industry? Do you want to teach smart, talented, eager university students how to design and develop computer games? Are you interested in leading student team projects that develop games? Do you want to work in an environment that fosters interdisciplinary (technical plus artistic) education? Would you like to help shape a program in Interactive Media and Game Development? If so, you should consider joining the faculty at WPI! WPI is hiring for two faculty positions in Interactive Media and Game Development: Professor of Practice in Game Design and Professor of Practice in Art The Interactive Media and Game Development (IMGD) major is designed to provide an outstanding education to its undergraduates in the principles of interactive applications and computer-based game development. IMGD majors focus on the design, technical (programming), and artistic (art, music, story) aspects of interactive media and game development. The program grants a Bachelor of Science in Interactive Media and Game Development, with approximately 150 majors. Please explore the IMGD Web site (imgd.wpi.edu) for more information. The Professors of Practice will teach courses in their area, advise student projects, develop new courses in their area of expertise, liaise with industry to support the program, and collaborate with other faculty across the disciplines of art, technology and design. PROFESSOR OF PRACTICE IN GAME DESIGN The Interactive Media and Game Development program is looking for a Professor of Practice in the area of Game Design. The candidate will develop new courses in topics in game design as well as teach core courses in game development, storytelling, and critical evaluation of games. The preferred candidate should have shipped one or more games as lead game designer. Teaching experience is also preferred. An advanced degree is not required. PROFESSOR OF PRACTICE IN ART The Interactive Media and Game Development program is looking for a Professor of Practice in Art to support game development. The candidate should have expertise with 3d modeling, animation, lighting or texturing. Additionally, the candidate should be able to teach core art topics such as illustration, character design, and storyboarding. The preferred candidate should have shipped one or more games as lead artist. Teaching experience is also preferred. An advanced degree is not required. WPI is an outstanding national university with an enrollment of about 3900 undergraduate students and about 1000 graduate students. WPI's acclaimed and long-standing project-based undergraduate curriculum is singled out by professional societies as a model program, and an ideal forum for students to develop computer games and other interactive media applications. WPI has a history of educational innovation and interdisciplinary education. WPI is in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA, the second largest city in Massachusetts and the third largest in New England. The greater Boston area is a thriving region for game development, with over 75 game companies. In addition, the large number of technology companies, colleges, and universities in the immediate area make it ideal for dual-career families. APPLICATION To apply, please submit: + Resume/Vitae + Statement about how your skills and experience can contribute to teaching and the collaboration of art, technology and design in producing compelling interactive content + Digital material supporting your application (for example, a portfolio) + The names and contact information of at least three references For full consideration, applications should be received by January 15th, 2009. Electronic applications should be submitted online at: http://www.wpi.edu/Admin/HR/Jobs/faculty.html Questions about the hiring process, and electronic applications should be sent to: imgd-hiring at wpi.edu To enrich education through diversity, WPI is an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer. From goldfile at gmail.com Wed Nov 5 13:30:57 2008 From: goldfile at gmail.com (S. Gold) Date: Wed, 05 Nov 2008 10:30:57 -0800 Subject: [game_edu] CFP: Beyond Virtual: Building Intercultural Competence with Social Games and Online Communities- HCI International Conference 2009 Message-ID: Call for Abstracts Deadline for Abstract Receipt: Tuesday, 11 November 2008 Notification of Abstract Review Outcome: Tuesday, 30 November 2008 Deadline for Review of Papers: Monday, 12 January 2009 Deadline for Camera-ready Receipt: Monday, 16 February 2009 HCI International Conference 2009 Session invitation on the topic of: Beyond Virtual: Building Intercultural Competence with Social Games and Online Communities We invite potential presenters to join the session entitled "Beyond Virtual: Building Intercultural Competence with Social Games and Online Communities" to be held during the 3rd International Conference on Online Communities and Social Computing (OCSC 2009). OCSC 2009 is one of the affiliated conferences jointly held with HCI International 2009, the 13th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, San Diego, CA, USA, 19-24 July 2009. (http://www.hcii2009.org/) In this session we explore different approaches to solving the challenge of building intercultural competence through the use of game technology, online communities, and virtual world applications. Intercultural competence is the ability to reflect on one's own cultural underpinnings, express openness to diverse points of view, and exhibit a willingness to incorporate these contributions into one's local and global perspectives. Developing these real-world skills are critical to fostering multinational and multicultural cooperation in the 21st century. We seek to bring together researchers, academics, and designers from several disciplines, including industry, education, serious game design, intercultural communication, sociology, computer science, visual art, etc. who are deeply interested in understanding more about how we can build intercultural competence from playing and reflecting in technology -mediated settings such as computer or video games, mobile games, massively multi-player online role playing games (MMORPG), online communities, and more. How can technology-mediated settings help us develop self-reflection, and awareness of ourselves and others? How can we learn behavioral flexibility with regard to intercultural discovery through games or communities? What technologies (e.g. avatars, tutoring systems, etc.) enable social learning? We are also interested in how we, as designers, create games and online communities that provide learning opportunities for lasting skills development that extend beyond virtual in to real life. If you are interested in participating, please send the title of the presentation, a 100-300 word abstract and your contact details to Elaine Raybourn, emraybo at sandia.gov, by 11 November 2008 (Tuesday). Best regards, Elaine Elaine M. Raybourn, Ph.D. Center for Systematics and Cognition Technologies Sandia National Laboratories -- Susan Gold goldfile at gmail.com "To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all." Oscar Wilde -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From brad at gaminged.com Thu Nov 6 01:14:28 2008 From: brad at gaminged.com (brad at gaminged.com) Date: Wed, 05 Nov 2008 23:14:28 -0700 Subject: [game_edu] =?utf-8?q?Anyone_participating_in_the_G4LI=3F?= Message-ID: <20081105231428.6901069aed42fc197593af8c7a5cb6eb.d3541b07b9.wbe@email.secureserver.net> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From brad at gaminged.com Thu Nov 6 01:23:53 2008 From: brad at gaminged.com (brad at gaminged.com) Date: Wed, 05 Nov 2008 23:23:53 -0700 Subject: [game_edu] =?utf-8?q?Anyone_participating_in_the_G4LI=3F?= Message-ID: <20081105232353.6901069aed42fc197593af8c7a5cb6eb.3879d45ee0.wbe@email.secureserver.net> If anyone on the list participating in the "Games for Learning Institute" I would really appreciate hearing more about the project. How did it get started? how did you Microsoft involved and how the research is being implemented? Link to G4LI: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/oct08/10-07MSRNYUPR.mspx Thanks, Brad From amp5315 at rit.edu Thu Nov 6 10:12:18 2008 From: amp5315 at rit.edu (Andrew Phelps) Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2008 10:12:18 -0500 Subject: [game_edu] Anyone participating in the G4LI? In-Reply-To: <20081105231428.6901069aed42fc197593af8c7a5cb6eb.d3541b07b9.wbe@email.secureserver.net> References: <20081105231428.6901069aed42fc197593af8c7a5cb6eb.d3541b07b9.wbe@email.secureserver.net> Message-ID: Hi, Without knowing who else is on the game_edu list I can?t say if any of the other G4LI collaborators are on it, but I am one such participant. The way it got started was through several smaller funded projects with Microsoft Research, and a growing relationship with the MSR group that has been looking at games in educational contexts (and games in computing education) for the past several years. As to how the research is being conducted, there is an entire research methodology that was a part of the proposal. The G4LI team is working on (among other things) our public site that will begin to disseminate these materials, our research plan, and ways in which additional folks can collaborate and get involved. Our overriding goal is, of course, to grow the G4LI into something that extends well beyond the Microsoft commitment and into something that several groups and entities can be involved with. We?re just starting out, and the press is perhaps a bit ahead of what we are ready to follow up and publicly release at present, but in very short order we?ll be putting out our materials that formed the core of the proposal for the institute, and our more detailed plan on moving forward. Sorry for the delay ? Feel free to contact me off-list as well. Thanks, -A Andrew Phelps Director, Game Design & Development College of Computing & Information Sciences Rochester Institute of Technology amp at it.rit.edu games.rit.edu From: game_edu-bounces at igda.org [mailto:game_edu-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of brad at gaminged.com Sent: Thursday, November 06, 2008 1:14 AM To: game_edu at igda.org Subject: [game_edu] Anyone participating in the G4LI? If anyone on the list participating in the "Games for Learning Institute" (G4LI) I will really appreciate hearing more about the project. How did it get started, how you got Microsoft involved and how the research is being implemented? http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/oct08/10-07MSRNYUPR.mspx It is great to see Microsoft invest in edu-game research. Brad -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mblackledge at lafilm.com Fri Nov 7 13:25:58 2008 From: mblackledge at lafilm.com (Blackledge, Michael) Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2008 10:25:58 -0800 Subject: [game_edu] Pinball machines useful in teaching game theory? Message-ID: Hello, Curious if anyone here would be able to share their insight on how pinball machines can be used to teach [or illustrate] game theory. Seems I find myself in a situation where I need to 'sell' the idea of having 1 or 2 machines to our Uber-Administration. My thinking is that the pinball machines convey a healthy game culture and appreciation for conventional game play. Thoughts? Thanks in advance! Michael -- Michael Blackledge | Program Director, Game Production | The Los Angeles Film School | T 323.960.3776 | F 323.960.3771 6363 Sunset Blvd | Hollywood, CA 90028 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ataghaviburris at occc.edu Fri Nov 7 13:56:03 2008 From: ataghaviburris at occc.edu (Taghavi-Burris, Akram) Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2008 12:56:03 -0600 Subject: [game_edu] Pinball machines useful in teaching game theory? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <399D8C30-9AD1-404A-89E4-C2B8A161DDE0@occc.edu> I know that we talk about pin ball machines in my game history course. We disscus how these popular game systems had already a strong player base, and how Atari would their pong arcades in places where pin ball machines where. You could also mention gameplay and how pin ball like video games required skill, had set rules and an overall objective. I hope that gives you some ideas. --Akram Taghavi-Burris On Nov 7, 2008, at 12:29 PM, "Blackledge, Michael" > wrote: Hello, Curious if anyone here would be able to share their insight on how pinball machines can be used to teach [or illustrate] game theory. Seems I find myself in a situation where I need to ?sell? the idea of having 1 or 2 machines to our Uber-Administration. My thinking is that the pinball machines convey a healthy game culture and appreciation for conventional game play. Thoughts? Thanks in advance! Michael -- Michael Blackledge | Program Director, Game Production | The Los Angeles Film School | T 323.960.3776 | F 323.960.3771 6363 Sunset Blvd | Hollywood, CA 90028 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From medlerbe at msu.edu Fri Nov 7 14:05:01 2008 From: medlerbe at msu.edu (Ben) Date: Fri, 07 Nov 2008 14:05:01 -0500 Subject: [game_edu] Pinball machines useful in teaching game theory? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4914915D.6040503@msu.edu> I was at the Future Play conference this week where Stephen Jacobs, from RIT, stated on a panel about game-based curriculum that he uses pinball games as a means to talk about level design. Might be someone to contact. --Ben Blackledge, Michael wrote: > Hello, > > Curious if anyone here would be able to share their insight on how > pinball machines can be used to teach [or illustrate] game theory. > Seems I find myself in a situation where I need to ?sell? the idea of > having 1 or 2 machines to our Uber-Administration. My thinking is that > the pinball machines convey a healthy game culture and appreciation > for conventional game play. Thoughts? > > > Thanks in advance! > > Michael > > > > > -- > Michael Blackledge | Program Director, Game Production | The Los > Angeles Film School | > T 323.960.3776 | F 323.960.3771 > 6363 Sunset Blvd | Hollywood, CA 90028 > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > game_edu mailing list > game_edu at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu > -- Ben Medler PhD Student / Research Assistant School of Literature, Communication and Culture Georgia Institute of Technology Email: benmedler at gatech.edu http://lcc.gatech.edu/~bmedler3/ From ai864 at yahoo.com Fri Nov 7 14:15:08 2008 From: ai864 at yahoo.com (Ian Schreiber) Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2008 11:15:08 -0800 (PST) Subject: [game_edu] Pinball machines useful in teaching game theory? In-Reply-To: <399D8C30-9AD1-404A-89E4-C2B8A161DDE0@occc.edu> Message-ID: <993509.9085.qm@web39701.mail.mud.yahoo.com> When you say "game theory" I assume you still mean game design/development, not that offshoot branch of economics/business/psychology that deals with human decision-making and the Prisoner's Dilemma and all that, right? Because any connection between Game Theory and pinball would be tenuous at best :) ? For development, I think their greatest asset is in their history and evolution. Some ideas: ? * How the innovation of player-controlled flippers changed the game from one of mostly luck to one of mostly skill; * How the history of arcade games started out with electro-mechanical devices like pinball, then transitioned to fully digital games, and now they're coming full circle by adding on mechanical devices (guns, bike pedals, dance pads, etc.). Meanwhile, pinball itself has gone the other way, adding more and more digital effects (backlit displays, digitized voice and sound effects, etc.); * Relationship between pinball and video games (consider crossovers, like Caveman and Baby Pac-Man which were pinball machines with a video screen attached, versus fully-digital pinball simulations like the Pinball game that comes with Windows, and weird digital hybrids like Sonic Spinball); * Dealing with player exploits: how did early pinball machines prevent the player from using a magnet or physically tilting the machine to direct the ball (especially important for those machines that would actually pay you money if you got a high enough score)? * At their heart, games are games, no matter what the medium! The same basic principles of game design that are applied to board games and video games should be applicable to pinball as well. What is good table design? What did innovative mechanics like drop targets, bumpers, timed objectives, ramps, jackpots, multiball, etc. add to the genre? ? Mostly, though, it's about having fun and being a bit nostalgic. You could also probably justify it as additional exposure for your department -- a pinball game grabs attention these days since they're relatively rare (especially on campus), so it's a prime opportunity to make sure students are aware that you have game-related classes :) ? A word of warning: pinball machines are loud, and the mechanical ones do tend to break and require repairs from time to time. Make sure you've got a good space to put them, and that you have the budget not just to acquire the machines but also to maintain them. ? - Ian --- On Fri, 11/7/08, Taghavi-Burris, Akram wrote: From: Taghavi-Burris, Akram Subject: Re: [game_edu] Pinball machines useful in teaching game theory? To: "IGDA Game Education Listserv" Date: Friday, November 7, 2008, 1:56 PM I know that we talk about pin ball machines in my game history course. We disscus how these popular game systems had already a strong player base, and how Atari would their pong arcades in places where pin ball machines where. You could also mention gameplay and how pin ball like video games required skill, had set rules and an overall objective. I hope that gives you some ideas. --Akram Taghavi-Burris On Nov 7, 2008, at 12:29 PM, "Blackledge, Michael" wrote: Hello, Curious if anyone here would be able to share their insight on how pinball machines can be used to teach [or illustrate] game theory. Seems I find myself in a situation where I need to ?sell? the idea of having 1 or 2 machines to our Uber-Administration. My thinking is that the pinball machines convey a healthy game culture and appreciation for conventional game play. Thoughts? Thanks in advance! Michael -- Michael Blackledge | Program Director, Game Production | The Los Angeles Film School | T 323.960.3776 ?| F 323.960.3771 6363 Sunset Blvd | Hollywood, CA 90028 _______________________________________________ game_edu mailing list game_edu at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From brad at gaminged.com Sat Nov 8 01:41:26 2008 From: brad at gaminged.com (brad at gaminged.com) Date: Fri, 07 Nov 2008 23:41:26 -0700 Subject: [game_edu] =?utf-8?q?Pinball_machines_useful_in_teaching_game_the?= =?utf-8?q?ory=3F?= Message-ID: <20081107234126.6901069aed42fc197593af8c7a5cb6eb.7e7feea701.wbe@email.secureserver.net> Some other thoughts on pinball machines: Zeitgeist: They and the one armed bandits provided a great source of information and reference for the arcade games of the 80?s. Quick learners: What I enjoy discussing with students is how pinball machines and most 80?s arcade games differ from many console games my students like to play. Pinball and 80?s arcade games required a short learning curve ie: if it cost more than a few quarters to obtain some sense of success you lost your customer. Never a winner: It is interesting to note that pinball games were designed so that the user should never ?win? or reach the end. Multi-player: Some of the later Pinball machines provided multiplayer gaming although it required taking turns. I am also trying to remember if the concept of TOP Score first started on some of the later pinball machines. Anyone recall? Replayability: While there were pinball machines that had a cash payout the non-paying pinball machines demonstrated that we could get players to spend money to play this arcade device simply for the joy of playing, improving ones skill, and/or possibly winning a free ball. Good luck with your acquisition. Brad From ai864 at yahoo.com Sat Nov 8 09:02:19 2008 From: ai864 at yahoo.com (Ian Schreiber) Date: Sat, 8 Nov 2008 06:02:19 -0800 (PST) Subject: [game_edu] Pinball machines useful in teaching game theory? In-Reply-To: <20081107234126.6901069aed42fc197593af8c7a5cb6eb.7e7feea701.wbe@email.secureserver.net> Message-ID: <560678.31120.qm@web39706.mail.mud.yahoo.com> >Quick learners: What I enjoy discussing with students is how pinball >machines and most 80?s arcade games differ from many console games my >students like to play. Pinball and 80?s arcade games required a short >learning curve ie: if it cost more than a few quarters to obtain some >sense of success you lost your customer. And also how games were designed to make you lose in 3 minutes or less, because the business model required a steady stream of quarter inputs. A lot of students who grew on in the NES/SNES era don't realize just how *difficult* early games were. I take great pleasure in bringing in an Atari Flashback and watching my students (who usually consider themselves pretty good gamers) die in a few seconds on Yars' Revenge or Pitfall?:) >Multi-player: Some of the later Pinball machines provided multiplayer >gaming although it required taking turns.? I am also trying to remember >if the concept of TOP Score first started on some of the later pinball >machines. Anyone recall? I believe the first pinball game that allowed the player to enter their initials for high score was High Speed (Williams, 1986), so this is a case where pinball lagged behind arcade games by quite a few years. ? This could also lead to a discussion of UI, because a lot of early pinball games that allowed entry of initials had an absolutely horrendous interface for doing so (admittedly, having only a left and right button are going to make just about anything seem counterintuitive). See what kind of initial-entry methods your students could come up with, and compare to what the machines actually did. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From A.Nijholt at ewi.utwente.nl Sun Nov 9 04:33:16 2008 From: A.Nijholt at ewi.utwente.nl (A.Nijholt at ewi.utwente.nl) Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2008 10:33:16 +0100 Subject: [game_edu] CASA2009: Computer Animation and Social Agents. Call for papers Message-ID: CASA 2009 Computer Animation and Social Agents http://hmi.ewi.utwente.nl/CASA09 June 17-19 2009, Amsterdam Call For Papers The Human Media Interaction (HMI) department of the University of Twente in the Netherlands and the Computer Graphics Society (CGS) are pleased to announce the 22nd Annual Conference on Computer Animation and Social Agents (CASA 2009) to be held on June 17-19, 2009 in "Het Trippenhuis", Amsterdam, the Netherlands. CASA is the leading international conference in the field of computer animation and social agents. CASA 2009 will provide great opportunities to interact with leading experts, share your own work, and educate yourself through exposure to the research of your peers from around the world. In addition, make friends and experience wonderful Amsterdam. The conference venue is located on one of the famous canals of Amsterdam. We are seeking regular full papers, short papers, and posters with the following topics, but which are not limited to: Animation Techniques : Motion Control, Motion Capture and Retargeting, Path Planning, Physics based Animation, Image based Animation, Behavioral Animation, Artificial Life, Deformation, Facial Animation, Multi-Resolution and Multi-Scale Models, Knowledge-based Animation, Motion Synthesis; Social Agents: Social Agents and Avatars, Emotion and Personality, Virtual Humans, Autonomous Actors, AI based Animation, Social and Conversational Agents, Inter-Agent Communication, Social Behavior, Gesture Generation, Crowd Simulation; Other Related Topics: Animation Compression and Transmission, Semantics and Ontologies for Virtual Humans/Environments, Animation Analysis and Structuring, Anthropometric Virtual Human Models, Acquisition and Reconstruction of Animation Data, Level of Details, Semantic Representation of Motion and Animation, Medical Simulation, Cultural Heritage, Interaction for Virtual Humans, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, Computer Games and Online Virtual Worlds. All accepted full papers, about 35 of them, will be published, at the time of the conference, in a special issue of The Journal of Computer Animation and Virtual Worlds by Wiley. Short papers and posters will be published as CD or hardcopy proceedings with ISBN. Important Dates are: Full papers *Submission: February 10, 2009 *Notification of acceptance: March 10, 2009 *Camera ready: April 1, 2009 Short papers and Posters *Submission: March 15, 2009 *Notification of acceptance: April 15, 2009 *Camera/CD ready: May 10, 2009 Conference Chair: Anton Nijholt, anijholt at cs.utwente.nl Program Chairs: Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann, Mark Overmars, and Scott King Local Chairs: Arjan Egges and Herwin van Welbergen Webpage: http://hmi.ewi.utwente.nl/CASA09 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From kimatiu at gmail.com Sun Nov 9 11:07:42 2008 From: kimatiu at gmail.com (Kim Gregson) Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2008 11:07:42 -0500 Subject: [game_edu] Pinball machines useful in teaching game theory? In-Reply-To: <20081107234126.6901069aed42fc197593af8c7a5cb6eb.7e7feea701.wbe@email.secureserver.net> References: <20081107234126.6901069aed42fc197593af8c7a5cb6eb.7e7feea701.wbe@email.secureserver.net> Message-ID: <1441945f0811090807t5e8eec8ai8225f447af1b45e6@mail.gmail.com> I saw someone with a poster about pinball games at FuturePlay - they used a piece of software called Future Pinball - http://www.futurepinball.com/ - looks good, but it's PC only And on a related note - here's a blog post about pinball that looks interesting - http://thedisneyblog.com/2008/06/21/tilt-the-battle-for-pinball/ On Sat, Nov 8, 2008 at 1:41 AM, wrote: > > Some other thoughts on pinball machines: > > Zeitgeist: They and the one armed bandits provided a great source of > information and reference for the arcade games of the 80's. > > Quick learners: What I enjoy discussing with students is how pinball > machines and most 80's arcade games differ from many console games my > students like to play. Pinball and 80's arcade games required a short > learning curve ie: if it cost more than a few quarters to obtain some > sense of success you lost your customer. > > Never a winner: It is interesting to note that pinball games were > designed so that the user should never "win" or reach the end. > > Multi-player: Some of the later Pinball machines provided multiplayer > gaming although it required taking turns. I am also trying to remember > if the concept of TOP Score first started on some of the later pinball > machines. Anyone recall? > > Replayability: While there were pinball machines that had a cash payout > the non-paying pinball machines demonstrated that we could get players > to spend money to play this arcade device simply for the joy of playing, > improving ones skill, and/or possibly winning a free ball. > > Good luck with your acquisition. > > Brad > > > _______________________________________________ > game_edu mailing list > game_edu at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From kimatiu at gmail.com Sun Nov 9 11:19:45 2008 From: kimatiu at gmail.com (Kim Gregson) Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2008 11:19:45 -0500 Subject: [game_edu] suggestions for readings? Message-ID: <1441945f0811090819m25f07021ya1bd74efde47a6ab@mail.gmail.com> Hi everybody, I"m putting together a seminar (for senior undergrad students) called "Fun and Games" for the spring semester - I want us to study the concept of "fun" and apply it to videogames. Here's my blog post with initial ideas - http://profkim.blogspot.com/2008/11/ideas-for-fun-games-senior-seminar.html What I'm looking for is suggestions of readings - I think we're going to read Raph Koster's _A theory of fun for game design_ but would like some other things to consider. Any ideas? And we hope to involve other folks in our conversations - with online discussions and video responses to some of our basic questions. If you would like to be involved (or your class), let me know and I"ll be sure to send you a formal invite after the holidays. Thanks...Kim Gregson (Ithaca College) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ypisan at it.uts.edu.au Sun Nov 9 15:43:57 2008 From: ypisan at it.uts.edu.au (Yusuf Pisan) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2008 07:43:57 +1100 Subject: [game_edu] suggestions for readings? In-Reply-To: <1441945f0811090819m25f07021ya1bd74efde47a6ab@mail.gmail.com> References: <1441945f0811090819m25f07021ya1bd74efde47a6ab@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <6dfad8320811091243t4a6515bbsd1bce5205b928f7d@mail.gmail.com> Have a look at IGDA Curriuclum Knowledge Base for courses and for books Cheers, Yusuf -- A/Professor Yusuf Pisan Faculty of Information Technology University of Technology, Sydney http://staff.it.uts.edu.au/~ypisan/ http://www.google.com/reader/shared/11353157941770274723 On Mon, Nov 10, 2008 at 3:19 AM, Kim Gregson wrote: > Hi everybody, > > I"m putting together a seminar (for senior undergrad students) called "Fun > and Games" for the spring semester - I want us to study the concept of "fun" > and apply it to videogames. Here's my blog post with initial ideas - > http://profkim.blogspot.com/2008/11/ideas-for-fun-games-senior-seminar.html > > What I'm looking for is suggestions of readings - I think we're going to > read Raph Koster's _A theory of fun for game design_ but would like some > other things to consider. Any ideas? > > And we hope to involve other folks in our conversations - with online > discussions and video responses to some of our basic questions. If you would > like to be involved (or your class), let me know and I"ll be sure to send > you a formal invite after the holidays. > > Thanks...Kim Gregson (Ithaca College) > > _______________________________________________ > game_edu mailing list > game_edu at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu > > From kennerly at finegamedesign.com Sun Nov 9 16:15:54 2008 From: kennerly at finegamedesign.com (Ethan Kennerly) Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2008 13:15:54 -0800 Subject: [game_edu] suggestions for readings? In-Reply-To: <1441945f0811090819m25f07021ya1bd74efde47a6ab@mail.gmail.com> References: <1441945f0811090819m25f07021ya1bd74efde47a6ab@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <463DE7D752E44FFBBA5AE84EB0A23726@kennerly> Kim, Here's a few you may be familiar with: Pierre-Alexandre Garneau. "Fourteen Forms of Fun" http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20011012/garneau_01.htm Anders Hejdenberg. "The Psychology Behind Games" http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20050426/hejdenberg_01.shtml Jonathan Frome. "Eight Ways Videogames Generate Emotion" http://www.digra.org/dl/db/07311.25139.pdf Nicole Lazzaro. "Why We Play Games: Four Keys to More Emotion Without Story" http://www.xeodesign.com/xeodesign_whyweplaygames.pdf D. E. Berlyne. "Curiosity and Exploration" Science, July 1966 Rowan Hooper. "Just How Exciting Is It?" http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2005/02/66598 Various usability engineering presentations: http://mgsuserresearch.com/publications/ (They used to have video presentations online; I'm not seeing it today...) Marc LeBlanc. "Tools for Creating Dramatic Game Dynamics" The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology Katherine Isbister. Game Usability: Advancing the Player Experience -- Ethan P.S. Fun is a deep problem, with a daunting bottom: Joseph W Kable & Paul W Glimcher. "The neural correlates of subjective value during intertemporal choice" Nature Neuroscience, December 2007 Michael C. Dorris and Paul W. Glimcher. "Activity in Posterior Parietal Cortex Is Correlated with the Relative Subjective Desirability of Action" Neuron, October 2004 From ai864 at yahoo.com Sun Nov 9 21:05:54 2008 From: ai864 at yahoo.com (Ian Schreiber) Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2008 18:05:54 -0800 (PST) Subject: [game_edu] suggestions for readings? In-Reply-To: <1441945f0811090819m25f07021ya1bd74efde47a6ab@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <719209.22729.qm@web39701.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Hi Kim and others, ? Great topic! ? A word of warning: "fun" is an extremely broad area of study. "What makes games fun?" is essentially the question that the entire field of game design is concerned with, so I'd advise setting expectations early in the course -- students are not going to find all the answers in a single class, it would take a full four-year degree just to scratch the surface, really -- you're just going to teach them to start asking the right questions. I like to open this kind of course by asking for a show of hands: who finds the classic board game Chess "fun"? Invariably, about half of the hands go up; the other half think it's Not Fun. Ah ha -- proof that "fun" is not just a property of the game, but the combination of game and player. It's not so simple a concept as it first appears. ? I'd also advise not limiting yourself to video games. The world of board games (particularly the so-called "Eurogame" variety -- Settlers of Catan, Carcassonne, Bohnanza, Puerto Rico, etc.) is great for study of this kind. The mechanics of the game are laid bare, the fun is direct and on the surface. Board games can't hide behind high technology or huge polygon counts; they are either fun for the mechanics or not fun at all. In video games there are more complex layers, so it's a little harder sometimes to tell where the fun is coming from. ? As for readings, here are some from my intro game design class: ? * I do mention Koster's Theory of Fun. Unfortunately, last I checked it's out of print (with "buy it used" prices on Amazon exceeding $100), so unless there's been a recent reprinting you might have to satisfy yourself with lectures based on the book's content. ? * Costikyan's "I Have No Words and I Must Design": www.costik.com/nowords.html - this is one of the first writings on what makes games fun, so it's a great place to start. It also begins the all-important process of building a critical vocabulary to talk about games, something that is sorely lacking in our field (though not for lack of trying). ? * Church's "Formal Abstract Design Tools": www.gamasutra.com/features/19990716/design_tools_01.htm - Building on Costikyan's work, Doug Church introduces the important concepts of player intention and feedback(among other things). ? * LeBlanc et al's "MDA Framework": www.cs.northwestern.edu/~hunicke/MDA.pdf - one of the most influential papers dealing with the concept of "fun" that I know of. If you read nothing else, read this. I'd even put this ahead of Koster, seriously. ? * Falstein's "Natural Funativity": www.gamasutra.com/features/20041110/falstein_01.shtml - Most writings in the field try to identify what kinds of things we find fun. This article gives a great theory?for WHY we find them fun in the first place. ? * If you want to talk about Flow states (a la Koster), you could always assign some readings from Csikszentmihalyi's original work. Also, don't go overboard with this line of explanation; keep in mind that flow states can't explain all forms of fun and don't hold all the answers. Sex can be fun, even when it has nothing to do with skill mastery ;) ? - Ian --- On Sun, 11/9/08, Kim Gregson wrote: From: Kim Gregson Subject: [game_edu] suggestions for readings? To: "IGDA Game Education Listserv" Date: Sunday, November 9, 2008, 11:19 AM Hi everybody, I"m putting together a seminar (for senior undergrad students) called "Fun and Games" for the spring semester - I want us to study the concept of "fun" and apply it to videogames. Here's my blog post with initial ideas - http://profkim.blogspot.com/2008/11/ideas-for-fun-games-senior-seminar.html What I'm looking for is suggestions of readings - I think we're going to read Raph Koster's _A theory of fun for game design_ but would like some other things to consider. Any ideas? And we hope to involve other folks in our conversations - with online discussions and video responses to some of our basic questions. If you would like to be involved (or your class), let me know and I"ll be sure to send you a formal invite after the holidays. Thanks...Kim Gregson (Ithaca College) _______________________________________________ game_edu mailing list game_edu at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From phillies at WPI.EDU Sun Nov 9 21:46:26 2008 From: phillies at WPI.EDU (George D. Phillies) Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2008 21:46:26 -0500 (EST) Subject: [game_edu] suggestions for readings? In-Reply-To: <719209.22729.qm@web39701.mail.mud.yahoo.com> References: <719209.22729.qm@web39701.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: On Sun, 9 Nov 2008, Ian Schreiber wrote in part: > I'd also advise not limiting yourself to video games. The world of board > games (particularly the so-called "Eurogame" variety -- Settlers of > Catan, Carcassonne, Bohnanza, Puerto Rico, etc.) is great for study of > this kind. The mechanics of the game are laid bare, the fun is direct and > on the surface. Board games can't hide behind high technology or huge > polygon counts; they are either fun for the mechanics or not fun at all. > In video games there are more complex layers, so it's a little harder > sometimes to tell where the fun is coming from. Some of you may find of interest my two board game design books with Tom Vasel. These are written as textbooks, with extensive homework problems, and have been used in my Game Design course here at WPI http://www.3mpub.com/phillies The books are "Design Elements in Contemporary Strategy Games" and "Contemporary Perspectives in Game Design". I reprint with permission several of Costikyan's articles, including the one already noted. George Phillies From kimatiu at gmail.com Sun Nov 9 23:02:17 2008 From: kimatiu at gmail.com (Kim Gregson) Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2008 23:02:17 -0500 Subject: [game_edu] suggestions for readings? In-Reply-To: <719209.22729.qm@web39701.mail.mud.yahoo.com> References: <1441945f0811090819m25f07021ya1bd74efde47a6ab@mail.gmail.com> <719209.22729.qm@web39701.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <1441945f0811092002j4649bfc6m8ce0662e60cb61b@mail.gmail.com> Thanks for the recommendations. And the warning about fun being a huge topic - that's kind of why i picked it - partly because I want to see what they come up with but also to show them that we can't bundle understanding and knowledge of all topics into nice little 15 week bundles. Hopefully they'll rise to the challenge, and we will keep it focused on the game angle to give them a little structure. We are building up a board and card game collection that we use in our videogame design classes. It will be easy to bring those games into the senior seminar as well - we have about 15 games including Carcassone, Ticket to Ride, and Colossal Arena. we're also building up a library of videogame hardware and software (a variety of genres) so hopefully we can make use of those too. I think _A theory of fun_ is available thru an ebook database our library purchased. Otherwise - we'll have to talk about it and look at some of the comics using the overhead projector. I like the Flow book and we will porbably read parts of it - he has an interesting method of gathering data. On Sun, Nov 9, 2008 at 9:05 PM, Ian Schreiber wrote: > Hi Kim and others, > > Great topic! > > A word of warning: "fun" is an extremely broad area of study. "What makes > games fun?" is essentially the question that the entire field of game design > is concerned with, so I'd advise setting expectations early in the course -- > students are not going to find all the answers in a single class, it would > take a full four-year degree just to scratch the surface, really -- you're > just going to teach them to start asking the right questions. I like to open > this kind of course by asking for a show of hands: who finds the classic > board game Chess "fun"? Invariably, about half of the hands go up; the other > half think it's Not Fun. Ah ha -- proof that "fun" is not just a property of > the game, but the combination of game and player. It's not so simple a > concept as it first appears. > > I'd also advise not limiting yourself to video games. The world of board > games (particularly the so-called "Eurogame" variety -- Settlers of Catan, > Carcassonne, Bohnanza, Puerto Rico, etc.) is great for study of this kind. > The mechanics of the game are laid bare, the fun is direct and on the > surface. Board games can't hide behind high technology or huge polygon > counts; they are either fun for the mechanics or not fun at all. In video > games there are more complex layers, so it's a little harder sometimes to > tell where the fun is coming from. > > As for readings, here are some from my intro game design class: > > * I do mention Koster's Theory of Fun. Unfortunately, last I checked it's > out of print (with "buy it used" prices on Amazon exceeding $100), so unless > there's been a recent reprinting you might have to satisfy yourself with > lectures based on the book's content. > > * Costikyan's "I Have No Words and I Must Design": > www.costik.com/nowords.html - this is one of the first writings on what > makes games fun, so it's a great place to start. It also begins the > all-important process of building a critical vocabulary to talk about games, > something that is sorely lacking in our field (though not for lack of > trying). > > * Church's "Formal Abstract Design Tools": > www.gamasutra.com/features/19990716/design_tools_01.htm - Building on > Costikyan's work, Doug Church introduces the important concepts of player > intention and feedback(among other things). > > * LeBlanc et al's "MDA Framework": > www.cs.northwestern.edu/~hunicke/MDA.pdf- one of the most influential papers dealing with the concept of "fun" that > I know of. If you read nothing else, read this. I'd even put this ahead of > Koster, seriously. > > * Falstein's "Natural Funativity": > www.gamasutra.com/features/20041110/falstein_01.shtml - Most writings in > the field try to identify what kinds of things we find fun. This article > gives a great theory for WHY we find them fun in the first place. > > * If you want to talk about Flow states (a la Koster), you could always > assign some readings from Csikszentmihalyi's original work. Also, don't go > overboard with this line of explanation; keep in mind that flow states can't > explain all forms of fun and don't hold all the answers. Sex can be fun, > even when it has nothing to do with skill mastery ;) > > - Ian > > --- On *Sun, 11/9/08, Kim Gregson * wrote: > > From: Kim Gregson > Subject: [game_edu] suggestions for readings? > To: "IGDA Game Education Listserv" > Date: Sunday, November 9, 2008, 11:19 AM > > Hi everybody, > > I"m putting together a seminar (for senior undergrad students) called "Fun > and Games" for the spring semester - I want us to study the concept of "fun" > and apply it to videogames. Here's my blog post with initial ideas - > http://profkim.blogspot.com/2008/11/ideas-for-fun-games-senior-seminar.html > > What I'm looking for is suggestions of readings - I think we're going to > read Raph Koster's _A theory of fun for game design_ but would like some > other things to consider. Any ideas? > > And we hope to involve other folks in our conversations - with online > discussions and video responses to some of our basic questions. If you would > like to be involved (or your class), let me know and I"ll be sure to send > you a formal invite after the holidays. > > Thanks...Kim Gregson (Ithaca College) > > _______________________________________________ > game_edu mailing listgame_edu at igda.orghttp://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu > > > > _______________________________________________ > game_edu mailing list > game_edu at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From kimatiu at gmail.com Sun Nov 9 23:04:33 2008 From: kimatiu at gmail.com (Kim Gregson) Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2008 23:04:33 -0500 Subject: [game_edu] suggestions for readings? In-Reply-To: References: <719209.22729.qm@web39701.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <1441945f0811092004k60056af0x5203f37db6e51e4f@mail.gmail.com> Thanks for the recommendations. I will definitely check out the board game design books - both for this senior class and for my freshman classes where I want them to design board and card games while we analyze games both digital and analog. On Sun, Nov 9, 2008 at 9:46 PM, George D. Phillies wrote: > > > On Sun, 9 Nov 2008, Ian Schreiber wrote in part: > > I'd also advise not limiting yourself to video games. The world of board >> games (particularly the so-called "Eurogame" variety -- Settlers of >> Catan, Carcassonne, Bohnanza, Puerto Rico, etc.) is great for study of >> this kind. The mechanics of the game are laid bare, the fun is direct and >> on the surface. Board games can't hide behind high technology or huge >> polygon counts; they are either fun for the mechanics or not fun at all. >> In video games there are more complex layers, so it's a little harder >> sometimes to tell where the fun is coming from. >> > > Some of you may find of interest my two board game design books with Tom > Vasel. These are written as textbooks, with extensive homework problems, > and have been used in my Game Design course here at WPI > > http://www.3mpub.com/phillies > > The books are "Design Elements in Contemporary Strategy Games" and > "Contemporary Perspectives in Game Design". > > I reprint with permission several of Costikyan's articles, including the > one already noted. > > George Phillies > > _______________________________________________ > game_edu mailing list > game_edu at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From kimatiu at gmail.com Sun Nov 9 23:06:10 2008 From: kimatiu at gmail.com (Kim Gregson) Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2008 23:06:10 -0500 Subject: [game_edu] suggestions for readings? In-Reply-To: <6dfad8320811091243t4a6515bbsd1bce5205b928f7d@mail.gmail.com> References: <1441945f0811090819m25f07021ya1bd74efde47a6ab@mail.gmail.com> <6dfad8320811091243t4a6515bbsd1bce5205b928f7d@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <1441945f0811092006x61bd88a0od5970e30df3d9236@mail.gmail.com> thanks for the reminder about the IGDA wiki. I need to put the syllabi from my game design classes there too. On Sun, Nov 9, 2008 at 3:43 PM, Yusuf Pisan wrote: > Have a look at IGDA Curriuclum Knowledge Base for courses > and for books > > > Cheers, > > Yusuf > > -- > A/Professor Yusuf Pisan > Faculty of Information Technology > University of Technology, Sydney > http://staff.it.uts.edu.au/~ypisan/ > http://www.google.com/reader/shared/11353157941770274723 > > > > > > On Mon, Nov 10, 2008 at 3:19 AM, Kim Gregson wrote: > > Hi everybody, > > > > I"m putting together a seminar (for senior undergrad students) called > "Fun > > and Games" for the spring semester - I want us to study the concept of > "fun" > > and apply it to videogames. Here's my blog post with initial ideas - > > > http://profkim.blogspot.com/2008/11/ideas-for-fun-games-senior-seminar.html > > > > What I'm looking for is suggestions of readings - I think we're going to > > read Raph Koster's _A theory of fun for game design_ but would like some > > other things to consider. Any ideas? > > > > And we hope to involve other folks in our conversations - with online > > discussions and video responses to some of our basic questions. If you > would > > like to be involved (or your class), let me know and I"ll be sure to send > > you a formal invite after the holidays. > > > > Thanks...Kim Gregson (Ithaca College) > > > > _______________________________________________ > > game_edu mailing list > > game_edu at igda.org > > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu > > > > > _______________________________________________ > game_edu mailing list > game_edu at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From martin at hagvall.com Sun Nov 9 23:42:08 2008 From: martin at hagvall.com (Martin Hagvall) Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2008 20:42:08 -0800 Subject: [game_edu] suggestions for readings? In-Reply-To: References: <719209.22729.qm@web39701.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: I agree with this. In my class (Principles of Game Design at the Art Institute of California, Los Angeles), I frequently use Eurogames to illustrate elegant game mechanics and design principles - using games ranging from simple card games such as No Thanks! and Coloretto to strategy games such as Santiago and Around the World in 80 days, emphasizing the link between structural elements and the "dramatic" elements (including fun) and how "meaningful choice" can be a driving force behind what's considered "fun" in modern games. Martin > -----Original Message----- > From: game_edu-bounces at igda.org > [mailto:game_edu-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of George D. Phillies > Sent: Sunday, November 09, 2008 6:46 PM > To: ai864 at yahoo.com; IGDA Game Education Listserv > Subject: Re: [game_edu] suggestions for readings? > > > > On Sun, 9 Nov 2008, Ian Schreiber wrote in part: > > > I'd also advise not limiting yourself to video games. The world of > > board games (particularly the so-called "Eurogame" variety > -- Settlers > > of Catan, Carcassonne, Bohnanza, Puerto Rico, etc.) is > great for study > > of this kind. The mechanics of the game are laid bare, the fun is > > direct and on the surface. Board games can't hide behind high > > technology or huge polygon counts; they are either fun for > the mechanics or not fun at all. > > In video games there are more complex layers, so it's a > little harder > > sometimes to tell where the fun is coming from. > > Some of you may find of interest my two board game design > books with Tom Vasel. These are written as textbooks, with > extensive homework problems, and have been used in my Game > Design course here at WPI > > http://www.3mpub.com/phillies > > The books are "Design Elements in Contemporary Strategy > Games" and "Contemporary Perspectives in Game Design". > > I reprint with permission several of Costikyan's articles, > including the one already noted. > > George Phillies > _______________________________________________ > game_edu mailing list > game_edu at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu > From jschell at andrew.cmu.edu Sun Nov 9 23:52:06 2008 From: jschell at andrew.cmu.edu (Jesse Schell) Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2008 23:52:06 -0500 Subject: [game_edu] suggestions for readings? In-Reply-To: <1441945f0811090819m25f07021ya1bd74efde47a6ab@mail.gmail.com> References: <1441945f0811090819m25f07021ya1bd74efde47a6ab@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Of course I'm going to plug my book and game design cards: http://www.artofgamedesign.com :) But also, I think a lot of Steve Swink's new book: "Game Feel", and the 2nd edition of Tracy Fullerton's "Game Design Workshop" and I'll second others that Greg Costikyan's "I have no words... " is a great way to get students thinking. I also like to have them read chapter 2 of "Understanding Comics" by Scott McCloud, and discuss how it relates to videogames. On Sun, Nov 9, 2008 at 11:19 AM, Kim Gregson wrote: > Hi everybody, > > I"m putting together a seminar (for senior undergrad students) called "Fun > and Games" for the spring semester - I want us to study the concept of "fun" > and apply it to videogames. Here's my blog post with initial ideas - > http://profkim.blogspot.com/2008/11/ideas-for-fun-games-senior-seminar.html > > What I'm looking for is suggestions of readings - I think we're going to > read Raph Koster's _A theory of fun for game design_ but would like some > other things to consider. Any ideas? > > And we hope to involve other folks in our conversations - with online > discussions and video responses to some of our basic questions. If you would > like to be involved (or your class), let me know and I"ll be sure to send > you a formal invite after the holidays. > > Thanks...Kim Gregson (Ithaca College) > > _______________________________________________ > game_edu mailing list > game_edu at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu > > -- -Jesse Schell Asst. Prof. of Entertainment Technology, Carnegie Mellon University ( www.etc.cmu.edu) CEO, Schell Games (www.schellgames.com) Design Director, Sim Ops Studios (www.simopsstudios.com) Phone: (412) 303-0885 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From david at buzzcut.com Mon Nov 10 10:58:26 2008 From: david at buzzcut.com (David Thomas) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2008 08:58:26 -0700 Subject: [game_edu] suggestions for readings? In-Reply-To: References: <1441945f0811090819m25f07021ya1bd74efde47a6ab@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <737c06080811100758q6316d49ke8f2df29a476ac76@mail.gmail.com> Can I complicate this one step further? Any one have any thoughts on clear wrangling with the concept of play and fun? For instance, Sutton-Smith trips through the topic in "The Ambiguity of Play", but leaves the patience cut open on the table without much of a remedy to the question. Thoughts? David On Sun, Nov 9, 2008 at 9:52 PM, Jesse Schell wrote: > Of course I'm going to plug my book and game design cards: > http://www.artofgamedesign.com > > :) > > But also, I think a lot of Steve Swink's new book: "Game Feel", and the 2nd > edition of Tracy Fullerton's "Game Design Workshop" > > and I'll second others that Greg Costikyan's "I have no words... " is a > great way to get students thinking. > > I also like to have them read chapter 2 of "Understanding Comics" by Scott > McCloud, and discuss how it relates to videogames. > > On Sun, Nov 9, 2008 at 11:19 AM, Kim Gregson wrote: > >> Hi everybody, >> >> I"m putting together a seminar (for senior undergrad students) called "Fun >> and Games" for the spring semester - I want us to study the concept of "fun" >> and apply it to videogames. Here's my blog post with initial ideas - >> http://profkim.blogspot.com/2008/11/ideas-for-fun-games-senior-seminar.html >> >> What I'm looking for is suggestions of readings - I think we're going to >> read Raph Koster's _A theory of fun for game design_ but would like some >> other things to consider. Any ideas? >> >> And we hope to involve other folks in our conversations - with online >> discussions and video responses to some of our basic questions. If you would >> like to be involved (or your class), let me know and I"ll be sure to send >> you a formal invite after the holidays. >> >> Thanks...Kim Gregson (Ithaca College) >> >> _______________________________________________ >> game_edu mailing list >> game_edu at igda.org >> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu >> >> > > > -- > -Jesse Schell > Asst. Prof. of Entertainment Technology, Carnegie Mellon University ( > www.etc.cmu.edu) > CEO, Schell Games (www.schellgames.com) > Design Director, Sim Ops Studios (www.simopsstudios.com) > Phone: (412) 303-0885 > > _______________________________________________ > game_edu mailing list > game_edu at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From khakionion at gmail.com Mon Nov 10 11:10:39 2008 From: khakionion at gmail.com (Michael Herring) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2008 10:10:39 -0600 Subject: [game_edu] suggestions for readings? In-Reply-To: <737c06080811100758q6316d49ke8f2df29a476ac76@mail.gmail.com> References: <1441945f0811090819m25f07021ya1bd74efde47a6ab@mail.gmail.com> <737c06080811100758q6316d49ke8f2df29a476ac76@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Jesper Juul's "half-real" has a broad overview and roundup of others' positions on play vs. fun. ./Michael On Mon, Nov 10, 2008 at 9:58 AM, David Thomas wrote: > Can I complicate this one step further? > Any one have any thoughts on clear wrangling with the concept of play and > fun? > For instance, Sutton-Smith trips through the topic in "The Ambiguity of > Play", but leaves the patience cut open on the table without much of a > remedy to the question. > Thoughts? > David > > On Sun, Nov 9, 2008 at 9:52 PM, Jesse Schell wrote: >> >> Of course I'm going to plug my book and game design cards: >> http://www.artofgamedesign.com >> >> :) >> >> But also, I think a lot of Steve Swink's new book: "Game Feel", and the >> 2nd edition of Tracy Fullerton's "Game Design Workshop" >> >> and I'll second others that Greg Costikyan's "I have no words... " is a >> great way to get students thinking. >> >> I also like to have them read chapter 2 of "Understanding Comics" by Scott >> McCloud, and discuss how it relates to videogames. >> >> On Sun, Nov 9, 2008 at 11:19 AM, Kim Gregson wrote: >>> >>> Hi everybody, >>> >>> I"m putting together a seminar (for senior undergrad students) called >>> "Fun and Games" for the spring semester - I want us to study the concept of >>> "fun" and apply it to videogames. Here's my blog post with initial ideas - >>> http://profkim.blogspot.com/2008/11/ideas-for-fun-games-senior-seminar.html >>> >>> What I'm looking for is suggestions of readings - I think we're going to >>> read Raph Koster's _A theory of fun for game design_ but would like some >>> other things to consider. Any ideas? >>> >>> And we hope to involve other folks in our conversations - with online >>> discussions and video responses to some of our basic questions. If you would >>> like to be involved (or your class), let me know and I"ll be sure to send >>> you a formal invite after the holidays. >>> >>> Thanks...Kim Gregson (Ithaca College) >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> game_edu mailing list >>> game_edu at igda.org >>> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu >>> >> >> >> >> -- >> -Jesse Schell >> Asst. Prof. of Entertainment Technology, Carnegie Mellon University >> (www.etc.cmu.edu) >> CEO, Schell Games (www.schellgames.com) >> Design Director, Sim Ops Studios (www.simopsstudios.com) >> Phone: (412) 303-0885 >> >> _______________________________________________ >> game_edu mailing list >> game_edu at igda.org >> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu >> > > > _______________________________________________ > game_edu mailing list > game_edu at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu > > From goldfile at gmail.com Mon Nov 10 12:00:51 2008 From: goldfile at gmail.com (S. Gold) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2008 09:00:51 -0800 Subject: [game_edu] CFP: IFIP 8th International Conference on Entertainment Computing (ICEC 2009) Message-ID: FIRST CALL FOR PARPERS IFIP 8th International Conference on Entertainment Computing (ICEC 2009) September 3 - 5, 2009 CNAM, Paris, France http://www.entertainmentcomputing.org/icec2009/ Sponsored by International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------- We invite you to participate at the prestigious 8th International Conference on Entertainment Computing (ICEC2009). Entertainment has been taking very important parts in our life by refreshing us and activating our creativity. Recently by the advancement of computers and networks new types of entertainment have been emerging such as video games, entertainment robots, and network games. Based on the very successful preceding workshop and conferences, the next ICEC2009 has been set up to offer an occasion to exchange experience and knowledge among researchers and developers in the field of entertainment computing. Important Dates: ICEC 2009 Tutorial Proposals: 23rd February 2009 Full Paper Submissions: 2nd March 2009 Decisions on Full Paper Submissions: 30th March 2009 Short Paper, Poster and Demo Submissions: 20th April 2009 Decisions on Short Paper, Poster and Demo Submissions: 4th May 2009 Camera Ready Submissions for all Papers: 1st June 2009 Conference Topics: Suggested research topics include, but are not limited to: l Interactive Design for Entertainment l Aesthetics, Ontology and Social Reflection l Art, Design and Novel Media l Augmented, Virtual and Mixed Reality l Computer Games and Game Based Interfaces l Education, Training, and Edutainment Technologies l Entertainment and Healthcare l Novel and Evolutionary Platforms / Hardware Devices l Social and Human Factors of Entertainment l Interactive Digital Storytelling, and Interactive Tele-Vision l Mobile Entertainment via e.g. Mobile Phones, PDAs etc l Narrative Environments and Intelligent Medias l New Genres, New Standards l Pervasive Entertainment and Game-Playing l Robots and Cyber Pets l Self Reflecting Entertainment l Simulation Applications of Games, and Military Training l Sound, Music, Creative Environments l Real time and Interactive Technologies for entertainment (Graphics, Sound, AI...) Artworks: We are planning a dedicated Art Exhibition. Confirmation and details of this event will be published soon! Proceedings: The proceedings of ICEC2009 will be published Springer in the series of Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS). ICEC2009 Committee: General Conference Chair: Stephane Natkin (CNAM/ENJMIN, France) Progam Committee Co-Chairs: Stephane NATKIN (CNAM/ENJIM, France) Masayuki NAKAJIMA (Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan) Bras BUSHMAN (University of Michigan, USA) International Steering Committee: Ryohei Nakatsu (National University of Singapore, Singapore) Mark Cavazza (University of Teesside, UK) Zhigeng Pan (Zhejiang University, China) Stephane Natkin (CNAM/ENJIM, France) Matthias Rauberberg (Technical University of Eindhoven, The Netherlands) Don Marinelli (Carnegie Mellon University, USA) Hyun Yang (KAIST, Korea) Roy Ascott (University of Plymouth, UK) Sara Diamond (Ontario College of Art and Design, Canada) Scott Fischer (USC, USA) Organizing Committee: Chair?Ben Salem (Technical University of Eindhoven, The Netherlands) Stephane Gros (CNAM, France) Xan Qiu Hou (CNAR, France) -- Susan Gold goldfile at gmail.com "To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all." Oscar Wilde -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From kimatiu at gmail.com Tue Nov 11 09:55:03 2008 From: kimatiu at gmail.com (Kim Gregson) Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:55:03 -0500 Subject: [game_edu] suggestions for readings? In-Reply-To: <737c06080811100758q6316d49ke8f2df29a476ac76@mail.gmail.com> References: <1441945f0811090819m25f07021ya1bd74efde47a6ab@mail.gmail.com> <737c06080811100758q6316d49ke8f2df29a476ac76@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <1441945f0811110655q1970eda1je58ce25d8db7dee0@mail.gmail.com> that's one of the big problems with the class - coming up with definitions for basic terms, definitions clear enough to distinguish between terms like fun and play and trying to decide if one thing is a prereq for another thing. If anyone has any ideas on how to approach that - I have the same questions as David on this topic. As the reading suggestions have pointed out - lots of folks have been thinking and writing on the topic without nailing it down completely. I kind of want the students to see that thought process at work, to see that not everything is cut and dried and that even professionals disagree sometimes. There is an article in Rules of Play (books at home, I'm at school, not sure who the authors are) I've had students read before that lays out a variety of definitions of game and then the authors stake out their definition as kind of a reaction to the other definitions. I think I might like the students to tackle that as an early writing project. The reading suggestions have been great. I already had a lot of hte books but hadn't considered them for my non-game-major classes like this senior seminar. Good to see I can use them in lots of different classes and expose more students to the game ideas. On Mon, Nov 10, 2008 at 10:58 AM, David Thomas wrote: > Can I complicate this one step further? > Any one have any thoughts on clear wrangling with the concept of play and > fun? > > For instance, Sutton-Smith trips through the topic in "The Ambiguity of > Play", but leaves the patience cut open on the table without much of a > remedy to the question. > > Thoughts? > > David > > On Sun, Nov 9, 2008 at 9:52 PM, Jesse Schell wrote: > >> Of course I'm going to plug my book and game design cards: >> http://www.artofgamedesign.com >> >> :) >> >> But also, I think a lot of Steve Swink's new book: "Game Feel", and the >> 2nd edition of Tracy Fullerton's "Game Design Workshop" >> >> and I'll second others that Greg Costikyan's "I have no words... " is a >> great way to get students thinking. >> >> I also like to have them read chapter 2 of "Understanding Comics" by Scott >> McCloud, and discuss how it relates to videogames. >> >> On Sun, Nov 9, 2008 at 11:19 AM, Kim Gregson wrote: >> >>> Hi everybody, >>> >>> I"m putting together a seminar (for senior undergrad students) called >>> "Fun and Games" for the spring semester - I want us to study the concept of >>> "fun" and apply it to videogames. Here's my blog post with initial ideas - >>> http://profkim.blogspot.com/2008/11/ideas-for-fun-games-senior-seminar.html >>> >>> What I'm looking for is suggestions of readings - I think we're going to >>> read Raph Koster's _A theory of fun for game design_ but would like some >>> other things to consider. Any ideas? >>> >>> And we hope to involve other folks in our conversations - with online >>> discussions and video responses to some of our basic questions. If you would >>> like to be involved (or your class), let me know and I"ll be sure to send >>> you a formal invite after the holidays. >>> >>> Thanks...Kim Gregson (Ithaca College) >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> game_edu mailing list >>> game_edu at igda.org >>> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu >>> >>> >> >> >> -- >> -Jesse Schell >> Asst. Prof. of Entertainment Technology, Carnegie Mellon University ( >> www.etc.cmu.edu) >> CEO, Schell Games (www.schellgames.com) >> Design Director, Sim Ops Studios (www.simopsstudios.com) >> Phone: (412) 303-0885 >> >> _______________________________________________ >> game_edu mailing list >> game_edu at igda.org >> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu >> >> > > _______________________________________________ > game_edu mailing list > game_edu at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ai864 at yahoo.com Tue Nov 11 11:34:44 2008 From: ai864 at yahoo.com (Ian Schreiber) Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 08:34:44 -0800 (PST) Subject: [game_edu] suggestions for readings? In-Reply-To: <1441945f0811110655q1970eda1je58ce25d8db7dee0@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <228378.62228.qm@web39707.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Rules of Play also has a section where it talks about the relationship between "play" and "games," showing that (paradoxically) each is a subset of the other. The takeaway for me is that the two concepts are distinct, but strongly related. ? I agree that having students come up with their own working definition for the word "game" is a worthwhile exercise. I usually do this as an interactive class discussion, but I can see it as an individual writing assignment as well. If you have each student make their own definition, as a bonus, you could also challenge students to come up with counterexamples to their own or their classmates' definitions: things that most people consider "games" that are not covered by a definition, or vice versa. ? As for the division between "play" and "fun," I'm not familiar with any readings that make explicit distinctions between the two, but I'll go out on a limb and say that play is an activity, and fun is the result of (or emotional reaction to) an activity, so the two terms describe different things and can't be directly compared. But that's just my reaction. ? - Ian --- On Tue, 11/11/08, Kim Gregson wrote: From: Kim Gregson Subject: Re: [game_edu] suggestions for readings? To: "IGDA Game Education Listserv" Date: Tuesday, November 11, 2008, 9:55 AM that's one of the big problems with the class - coming up with definitions for basic terms, definitions clear enough to distinguish between terms like fun and play and trying to decide if one thing is a prereq for another thing. If anyone has any ideas on how to approach that - I have the same questions as David on this topic. As the reading suggestions have pointed out - lots of folks have been thinking and writing on the topic without nailing it down completely. I kind of want the students to see that thought process at work, to see that not everything is cut and dried and that even professionals disagree sometimes.? There is an article in Rules of Play (books at home, I'm at school, not sure who the authors are) I've had students read before that lays out a variety of definitions of game and then the authors stake out their definition as kind of a reaction to the other definitions. I think I might like the students to tackle that as an early writing project. The reading suggestions have been great. I already had a lot of hte books but hadn't considered them for my non-game-major classes like this senior seminar. Good to see I can use them in lots of different classes and expose more students to the game ideas. On Mon, Nov 10, 2008 at 10:58 AM, David Thomas wrote: Can I complicate this one step further? Any one have any thoughts on clear wrangling with the concept of play and fun? For instance, Sutton-Smith trips through the topic in "The Ambiguity of Play", but leaves the patience cut open on the table without much of a remedy to the question. Thoughts? David On Sun, Nov 9, 2008 at 9:52 PM, Jesse Schell wrote: Of course I'm going to plug my book and game design cards: http://www.artofgamedesign.com :) But also, I think a lot of Steve Swink's new book: "Game Feel", and the 2nd edition of Tracy Fullerton's "Game Design Workshop" and I'll second others that Greg Costikyan's "I have no words... " is a great way to get students thinking. I also like to have them read chapter 2 of "Understanding Comics" by Scott McCloud, and discuss how it relates to videogames. On Sun, Nov 9, 2008 at 11:19 AM, Kim Gregson wrote: Hi everybody, I"m putting together a seminar (for senior undergrad students) called "Fun and Games" for the spring semester - I want us to study the concept of "fun" and apply it to videogames. Here's my blog post with initial ideas - http://profkim.blogspot.com/2008/11/ideas-for-fun-games-senior-seminar.html What I'm looking for is suggestions of readings - I think we're going to read Raph Koster's _A theory of fun for game design_ but would like some other things to consider. Any ideas? And we hope to involve other folks in our conversations - with online discussions and video responses to some of our basic questions. If you would like to be involved (or your class), let me know and I"ll be sure to send you a formal invite after the holidays. Thanks...Kim Gregson (Ithaca College) _______________________________________________ game_edu mailing list game_edu at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu -- -Jesse Schell Asst. Prof. of Entertainment Technology, Carnegie Mellon University (www.etc.cmu.edu) CEO, Schell Games (www.schellgames.com) Design Director, Sim Ops Studios (www.simopsstudios.com) Phone: (412) 303-0885 _______________________________________________ game_edu mailing list game_edu at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu _______________________________________________ game_edu mailing list game_edu at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu _______________________________________________ game_edu mailing list game_edu at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From david at buzzcut.com Tue Nov 11 12:48:13 2008 From: david at buzzcut.com (David Thomas) Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:48:13 -0700 Subject: [game_edu] suggestions for readings? In-Reply-To: <228378.62228.qm@web39707.mail.mud.yahoo.com> References: <1441945f0811110655q1970eda1je58ce25d8db7dee0@mail.gmail.com> <228378.62228.qm@web39707.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <737c06080811110948m21e9d98dt240ce9c7913a5ff2@mail.gmail.com> On Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 9:34 AM, Ian Schreiber wrote: > As for the division between "play" and "fun," I'm not familiar with any > readings that make explicit distinctions between the two, but I'll go out on > a limb and say that play is an activity, and fun is the result of (or > emotional reaction to) an activity, so the two terms describe different > things and can't be directly compared. But that's just my reaction. > > - Ian > Can you play and not have fun? Sure.Can you have enjoyable play and not have fun? Maybe. Can you have fun and not play? Of course. So why do play and fun stick together as much as play and games (or fun and games for that matter)? I think something else that complicates the "fun" concept is that from what I've been able to dig up so far, the term fun is pretty new. It's not an old word by any measure, and the way it is used in, at least North American contexts, is something different than "fun as amusement" of the past 200 years. It's a bit out of my area, but I am led to believe that the meaning of the word as we use it in English might be more an American concept, and one that has filtered out into other languages. I would certainly like to hear from my global friends on that assumption. Sorry to tack this problem onto this particular thread. But I stumped at the moment on the fun concept and wonder either a) what I am missing or b) if there is actually a real problem here! -- David > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From kimatiu at gmail.com Tue Nov 11 13:46:17 2008 From: kimatiu at gmail.com (Kim Gregson) Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:46:17 -0500 Subject: [game_edu] suggestions for readings? In-Reply-To: <737c06080811110948m21e9d98dt240ce9c7913a5ff2@mail.gmail.com> References: <1441945f0811110655q1970eda1je58ce25d8db7dee0@mail.gmail.com> <228378.62228.qm@web39707.mail.mud.yahoo.com> <737c06080811110948m21e9d98dt240ce9c7913a5ff2@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <1441945f0811111046h7b39d18au2ca0e9547534bb99@mail.gmail.com> I see fun as an effect. In the case of my class eventually we want to consider fun an effect of playing games. Entertainment, enjoyment, and engagement are effects, too that we might see from media use, and we have to consider how all the effects are related. There's a developing field of study looking at entertainment as a media use effect that I think will add a lot to the discussion too. Play is something people do. Games are one kind of thing (concept) people use to play When we study other media effects, we consider a variety of factors that could affect the "fun" effect, including - characteristics of the "media user" (in this case, game player) - past experiences, psychological factors, reasons for using the media, how they felt when they started using the media, genre they typically prefer, how they evaluated the media before we started (had they heard lots of bad reviews for instance), how much time they have to spend on media use - characteristics of the "media" (in this case the games) - quality of the media, difficulty of use, what does the user do with it (watch vs interact), content (really gory/bloody, sexual references, violence, characters that look like the user..) - characteristics of the environment (in this case where the games are played) - is the computer fast enough, does screen size matter, does fidelity of the audio playback matter, does the temperature of the room matter, the comfortableness of the couch/chair matter. We look at the effect too because there's usually a range of responses in that effect (in our case from not fun at all to so much fun I'm going to explode) - how we measure comes from how we define it, how we differentiate it from other effects. We have to see if there are physical results of having fun as well as emotional results since physical effects would be easier to measure. In my mind this is not something to be solved in a semester - lots of good questions and issues being raised right here and they've made for interesting reading. But lots of questions can be raised, relevant literature can be identified and summarized, some variables can be examined, perhaps a list of variables to consider in the future can be created. I'd love to get with people from a lot of different fields to see how they consider "fun" Probably they could suggest still other variables and measurement techniques. As David mentions - the idea of having fun is pretty new (maybe it's related to a certain amount of economic excess that allows for free time) but we know that games have been around longer than recorded history. Maybe the history and econ folks can shed some light; i need to track down some other email lists and get them in on the conversation A lot of my research has been as a media effects person. So that's my hammer and fun is my particular nail today. How else can we consider fun besides an effect or outcome? We need some different lenses to look at it I think. Kim On Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 12:48 PM, David Thomas wrote: > On Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 9:34 AM, Ian Schreiber wrote: > >> As for the division between "play" and "fun," I'm not familiar with any >> readings that make explicit distinctions between the two, but I'll go out on >> a limb and say that play is an activity, and fun is the result of (or >> emotional reaction to) an activity, so the two terms describe different >> things and can't be directly compared. But that's just my reaction. >> >> - Ian >> > > Can you play and not have fun? Sure.Can you have enjoyable play and not > have fun? Maybe. > Can you have fun and not play? Of course. > > So why do play and fun stick together as much as play and games (or fun and > games for that matter)? > > I think something else that complicates the "fun" concept is that from what > I've been able to dig up so far, the term fun is pretty new. It's not an old > word by any measure, and the way it is used in, at least North American > contexts, is something different than "fun as amusement" of the past 200 > years. > > It's a bit out of my area, but I am led to believe that the meaning of the > word as we use it in English might be more an American concept, and one that > has filtered out into other languages. I would certainly like to hear from > my global friends on that assumption. > > Sorry to tack this problem onto this particular thread. But I stumped at > the moment on the fun concept and wonder either a) what I am missing or b) > if there is actually a real problem here! > > -- David > >> > > _______________________________________________ > game_edu mailing list > game_edu at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From lewpuls at gmail.com Wed Nov 12 19:07:11 2008 From: lewpuls at gmail.com (Lewis Pulsipher) Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 19:07:11 -0500 Subject: [game_edu] Gamemaker for intro programming; who owns student work Message-ID: <790382db0811121607j77564d7ah7f3425a1f6c3f0e8@mail.gmail.com> Do you know of anyone who has used Gamemaker as a principal tool for teaching Introduction to Programming classes (not just for game students, but for programming students in general)? It would appear to be an ideal way to put some fun into elementary programming. Going back to the question of who owns student work, the response of the lawyer who writes the legal advice column for IGDA will be of interest: http://www.igda.org/columns/lastwords/lastwords_Nov08.php -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sswink at flashbangstudios.com Wed Nov 12 22:28:30 2008 From: sswink at flashbangstudios.com (Steve Swink) Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:28:30 -0700 Subject: [game_edu] Gamemaker for intro programming; who owns student work In-Reply-To: <790382db0811121607j77564d7ah7f3425a1f6c3f0e8@mail.gmail.com> References: <790382db0811121607j77564d7ah7f3425a1f6c3f0e8@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: I haven't used Gamemaker, but if I may recommend checking out Unity, I think it's at least as good an option for putting fun into elementary programming. Plus, it's a proper 3d engine, has PhysX integration, and has one-click deployment to web, mac, and PC: www.unity3d.com It's what we at Flashbang Studios use for all our games (www.blurst.com) and I'm currently teaching it to a class of 27 art students. It's going surprisingly well; the language is similar to Actionscript, but easier to learn and use. Also, the Unity guys are young, enthusiastic, and *extremely* open to unorthodox licensing solutions, including extended trials and so on. They really "get it" in terms of building a user base. I can't say enough good things about them and the Unity environment. Best, Steve On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 5:07 PM, Lewis Pulsipher wrote: > Do you know of anyone who has used Gamemaker as a principal tool for > teaching Introduction to Programming classes (not just for game students, > but for programming students in general)? It would appear to be an ideal > way to put some fun into elementary programming. > > > Going back to the question of who owns student work, the response of the > lawyer who writes the legal advice column for IGDA will be of interest: > http://www.igda.org/columns/lastwords/lastwords_Nov08.php > > > > _______________________________________________ > game_edu mailing list > game_edu at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu > > -- ______________________________________ Steve Swink Game Designer, Flashbang Studios Coordinator, Independent Games Festival 209 E. Baseline Suite 201 Tempe, AZ 85283 (480) 393-0885, Phone | (480) 626-5992, Fax (480) 353-6763, Mobile www.flashbangstudios.com www.steveswink.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From carl at measurand.com Wed Nov 12 22:31:45 2008 From: carl at measurand.com (carl) Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 23:31:45 -0400 Subject: [game_edu] Gamemaker for intro programming; who owns student work References: <790382db0811121607j77564d7ah7f3425a1f6c3f0e8@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <003e01c94540$5ac4cc00$0a02a8c0@sage> - I like unity too. I have tried to contact them about educational pricing but no reply so far. Do you know if they have educational pricing? - any idea when their windows version will come out? ----- Original Message ----- From: Steve Swink To: IGDA Game Education Listserv Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 11:28 PM Subject: Re: [game_edu] Gamemaker for intro programming;who owns student work I haven't used Gamemaker, but if I may recommend checking out Unity, I think it's at least as good an option for putting fun into elementary programming. Plus, it's a proper 3d engine, has PhysX integration, and has one-click deployment to web, mac, and PC: www.unity3d.com It's what we at Flashbang Studios use for all our games (www.blurst.com) and I'm currently teaching it to a class of 27 art students. It's going surprisingly well; the language is similar to Actionscript, but easier to learn and use. Also, the Unity guys are young, enthusiastic, and extremely open to unorthodox licensing solutions, including extended trials and so on. They really "get it" in terms of building a user base. I can't say enough good things about them and the Unity environment. Best, Steve On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 5:07 PM, Lewis Pulsipher wrote: Do you know of anyone who has used Gamemaker as a principal tool for teaching Introduction to Programming classes (not just for game students, but for programming students in general)? It would appear to be an ideal way to put some fun into elementary programming. Going back to the question of who owns student work, the response of the lawyer who writes the legal advice column for IGDA will be of interest: http://www.igda.org/columns/lastwords/lastwords_Nov08.php _______________________________________________ game_edu mailing list game_edu at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu -- ______________________________________ Steve Swink Game Designer, Flashbang Studios Coordinator, Independent Games Festival 209 E. Baseline Suite 201 Tempe, AZ 85283 (480) 393-0885, Phone | (480) 626-5992, Fax (480) 353-6763, Mobile www.flashbangstudios.com www.steveswink.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ game_edu mailing list game_edu at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From autodot at gmail.com Thu Nov 13 11:06:35 2008 From: autodot at gmail.com (Rob Holt) Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 11:06:35 -0500 Subject: [game_edu] game_edu Digest, Vol 48, Issue 7 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: For Unity, the educational is the same as the retail pricing, & I second use of the tool, it is amazing. It imports Maya scenes directly, can refresh them dynamically, & can also build for Wii & iphone. The UI is written using lots of OSX technologies, & for a while I think it is safe to say there will never be a PC or Linux version. We made this in 2 days. The programmers had never used Javascript. http://tojam.ca/games_2008/office_smash.asp (Graphics Card Intensive) JavaScript (& Actionscript which are both EMACS based) is a very good base language to teach programming to artists. The Unity implimentation allows quick results for a good feedback curve (really NOT trying to start a what's the best language thread, I suggest reading the last 5 years of Slashdot.org for detailed discussions on the best language to begin teaching). On the Editor side, I wish GtkRadiant, Hammer or UnrealEd were as quick or friendly. Robertson Holt IADT _ Toronto ------------------------------------------------ On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 10:31 PM, wrote: > Send game_edu mailing list submissions to > game_edu at igda.org > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > game_edu-request at igda.org > > You can reach the person managing the list at > game_edu-owner at igda.org > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of game_edu digest..." > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > IGDA Education SIG > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Re: suggestions for readings? (David Thomas) > 2. Re: suggestions for readings? (Kim Gregson) > 3. Gamemaker for intro programming; who owns student work > (Lewis Pulsipher) > 4. Re: Gamemaker for intro programming; who owns student work > (Steve Swink) > 5. Re: Gamemaker for intro programming; who owns student work (carl) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:48:13 -0700 > From: "David Thomas" > Subject: Re: [game_edu] suggestions for readings? > To: ai864 at yahoo.com, "IGDA Game Education Listserv" > > Message-ID: > <737c06080811110948m21e9d98dt240ce9c7913a5ff2 at mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > On Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 9:34 AM, Ian Schreiber wrote: > >> As for the division between "play" and "fun," I'm not familiar with any >> readings that make explicit distinctions between the two, but I'll go out on >> a limb and say that play is an activity, and fun is the result of (or >> emotional reaction to) an activity, so the two terms describe different >> things and can't be directly compared. But that's just my reaction. >> >> - Ian >> > > Can you play and not have fun? Sure.Can you have enjoyable play and not have > fun? Maybe. > Can you have fun and not play? Of course. > > So why do play and fun stick together as much as play and games (or fun and > games for that matter)? > > I think something else that complicates the "fun" concept is that from what > I've been able to dig up so far, the term fun is pretty new. It's not an old > word by any measure, and the way it is used in, at least North American > contexts, is something different than "fun as amusement" of the past 200 > years. > > It's a bit out of my area, but I am led to believe that the meaning of the > word as we use it in English might be more an American concept, and one that > has filtered out into other languages. I would certainly like to hear from > my global friends on that assumption. > > Sorry to tack this problem onto this particular thread. But I stumped at the > moment on the fun concept and wonder either a) what I am missing or b) if > there is actually a real problem here! > > -- David > >> > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:46:17 -0500 > From: "Kim Gregson" > Subject: Re: [game_edu] suggestions for readings? > To: "IGDA Game Education Listserv" > Message-ID: > <1441945f0811111046h7b39d18au2ca0e9547534bb99 at mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > I see fun as an effect. In the case of my class eventually we want to > consider fun an effect of playing games. Entertainment, enjoyment, and > engagement are effects, too that we might see from media use, and we have to > consider how all the effects are related. There's a developing field of > study looking at entertainment as a media use effect that I think will add > a lot to the discussion too. Play is something people do. Games are one kind > of thing (concept) people use to play > > When we study other media effects, we consider a variety of factors that > could affect the "fun" effect, including > - characteristics of the "media user" (in this case, game player) - past > experiences, psychological factors, reasons for using the media, how they > felt when they started using the media, genre they typically prefer, how > they evaluated the media before we started (had they heard lots of bad > reviews for instance), how much time they have to spend on media use > - characteristics of the "media" (in this case the games) - quality of the > media, difficulty of use, what does the user do with it (watch vs interact), > content (really gory/bloody, sexual references, violence, characters that > look like the user..) > - characteristics of the environment (in this case where the games are > played) - is the computer fast enough, does screen size matter, does > fidelity of the audio playback matter, does the temperature of the room > matter, the comfortableness of the couch/chair matter. > > We look at the effect too because there's usually a range of responses in > that effect (in our case from not fun at all to so much fun I'm going to > explode) - how we measure comes from how we define it, how we > differentiate it from other effects. We have to see if there are physical > results of having fun as well as emotional results since physical effects > would be easier to measure. > > In my mind this is not something to be solved in a semester - lots of good > questions and issues being raised right here and they've made for > interesting reading. But lots of questions can be raised, relevant > literature can be identified and summarized, some variables can be examined, > perhaps a list of variables to consider in the future can be created. > > I'd love to get with people from a lot of different fields to see how they > consider "fun" Probably they could suggest still other variables and > measurement techniques. As David mentions - the idea of having fun is pretty > new (maybe it's related to a certain amount of economic excess that allows > for free time) but we know that games have been around longer than recorded > history. Maybe the history and econ folks can shed some light; i need to > track down some other email lists and get them in on the conversation > > A lot of my research has been as a media effects person. So that's my hammer > and fun is my particular nail today. > How else can we consider fun besides an effect or outcome? We need some > different lenses to look at it I think. > > Kim > > On Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 12:48 PM, David Thomas wrote: > >> On Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 9:34 AM, Ian Schreiber wrote: >> >>> As for the division between "play" and "fun," I'm not familiar with any >>> readings that make explicit distinctions between the two, but I'll go out on >>> a limb and say that play is an activity, and fun is the result of (or >>> emotional reaction to) an activity, so the two terms describe different >>> things and can't be directly compared. But that's just my reaction. >>> >>> - Ian >>> >> >> Can you play and not have fun? Sure.Can you have enjoyable play and not >> have fun? Maybe. >> Can you have fun and not play? Of course. >> >> So why do play and fun stick together as much as play and games (or fun and >> games for that matter)? >> >> I think something else that complicates the "fun" concept is that from what >> I've been able to dig up so far, the term fun is pretty new. It's not an old >> word by any measure, and the way it is used in, at least North American >> contexts, is something different than "fun as amusement" of the past 200 >> years. >> >> It's a bit out of my area, but I am led to believe that the meaning of the >> word as we use it in English might be more an American concept, and one that >> has filtered out into other languages. I would certainly like to hear from >> my global friends on that assumption. >> >> Sorry to tack this problem onto this particular thread. But I stumped at >> the moment on the fun concept and wonder either a) what I am missing or b) >> if there is actually a real problem here! >> >> -- David >> >>> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> game_edu mailing list >> game_edu at igda.org >> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu >> >> > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 3 > Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 19:07:11 -0500 > From: "Lewis Pulsipher" > Subject: [game_edu] Gamemaker for intro programming; who owns student > work > To: game_edu at igda.org > Message-ID: > <790382db0811121607j77564d7ah7f3425a1f6c3f0e8 at mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > Do you know of anyone who has used Gamemaker as a principal tool for > teaching Introduction to Programming classes (not just for game students, > but for programming students in general)? It would appear to be an ideal > way to put some fun into elementary programming. > > > Going back to the question of who owns student work, the response of the > lawyer who writes the legal advice column for IGDA will be of interest: > http://www.igda.org/columns/lastwords/lastwords_Nov08.php > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 4 > Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:28:30 -0700 > From: "Steve Swink" > Subject: Re: [game_edu] Gamemaker for intro programming; who owns > student work > To: "IGDA Game Education Listserv" > Message-ID: > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > I haven't used Gamemaker, but if I may recommend checking out Unity, I think > it's at least as good an option for putting fun into elementary programming. > Plus, it's a proper 3d engine, has PhysX integration, and has one-click > deployment to web, mac, and PC: > > www.unity3d.com > > It's what we at Flashbang Studios use for all our games (www.blurst.com) and > I'm currently teaching it to a class of 27 art students. It's going > surprisingly well; the language is similar to Actionscript, but easier to > learn and use. > > Also, the Unity guys are young, enthusiastic, and *extremely* open to > unorthodox licensing solutions, including extended trials and so on. They > really "get it" in terms of building a user base. I can't say enough good > things about them and the Unity environment. > > Best, > > Steve > > On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 5:07 PM, Lewis Pulsipher wrote: > >> Do you know of anyone who has used Gamemaker as a principal tool for >> teaching Introduction to Programming classes (not just for game students, >> but for programming students in general)? It would appear to be an ideal >> way to put some fun into elementary programming. >> >> >> Going back to the question of who owns student work, the response of the >> lawyer who writes the legal advice column for IGDA will be of interest: >> http://www.igda.org/columns/lastwords/lastwords_Nov08.php >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> game_edu mailing list >> game_edu at igda.org >> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu >> >> > > > -- > ______________________________________ > > Steve Swink > > Game Designer, Flashbang Studios > Coordinator, Independent Games Festival > 209 E. Baseline Suite 201 Tempe, AZ 85283 > > (480) 393-0885, Phone | (480) 626-5992, Fax > (480) 353-6763, Mobile > > www.flashbangstudios.com > www.steveswink.com > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 5 > Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 23:31:45 -0400 > From: "carl" > Subject: Re: [game_edu] Gamemaker for intro programming; who owns > student work > To: "IGDA Game Education Listserv" > Message-ID: <003e01c94540$5ac4cc00$0a02a8c0 at sage> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > - I like unity too. I have tried to contact them about educational pricing but no reply so far. Do you know if they have educational pricing? > > - any idea when their windows version will come out? > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Steve Swink > To: IGDA Game Education Listserv > Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 11:28 PM > Subject: Re: [game_edu] Gamemaker for intro programming;who owns student work > > > I haven't used Gamemaker, but if I may recommend checking out Unity, I think it's at least as good an option for putting fun into elementary programming. Plus, it's a proper 3d engine, has PhysX integration, and has one-click deployment to web, mac, and PC: > > www.unity3d.com > > It's what we at Flashbang Studios use for all our games (www.blurst.com) and I'm currently teaching it to a class of 27 art students. It's going surprisingly well; the language is similar to Actionscript, but easier to learn and use. > > Also, the Unity guys are young, enthusiastic, and extremely open to unorthodox licensing solutions, including extended trials and so on. They really "get it" in terms of building a user base. I can't say enough good things about them and the Unity environment. > > Best, > > Steve > > > On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 5:07 PM, Lewis Pulsipher wrote: > > Do you know of anyone who has used Gamemaker as a principal tool for teaching Introduction to Programming classes (not just for game students, but for programming students in general)? It would appear to be an ideal way to put some fun into elementary programming. > > > Going back to the question of who owns student work, the response of the lawyer who writes the legal advice column for IGDA will be of interest: http://www.igda.org/columns/lastwords/lastwords_Nov08.php > > > > _______________________________________________ > game_edu mailing list > game_edu at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu > > > > > > -- > ______________________________________ > > Steve Swink > > Game Designer, Flashbang Studios > Coordinator, Independent Games Festival > 209 E. Baseline Suite 201 Tempe, AZ 85283 > > (480) 393-0885, Phone | (480) 626-5992, Fax > (480) 353-6763, Mobile > > www.flashbangstudios.com > www.steveswink.com > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > > _______________________________________________ > game_edu mailing list > game_edu at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > game_edu mailing list > game_edu at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu > > > End of game_edu Digest, Vol 48, Issue 7 > *************************************** > From ai864 at yahoo.com Thu Nov 13 11:15:57 2008 From: ai864 at yahoo.com (Ian Schreiber) Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 08:15:57 -0800 (PST) Subject: [game_edu] Gamemaker for intro programming; who owns student work In-Reply-To: <790382db0811121607j77564d7ah7f3425a1f6c3f0e8@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <500405.39195.qm@web39706.mail.mud.yahoo.com> I haven't heard of this, but I wouldn't be surprised. There are actually a lot of "lite" programming languages out there that are explicitly made for teaching purposes (when I was in junior high, we used "Karel the Robot" for a few weeks as an introduction to the structure of Pascal). These days, I hear a lot about Alice 3D (www.alice.org) which was created at CMU specifically for the purpose of introducing programming in a less intimidating way. I suspect other scripting languages like ActionScript and Python/Pygame would have a relatively short learning curve as well. ? Whatever you use, the challenge here is in concentrating on the transferable concepts, and pointing out at every step of the way the generalizable parts. The syntax of an If/Then statement may vary from language to language, but all of them have it in some form (well... most of them :). Design the lessons in parallel with the advanced class (Java, C++, C#, or whatever it is that you teach at your school as the "primary" language) so that when they take their first "hardcore" programming language everything will have a ring of familiarity. The more integrated, I think, the better. ? As for the IP ownership column (hooray for Jim!), it makes me wonder -- is anyone here at a school that claims IP rights to student work, and if so, how is this enforced? Is there a contract that students sign upon matriculation, or is it simply the school making a loud claim and hoping it never goes to court? ? - Ian --- On Wed, 11/12/08, Lewis Pulsipher wrote: From: Lewis Pulsipher Subject: [game_edu] Gamemaker for intro programming; who owns student work To: game_edu at igda.org Date: Wednesday, November 12, 2008, 7:07 PM Do you know of anyone who has used Gamemaker as a principal tool for teaching Introduction to Programming classes (not just for game students, but for programming students in general)?? It would appear to be an ideal way to put some fun into elementary programming. Going back to the question of who owns student work, the response of the lawyer who writes the legal advice column for IGDA will be of interest:? http://www.igda.org/columns/lastwords/lastwords_Nov08.php _______________________________________________ game_edu mailing list game_edu at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From collinsk at uwaterloo.ca Thu Nov 13 11:23:59 2008 From: collinsk at uwaterloo.ca (Karen Collins) Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 11:23:59 -0500 Subject: [game_edu] Gamemaker for intro programming; who owns student work In-Reply-To: <500405.39195.qm@web39706.mail.mud.yahoo.com> References: <500405.39195.qm@web39706.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <491C549F.5070205@uwaterloo.ca> Here at University of Waterloo, we've been using Clickteam's Multimedia Fusion for Arts students to get acquainted with programming concepts. It's been great, although the program is not without some bugs and can be expensive to license ($200 and change per student). I've heard good things about GameMaker and plan on perhaps using that instead next time around to keep costs down for students. Actionscript 3 is quite advanced now--it's really an OOP, although you could theoretically still teach AS2 if you're using Flash to make games. I don't think AS3 has a short learning curve at all, it's is so different from AS2 that they can't really use AS2 as an intro to AS3. -Karen -- Karen Collins, PhD Canada Research Chair Canadian Centre of Arts and Technology University of Waterloo 200 University Ave W Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1 519 888-4567 x 38326 www.gamessound.com Out Now and available on Amazon: Game Sound, MIT Press (US) From Pac-Man to Pop Music, Ashgate (UK) Ian Schreiber wrote: > I haven't heard of this, but I wouldn't be surprised. There are actually > a lot of "lite" programming languages out there that are explicitly made > for teaching purposes (when I was in junior high, we used "Karel the > Robot" for a few weeks as an introduction to the structure of Pascal). > These days, I hear a lot about Alice 3D (www.alice.org > ) which was created at CMU specifically for the > purpose of introducing programming in a less intimidating way. I suspect > other scripting languages like ActionScript and Python/Pygame would have > a relatively short learning curve as well. > > Whatever you use, the challenge here is in concentrating on the > transferable concepts, and pointing out at every step of the way the > generalizable parts. The syntax of an If/Then statement may vary from > language to language, but all of them have it in some form (well... most > of them :). Design the lessons in parallel with the advanced class > (Java, C++, C#, or whatever it is that you teach at your school as the > "primary" language) so that when they take their first "hardcore" > programming language everything will have a ring of familiarity. The > more integrated, I think, the better. > > As for the IP ownership column (hooray for Jim!), it makes me wonder -- > is anyone here at a school that claims IP rights to student work, and if > so, how is this enforced? Is there a contract that students sign upon > matriculation, or is it simply the school making a loud claim and hoping > it never goes to court? > > - Ian > > --- On *Wed, 11/12/08, Lewis Pulsipher //* wrote: > > From: Lewis Pulsipher > Subject: [game_edu] Gamemaker for intro programming; who owns > student work > To: game_edu at igda.org > Date: Wednesday, November 12, 2008, 7:07 PM > > Do you know of anyone who has used Gamemaker as a principal tool for > teaching Introduction to Programming classes (not just for game > students, but for programming students in general)? It would appear > to be an ideal way to put some fun into elementary programming. > > > Going back to the question of who owns student work, the response of > the lawyer who writes the legal advice column for IGDA will be of > interest: http://www.igda.org/columns/lastwords/lastwords_Nov08.php > > > _______________________________________________ > game_edu mailing list > game_edu at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > game_edu mailing list > game_edu at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu From sswink at flashbangstudios.com Thu Nov 13 11:42:28 2008 From: sswink at flashbangstudios.com (Steve Swink) Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:42:28 -0700 Subject: [game_edu] Gamemaker for intro programming; who owns student work In-Reply-To: <003e01c94540$5ac4cc00$0a02a8c0@sage> References: <790382db0811121607j77564d7ah7f3425a1f6c3f0e8@mail.gmail.com> <003e01c94540$5ac4cc00$0a02a8c0@sage> Message-ID: I should clarify. When I say it's similar to Actionscript, I mean Actionscript2. Unity's JavaScript is a dialect of the ECMAScript standard (along with Microsoft's JScript, Adobe's ActionScript, etc). You can also use C# with Unity, as many folks who migrated from XNA and other places do. They do have educational pricing - drop me a line off list and I'll put you in touch with the right folks. Windows version is coming "very soon." Can't be more specific than that :). -Steve On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 8:31 PM, carl wrote: > - I like unity too. I have tried to contact them about educational > pricing but no reply so far. Do you know if they have educational pricing? > > - any idea when their windows version will come out? > > ----- Original Message ----- > *From:* Steve Swink > *To:* IGDA Game Education Listserv > *Sent:* Wednesday, November 12, 2008 11:28 PM > *Subject:* Re: [game_edu] Gamemaker for intro programming;who owns student > work > > I haven't used Gamemaker, but if I may recommend checking out Unity, I > think it's at least as good an option for putting fun into elementary > programming. Plus, it's a proper 3d engine, has PhysX integration, and has > one-click deployment to web, mac, and PC: > > www.unity3d.com > > It's what we at Flashbang Studios use for all our games (www.blurst.com) > and I'm currently teaching it to a class of 27 art students. It's going > surprisingly well; the language is similar to Actionscript, but easier to > learn and use. > > Also, the Unity guys are young, enthusiastic, and *extremely* open to > unorthodox licensing solutions, including extended trials and so on. They > really "get it" in terms of building a user base. I can't say enough good > things about them and the Unity environment. > > Best, > > Steve > > On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 5:07 PM, Lewis Pulsipher wrote: > >> Do you know of anyone who has used Gamemaker as a principal tool for >> teaching Introduction to Programming classes (not just for game students, >> but for programming students in general)? It would appear to be an ideal >> way to put some fun into elementary programming. >> >> >> Going back to the question of who owns student work, the response of the >> lawyer who writes the legal advice column for IGDA will be of interest: >> http://www.igda.org/columns/lastwords/lastwords_Nov08.php >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> game_edu mailing list >> game_edu at igda.org >> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu >> >> > > > -- > ______________________________________ > > Steve Swink > > Game Designer, Flashbang Studios > Coordinator, Independent Games Festival > 209 E. Baseline Suite 201 Tempe, AZ 85283 > > (480) 393-0885, Phone | (480) 626-5992, Fax > (480) 353-6763, Mobile > > www.flashbangstudios.com > www.steveswink.com > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > game_edu mailing list > game_edu at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu > > > _______________________________________________ > game_edu mailing list > game_edu at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu > > -- ______________________________________ Steve Swink Game Designer, Flashbang Studios Coordinator, Independent Games Festival 209 E. Baseline Suite 201 Tempe, AZ 85283 (480) 393-0885, Phone | (480) 626-5992, Fax (480) 353-6763, Mobile www.flashbangstudios.com www.steveswink.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sjsivak at gmail.com Thu Nov 13 12:01:22 2008 From: sjsivak at gmail.com (Seth Sivak) Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 12:01:22 -0500 Subject: [game_edu] Gamemaker for intro programming; who owns student work In-Reply-To: <491C549F.5070205@uwaterloo.ca> References: <500405.39195.qm@web39706.mail.mud.yahoo.com> <491C549F.5070205@uwaterloo.ca> Message-ID: <73bf13440811130901j6443a3ej7b87bc0e3affbfaf@mail.gmail.com> Hey Everyone, Alice is certainly a wonderful tool to use and is free. At Carnegie Mellon we also use Panda3D (www.panda3d.org) which was made by Disney and is now open source and totally free. The engine is built in C++ and Python and handles everything from simple 3D interactions to advanced shaders (our project was done totally using panda: www.activeadventuregame.com). This engine was used to make Toon Town and several other games and has an impressive amount of capabilities. It has support for both maya and 3dsmax. Thanks Seth On Thu, Nov 13, 2008 at 11:23 AM, Karen Collins wrote: > Here at University of Waterloo, we've been using Clickteam's Multimedia > Fusion for Arts students to get acquainted with programming concepts. It's > been great, although the program is not without some bugs and can be > expensive to license ($200 and change per student). I've heard good things > about GameMaker and plan on perhaps using that instead next time around to > keep costs down for students. > > Actionscript 3 is quite advanced now--it's really an OOP, although you could > theoretically still teach AS2 if you're using Flash to make games. I don't > think AS3 has a short learning curve at all, it's is so different from AS2 > that they can't really use AS2 as an intro to AS3. > > -Karen > > > -- > > Karen Collins, PhD > Canada Research Chair > Canadian Centre of Arts and Technology > University of Waterloo > 200 University Ave W > Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1 > 519 888-4567 x 38326 > > > www.gamessound.com > Out Now and available on Amazon: > Game Sound, MIT Press (US) > From Pac-Man to Pop Music, Ashgate (UK) > > Ian Schreiber wrote: >> >> I haven't heard of this, but I wouldn't be surprised. There are actually a >> lot of "lite" programming languages out there that are explicitly made for >> teaching purposes (when I was in junior high, we used "Karel the Robot" for >> a few weeks as an introduction to the structure of Pascal). These days, I >> hear a lot about Alice 3D (www.alice.org ) which was >> created at CMU specifically for the purpose of introducing programming in a >> less intimidating way. I suspect other scripting languages like ActionScript >> and Python/Pygame would have a relatively short learning curve as well. >> Whatever you use, the challenge here is in concentrating on the >> transferable concepts, and pointing out at every step of the way the >> generalizable parts. The syntax of an If/Then statement may vary from >> language to language, but all of them have it in some form (well... most of >> them :). Design the lessons in parallel with the advanced class (Java, C++, >> C#, or whatever it is that you teach at your school as the "primary" >> language) so that when they take their first "hardcore" programming language >> everything will have a ring of familiarity. The more integrated, I think, >> the better. >> As for the IP ownership column (hooray for Jim!), it makes me wonder -- >> is anyone here at a school that claims IP rights to student work, and if so, >> how is this enforced? Is there a contract that students sign upon >> matriculation, or is it simply the school making a loud claim and hoping it >> never goes to court? >> - Ian >> >> --- On *Wed, 11/12/08, Lewis Pulsipher //* wrote: >> >> From: Lewis Pulsipher >> Subject: [game_edu] Gamemaker for intro programming; who owns >> student work >> To: game_edu at igda.org >> Date: Wednesday, November 12, 2008, 7:07 PM >> >> Do you know of anyone who has used Gamemaker as a principal tool for >> teaching Introduction to Programming classes (not just for game >> students, but for programming students in general)? It would appear >> to be an ideal way to put some fun into elementary programming. >> >> >> Going back to the question of who owns student work, the response of >> the lawyer who writes the legal advice column for IGDA will be of >> interest: http://www.igda.org/columns/lastwords/lastwords_Nov08.php >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> game_edu mailing list >> game_edu at igda.org >> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu >> >> >> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> >> _______________________________________________ >> game_edu mailing list >> game_edu at igda.org >> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu > > _______________________________________________ > game_edu mailing list > game_edu at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu > From malcolmr at cse.unsw.edu.au Thu Nov 13 19:07:51 2008 From: malcolmr at cse.unsw.edu.au (Malcolm Ryan) Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2008 11:07:51 +1100 Subject: [game_edu] game_edu Digest, Vol 48, Issue 7 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <843B7F72-89E4-4B5D-810C-039D9CA8594A@cse.unsw.edu.au> I am reluctant to use specific game-making tools like Unity or GameMaker for teaching game design out of concern that they are specifically designed to make games that are similar to what has come before, and so stifle students' creativity. But I don't have any particular evidence to back up this concern. What experiences do others have with these tools? Do they influence students to recreate existing game designs? Is this really a problem? Malcolm On 14/11/2008, at 3:06 AM, Rob Holt wrote: > For Unity, the educational is the same as the retail pricing, & I > second use of the tool, it is amazing. It imports Maya scenes > directly, can refresh them dynamically, & can also build for Wii & > iphone. The UI is written using lots of OSX technologies, & for a > while I think it is safe to say there will never be a PC or Linux > version. > > We made this in 2 days. The programmers had never used Javascript. > > http://tojam.ca/games_2008/office_smash.asp (Graphics Card > Intensive) > > JavaScript (& Actionscript which are both EMACS based) is a very good > base language to teach programming to artists. The Unity > implimentation allows quick results for a good feedback curve (really > NOT trying to start a what's the best language thread, I suggest > reading the last 5 years of Slashdot.org for detailed discussions on > the best language to begin teaching). > > On the Editor side, I wish GtkRadiant, Hammer or UnrealEd were as > quick or friendly. > > Robertson Holt > IADT _ Toronto > > ------------------------------------------------ > > On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 10:31 PM, wrote: >> Send game_edu mailing list submissions to >> game_edu at igda.org >> >> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit >> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu >> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to >> game_edu-request at igda.org >> >> You can reach the person managing the list at >> game_edu-owner at igda.org >> >> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific >> than "Re: Contents of game_edu digest..." >> >> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> IGDA Education SIG >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> >> Today's Topics: >> >> 1. Re: suggestions for readings? (David Thomas) >> 2. Re: suggestions for readings? (Kim Gregson) >> 3. Gamemaker for intro programming; who owns student work >> (Lewis Pulsipher) >> 4. Re: Gamemaker for intro programming; who owns student work >> (Steve Swink) >> 5. Re: Gamemaker for intro programming; who owns student work >> (carl) >> >> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> >> Message: 1 >> Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:48:13 -0700 >> From: "David Thomas" >> Subject: Re: [game_edu] suggestions for readings? >> To: ai864 at yahoo.com, "IGDA Game Education Listserv" >> >> Message-ID: >> <737c06080811110948m21e9d98dt240ce9c7913a5ff2 at mail.gmail.com> >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" >> >> On Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 9:34 AM, Ian Schreiber >> wrote: >> >>> As for the division between "play" and "fun," I'm not familiar >>> with any >>> readings that make explicit distinctions between the two, but I'll >>> go out on >>> a limb and say that play is an activity, and fun is the result of >>> (or >>> emotional reaction to) an activity, so the two terms describe >>> different >>> things and can't be directly compared. But that's just my reaction. >>> >>> - Ian >>> >> >> Can you play and not have fun? Sure.Can you have enjoyable play and >> not have >> fun? Maybe. >> Can you have fun and not play? Of course. >> >> So why do play and fun stick together as much as play and games (or >> fun and >> games for that matter)? >> >> I think something else that complicates the "fun" concept is that >> from what >> I've been able to dig up so far, the term fun is pretty new. It's >> not an old >> word by any measure, and the way it is used in, at least North >> American >> contexts, is something different than "fun as amusement" of the >> past 200 >> years. >> >> It's a bit out of my area, but I am led to believe that the meaning >> of the >> word as we use it in English might be more an American concept, and >> one that >> has filtered out into other languages. I would certainly like to >> hear from >> my global friends on that assumption. >> >> Sorry to tack this problem onto this particular thread. But I >> stumped at the >> moment on the fun concept and wonder either a) what I am missing or >> b) if >> there is actually a real problem here! >> >> -- David >> >>> >> -------------- next part -------------- >> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... >> URL: > > >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> Message: 2 >> Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:46:17 -0500 >> From: "Kim Gregson" >> Subject: Re: [game_edu] suggestions for readings? >> To: "IGDA Game Education Listserv" >> Message-ID: >> <1441945f0811111046h7b39d18au2ca0e9547534bb99 at mail.gmail.com> >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" >> >> I see fun as an effect. In the case of my class eventually we want to >> consider fun an effect of playing games. Entertainment, enjoyment, >> and >> engagement are effects, too that we might see from media use, and >> we have to >> consider how all the effects are related. There's a developing >> field of >> study looking at entertainment as a media use effect that I think >> will add >> a lot to the discussion too. Play is something people do. Games are >> one kind >> of thing (concept) people use to play >> >> When we study other media effects, we consider a variety of factors >> that >> could affect the "fun" effect, including >> - characteristics of the "media user" (in this case, game player) - >> past >> experiences, psychological factors, reasons for using the media, >> how they >> felt when they started using the media, genre they typically >> prefer, how >> they evaluated the media before we started (had they heard lots of >> bad >> reviews for instance), how much time they have to spend on media use >> - characteristics of the "media" (in this case the games) - quality >> of the >> media, difficulty of use, what does the user do with it (watch vs >> interact), >> content (really gory/bloody, sexual references, violence, >> characters that >> look like the user..) >> - characteristics of the environment (in this case where the games >> are >> played) - is the computer fast enough, does screen size matter, does >> fidelity of the audio playback matter, does the temperature of the >> room >> matter, the comfortableness of the couch/chair matter. >> >> We look at the effect too because there's usually a range of >> responses in >> that effect (in our case from not fun at all to so much fun I'm >> going to >> explode) - how we measure comes from how we define it, how we >> differentiate it from other effects. We have to see if there are >> physical >> results of having fun as well as emotional results since physical >> effects >> would be easier to measure. >> >> In my mind this is not something to be solved in a semester - lots >> of good >> questions and issues being raised right here and they've made for >> interesting reading. But lots of questions can be raised, relevant >> literature can be identified and summarized, some variables can be >> examined, >> perhaps a list of variables to consider in the future can be created. >> >> I'd love to get with people from a lot of different fields to see >> how they >> consider "fun" Probably they could suggest still other variables and >> measurement techniques. As David mentions - the idea of having fun >> is pretty >> new (maybe it's related to a certain amount of economic excess that >> allows >> for free time) but we know that games have been around longer than >> recorded >> history. Maybe the history and econ folks can shed some light; i >> need to >> track down some other email lists and get them in on the >> conversation >> >> A lot of my research has been as a media effects person. So that's >> my hammer >> and fun is my particular nail today. >> How else can we consider fun besides an effect or outcome? We need >> some >> different lenses to look at it I think. >> >> Kim >> >> On Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 12:48 PM, David Thomas >> wrote: >> >>> On Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 9:34 AM, Ian Schreiber >>> wrote: >>> >>>> As for the division between "play" and "fun," I'm not familiar >>>> with any >>>> readings that make explicit distinctions between the two, but >>>> I'll go out on >>>> a limb and say that play is an activity, and fun is the result of >>>> (or >>>> emotional reaction to) an activity, so the two terms describe >>>> different >>>> things and can't be directly compared. But that's just my reaction. >>>> >>>> - Ian >>>> >>> >>> Can you play and not have fun? Sure.Can you have enjoyable play >>> and not >>> have fun? Maybe. >>> Can you have fun and not play? Of course. >>> >>> So why do play and fun stick together as much as play and games >>> (or fun and >>> games for that matter)? >>> >>> I think something else that complicates the "fun" concept is that >>> from what >>> I've been able to dig up so far, the term fun is pretty new. It's >>> not an old >>> word by any measure, and the way it is used in, at least North >>> American >>> contexts, is something different than "fun as amusement" of the >>> past 200 >>> years. >>> >>> It's a bit out of my area, but I am led to believe that the >>> meaning of the >>> word as we use it in English might be more an American concept, >>> and one that >>> has filtered out into other languages. I would certainly like to >>> hear from >>> my global friends on that assumption. >>> >>> Sorry to tack this problem onto this particular thread. But I >>> stumped at >>> the moment on the fun concept and wonder either a) what I am >>> missing or b) >>> if there is actually a real problem here! >>> >>> -- David >>> >>>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> game_edu mailing list >>> game_edu at igda.org >>> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu >>> >>> >> -------------- next part -------------- >> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... >> URL: > > >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> Message: 3 >> Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 19:07:11 -0500 >> From: "Lewis Pulsipher" >> Subject: [game_edu] Gamemaker for intro programming; who owns student >> work >> To: game_edu at igda.org >> Message-ID: >> <790382db0811121607j77564d7ah7f3425a1f6c3f0e8 at mail.gmail.com> >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" >> >> Do you know of anyone who has used Gamemaker as a principal tool for >> teaching Introduction to Programming classes (not just for game >> students, >> but for programming students in general)? It would appear to be an >> ideal >> way to put some fun into elementary programming. >> >> >> Going back to the question of who owns student work, the response >> of the >> lawyer who writes the legal advice column for IGDA will be of >> interest: >> http://www.igda.org/columns/lastwords/lastwords_Nov08.php >> -------------- next part -------------- >> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... >> URL: > > >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> Message: 4 >> Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:28:30 -0700 >> From: "Steve Swink" >> Subject: Re: [game_edu] Gamemaker for intro programming; who >> owns >> student work >> To: "IGDA Game Education Listserv" >> Message-ID: >> >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" >> >> I haven't used Gamemaker, but if I may recommend checking out >> Unity, I think >> it's at least as good an option for putting fun into elementary >> programming. >> Plus, it's a proper 3d engine, has PhysX integration, and has one- >> click >> deployment to web, mac, and PC: >> >> www.unity3d.com >> >> It's what we at Flashbang Studios use for all our games (www.blurst.com >> ) and >> I'm currently teaching it to a class of 27 art students. It's going >> surprisingly well; the language is similar to Actionscript, but >> easier to >> learn and use. >> >> Also, the Unity guys are young, enthusiastic, and *extremely* open to >> unorthodox licensing solutions, including extended trials and so >> on. They >> really "get it" in terms of building a user base. I can't say >> enough good >> things about them and the Unity environment. >> >> Best, >> >> Steve >> >> On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 5:07 PM, Lewis Pulsipher >> wrote: >> >>> Do you know of anyone who has used Gamemaker as a principal tool for >>> teaching Introduction to Programming classes (not just for game >>> students, >>> but for programming students in general)? It would appear to be >>> an ideal >>> way to put some fun into elementary programming. >>> >>> >>> Going back to the question of who owns student work, the response >>> of the >>> lawyer who writes the legal advice column for IGDA will be of >>> interest: >>> http://www.igda.org/columns/lastwords/lastwords_Nov08.php >>> >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> game_edu mailing list >>> game_edu at igda.org >>> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu >>> >>> >> >> >> -- >> ______________________________________ >> >> Steve Swink >> >> Game Designer, Flashbang Studios >> Coordinator, Independent Games Festival >> 209 E. Baseline Suite 201 Tempe, AZ 85283 >> >> (480) 393-0885, Phone | (480) 626-5992, Fax >> (480) 353-6763, Mobile >> >> www.flashbangstudios.com >> www.steveswink.com >> -------------- next part -------------- >> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... >> URL: > > >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> Message: 5 >> Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 23:31:45 -0400 >> From: "carl" >> Subject: Re: [game_edu] Gamemaker for intro programming; who >> owns >> student work >> To: "IGDA Game Education Listserv" >> Message-ID: <003e01c94540$5ac4cc00$0a02a8c0 at sage> >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" >> >> - I like unity too. I have tried to contact them about educational >> pricing but no reply so far. Do you know if they have educational >> pricing? >> >> - any idea when their windows version will come out? >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: Steve Swink >> To: IGDA Game Education Listserv >> Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 11:28 PM >> Subject: Re: [game_edu] Gamemaker for intro programming;who owns >> student work >> >> >> I haven't used Gamemaker, but if I may recommend checking out >> Unity, I think it's at least as good an option for putting fun into >> elementary programming. Plus, it's a proper 3d engine, has PhysX >> integration, and has one-click deployment to web, mac, and PC: >> >> www.unity3d.com >> >> It's what we at Flashbang Studios use for all our games (www.blurst.com >> ) and I'm currently teaching it to a class of 27 art students. It's >> going surprisingly well; the language is similar to Actionscript, >> but easier to learn and use. >> >> Also, the Unity guys are young, enthusiastic, and extremely open to >> unorthodox licensing solutions, including extended trials and so >> on. They really "get it" in terms of building a user base. I can't >> say enough good things about them and the Unity environment. >> >> Best, >> >> Steve >> >> >> On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 5:07 PM, Lewis Pulsipher >> wrote: >> >> Do you know of anyone who has used Gamemaker as a principal tool >> for teaching Introduction to Programming classes (not just for game >> students, but for programming students in general)? It would >> appear to be an ideal way to put some fun into elementary >> programming. >> >> >> Going back to the question of who owns student work, the response >> of the lawyer who writes the legal advice column for IGDA will be >> of interest: http://www.igda.org/columns/lastwords/lastwords_Nov08.php >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> game_edu mailing list >> game_edu at igda.org >> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu >> >> >> >> >> >> -- >> ______________________________________ >> >> Steve Swink >> >> Game Designer, Flashbang Studios >> Coordinator, Independent Games Festival >> 209 E. Baseline Suite 201 Tempe, AZ 85283 >> >> (480) 393-0885, Phone | (480) 626-5992, Fax >> (480) 353-6763, Mobile >> >> www.flashbangstudios.com >> www.steveswink.com >> >> >> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> game_edu mailing list >> game_edu at igda.org >> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu >> -------------- next part -------------- >> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... >> URL: > > >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> _______________________________________________ >> game_edu mailing list >> game_edu at igda.org >> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu >> >> >> End of game_edu Digest, Vol 48, Issue 7 >> *************************************** >> > _______________________________________________ > game_edu mailing list > game_edu at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu From ai864 at yahoo.com Thu Nov 13 19:56:39 2008 From: ai864 at yahoo.com (Ian Schreiber) Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:56:39 -0800 (PST) Subject: [game_edu] game_edu Digest, Vol 48, Issue 7 In-Reply-To: <843B7F72-89E4-4B5D-810C-039D9CA8594A@cse.unsw.edu.au> Message-ID: <203671.26411.qm@web39702.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Well, the original question was using these tools to teach Programming, not Game Design, so that wouldn't be an issue in that case. For teaching design, I far prefer to use non-digital media; it lets the student focus purely on design without having technology get in the way or constrain. --- On Thu, 11/13/08, Malcolm Ryan wrote: From: Malcolm Ryan Subject: Re: [game_edu] game_edu Digest, Vol 48, Issue 7 To: "IGDA Game Education Listserv" Date: Thursday, November 13, 2008, 7:07 PM I am reluctant to use specific game-making tools like Unity or GameMaker for teaching game design out of concern that they are specifically designed to make games that are similar to what has come before, and so stifle students' creativity. But I don't have any particular evidence to back up this concern. What experiences do others have with these tools? Do they influence students to recreate existing game designs? Is this really a problem? Malcolm On 14/11/2008, at 3:06 AM, Rob Holt wrote: > For Unity, the educational is the same as the retail pricing, & I > second use of the tool, it is amazing. It imports Maya scenes > directly, can refresh them dynamically, & can also build for Wii & > iphone. The UI is written using lots of OSX technologies, & for a > while I think it is safe to say there will never be a PC or Linux > version. > > We made this in 2 days. The programmers had never used Javascript. > > http://tojam.ca/games_2008/office_smash.asp (Graphics Card Intensive) > > JavaScript (& Actionscript which are both EMACS based) is a very good > base language to teach programming to artists. The Unity > implimentation allows quick results for a good feedback curve (really > NOT trying to start a what's the best language thread, I suggest > reading the last 5 years of Slashdot.org for detailed discussions on > the best language to begin teaching). > > On the Editor side, I wish GtkRadiant, Hammer or UnrealEd were as > quick or friendly. > > Robertson Holt > IADT _ Toronto > > ------------------------------------------------ > > On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 10:31 PM, wrote: >> Send game_edu mailing list submissions to >> game_edu at igda.org >> >> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit >> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu >> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to >> game_edu-request at igda.org >> >> You can reach the person managing the list at >> game_edu-owner at igda.org >> >> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific >> than "Re: Contents of game_edu digest..." >> >> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> IGDA Education SIG >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> >> Today's Topics: >> >> 1. Re: suggestions for readings? (David Thomas) >> 2. Re: suggestions for readings? (Kim Gregson) >> 3. Gamemaker for intro programming; who owns student work >> (Lewis Pulsipher) >> 4. Re: Gamemaker for intro programming; who owns student work >> (Steve Swink) >> 5. Re: Gamemaker for intro programming; who owns student work (carl) >> >> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> >> Message: 1 >> Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:48:13 -0700 >> From: "David Thomas" >> Subject: Re: [game_edu] suggestions for readings? >> To: ai864 at yahoo.com, "IGDA Game Education Listserv" >> >> Message-ID: >> <737c06080811110948m21e9d98dt240ce9c7913a5ff2 at mail.gmail.com> >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" >> >> On Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 9:34 AM, Ian Schreiber wrote: >> >>> As for the division between "play" and "fun," I'm not familiar with any >>> readings that make explicit distinctions between the two, but I'll go out on >>> a limb and say that play is an activity, and fun is the result of (or >>> emotional reaction to) an activity, so the two terms describe different >>> things and can't be directly compared. But that's just my reaction. >>> >>> - Ian >>> >> >> Can you play and not have fun? Sure.Can you have enjoyable play and not have >> fun? Maybe. >> Can you have fun and not play? Of course. >> >> So why do play and fun stick together as much as play and games (or fun and >> games for that matter)? >> >> I think something else that complicates the "fun" concept is that from what >> I've been able to dig up so far, the term fun is pretty new. It's not an old >> word by any measure, and the way it is used in, at least North American >> contexts, is something different than "fun as amusement" of the past 200 >> years. >> >> It's a bit out of my area, but I am led to believe that the meaning of the >> word as we use it in English might be more an American concept, and one that >> has filtered out into other languages. I would certainly like to hear from >> my global friends on that assumption. >> >> Sorry to tack this problem onto this particular thread. But I stumped at the >> moment on the fun concept and wonder either a) what I am missing or b) if >> there is actually a real problem here! >> >> -- David >> >>> >> -------------- next part -------------- >> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... >> URL: >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> Message: 2 >> Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:46:17 -0500 >> From: "Kim Gregson" >> Subject: Re: [game_edu] suggestions for readings? >> To: "IGDA Game Education Listserv" >> Message-ID: >> <1441945f0811111046h7b39d18au2ca0e9547534bb99 at mail.gmail.com> >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" >> >> I see fun as an effect. In the case of my class eventually we want to >> consider fun an effect of playing games. Entertainment, enjoyment, and >> engagement are effects, too that we might see from media use, and we have to >> consider how all the effects are related. There's a developing field of >> study looking at entertainment as a media use effect that I think will add >> a lot to the discussion too. Play is something people do. Games are one kind >> of thing (concept) people use to play >> >> When we study other media effects, we consider a variety of factors that >> could affect the "fun" effect, including >> - characteristics of the "media user" (in this case, game player) - past >> experiences, psychological factors, reasons for using the media, how they >> felt when they started using the media, genre they typically prefer, how >> they evaluated the media before we started (had they heard lots of bad >> reviews for instance), how much time they have to spend on media use >> - characteristics of the "media" (in this case the games) - quality of the >> media, difficulty of use, what does the user do with it (watch vs interact), >> content (really gory/bloody, sexual references, violence, characters that >> look like the user..) >> - characteristics of the environment (in this case where the games are >> played) - is the computer fast enough, does screen size matter, does >> fidelity of the audio playback matter, does the temperature of the room >> matter, the comfortableness of the couch/chair matter. >> >> We look at the effect too because there's usually a range of responses in >> that effect (in our case from not fun at all to so much fun I'm going to >> explode) - how we measure comes from how we define it, how we >> differentiate it from other effects. We have to see if there are physical >> results of having fun as well as emotional results since physical effects >> would be easier to measure. >> >> In my mind this is not something to be solved in a semester - lots of good >> questions and issues being raised right here and they've made for >> interesting reading. But lots of questions can be raised, relevant >> literature can be identified and summarized, some variables can be examined, >> perhaps a list of variables to consider in the future can be created. >> >> I'd love to get with people from a lot of different fields to see how they >> consider "fun" Probably they could suggest still other variables and >> measurement techniques. As David mentions - the idea of having fun is pretty >> new (maybe it's related to a certain amount of economic excess that allows >> for free time) but we know that games have been around longer than recorded >> history. Maybe the history and econ folks can shed some light; i need to >> track down some other email lists and get them in on the conversation >> >> A lot of my research has been as a media effects person. So that's my hammer >> and fun is my particular nail today. >> How else can we consider fun besides an effect or outcome? We need some >> different lenses to look at it I think. >> >> Kim >> >> On Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 12:48 PM, David Thomas wrote: >> >>> On Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 9:34 AM, Ian Schreiber wrote: >>> >>>> As for the division between "play" and "fun," I'm not familiar with any >>>> readings that make explicit distinctions between the two, but I'll go out on >>>> a limb and say that play is an activity, and fun is the result of (or >>>> emotional reaction to) an activity, so the two terms describe different >>>> things and can't be directly compared. But that's just my reaction. >>>> >>>> - Ian >>>> >>> >>> Can you play and not have fun? Sure.Can you have enjoyable play and not >>> have fun? Maybe. >>> Can you have fun and not play? Of course. >>> >>> So why do play and fun stick together as much as play and games (or fun and >>> games for that matter)? >>> >>> I think something else that complicates the "fun" concept is that from what >>> I've been able to dig up so far, the term fun is pretty new. It's not an old >>> word by any measure, and the way it is used in, at least North American >>> contexts, is something different than "fun as amusement" of the past 200 >>> years. >>> >>> It's a bit out of my area, but I am led to believe that the meaning of the >>> word as we use it in English might be more an American concept, and one that >>> has filtered out into other languages. I would certainly like to hear from >>> my global friends on that assumption. >>> >>> Sorry to tack this problem onto this particular thread. But I stumped at >>> the moment on the fun concept and wonder either a) what I am missing or b) >>> if there is actually a real problem here! >>> >>> -- David >>> >>>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> game_edu mailing list >>> game_edu at igda.org >>> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu >>> >>> >> -------------- next part -------------- >> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... >> URL: >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> Message: 3 >> Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 19:07:11 -0500 >> From: "Lewis Pulsipher" >> Subject: [game_edu] Gamemaker for intro programming; who owns student >> work >> To: game_edu at igda.org >> Message-ID: >> <790382db0811121607j77564d7ah7f3425a1f6c3f0e8 at mail.gmail.com> >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" >> >> Do you know of anyone who has used Gamemaker as a principal tool for >> teaching Introduction to Programming classes (not just for game students, >> but for programming students in general)? It would appear to be an ideal >> way to put some fun into elementary programming. >> >> >> Going back to the question of who owns student work, the response of the >> lawyer who writes the legal advice column for IGDA will be of interest: >> http://www.igda.org/columns/lastwords/lastwords_Nov08.php >> -------------- next part -------------- >> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... >> URL: >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> Message: 4 >> Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:28:30 -0700 >> From: "Steve Swink" >> Subject: Re: [game_edu] Gamemaker for intro programming; who owns >> student work >> To: "IGDA Game Education Listserv" >> Message-ID: >> >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" >> >> I haven't used Gamemaker, but if I may recommend checking out Unity, I think >> it's at least as good an option for putting fun into elementary programming. >> Plus, it's a proper 3d engine, has PhysX integration, and has one-click >> deployment to web, mac, and PC: >> >> www.unity3d.com >> >> It's what we at Flashbang Studios use for all our games (www.blurst.com) and >> I'm currently teaching it to a class of 27 art students. It's going >> surprisingly well; the language is similar to Actionscript, but easier to >> learn and use. >> >> Also, the Unity guys are young, enthusiastic, and *extremely* open to >> unorthodox licensing solutions, including extended trials and so on. They >> really "get it" in terms of building a user base. I can't say enough good >> things about them and the Unity environment. >> >> Best, >> >> Steve >> >> On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 5:07 PM, Lewis Pulsipher wrote: >> >>> Do you know of anyone who has used Gamemaker as a principal tool for >>> teaching Introduction to Programming classes (not just for game students, >>> but for programming students in general)? It would appear to be an ideal >>> way to put some fun into elementary programming. >>> >>> >>> Going back to the question of who owns student work, the response of the >>> lawyer who writes the legal advice column for IGDA will be of interest: >>> http://www.igda.org/columns/lastwords/lastwords_Nov08.php >>> >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> game_edu mailing list >>> game_edu at igda.org >>> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu >>> >>> >> >> >> -- >> ______________________________________ >> >> Steve Swink >> >> Game Designer, Flashbang Studios >> Coordinator, Independent Games Festival >> 209 E. Baseline Suite 201 Tempe, AZ 85283 >> >> (480) 393-0885, Phone | (480) 626-5992, Fax >> (480) 353-6763, Mobile >> >> www.flashbangstudios.com >> www.steveswink.com >> -------------- next part -------------- >> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... >> URL: >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> Message: 5 >> Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 23:31:45 -0400 >> From: "carl" >> Subject: Re: [game_edu] Gamemaker for intro programming; who owns >> student work >> To: "IGDA Game Education Listserv" >> Message-ID: <003e01c94540$5ac4cc00$0a02a8c0 at sage> >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" >> >> - I like unity too. I have tried to contact them about educational pricing but no reply so far. Do you know if they have educational pricing? >> >> - any idea when their windows version will come out? >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: Steve Swink >> To: IGDA Game Education Listserv >> Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 11:28 PM >> Subject: Re: [game_edu] Gamemaker for intro programming;who owns student work >> >> >> I haven't used Gamemaker, but if I may recommend checking out Unity, I think it's at least as good an option for putting fun into elementary programming. Plus, it's a proper 3d engine, has PhysX integration, and has one-click deployment to web, mac, and PC: >> >> www.unity3d.com >> >> It's what we at Flashbang Studios use for all our games (www.blurst.com) and I'm currently teaching it to a class of 27 art students. It's going surprisingly well; the language is similar to Actionscript, but easier to learn and use. >> >> Also, the Unity guys are young, enthusiastic, and extremely open to unorthodox licensing solutions, including extended trials and so on. They really "get it" in terms of building a user base. I can't say enough good things about them and the Unity environment. >> >> Best, >> >> Steve >> >> >> On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 5:07 PM, Lewis Pulsipher wrote: >> >> Do you know of anyone who has used Gamemaker as a principal tool for teaching Introduction to Programming classes (not just for game students, but for programming students in general)? It would appear to be an ideal way to put some fun into elementary programming. >> >> >> Going back to the question of who owns student work, the response of the lawyer who writes the legal advice column for IGDA will be of interest: http://www.igda.org/columns/lastwords/lastwords_Nov08.php >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> game_edu mailing list >> game_edu at igda.org >> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu >> >> >> >> >> >> -- >> ______________________________________ >> >> Steve Swink >> >> Game Designer, Flashbang Studios >> Coordinator, Independent Games Festival >> 209 E. Baseline Suite 201 Tempe, AZ 85283 >> >> (480) 393-0885, Phone | (480) 626-5992, Fax >> (480) 353-6763, Mobile >> >> www.flashbangstudios.com >> www.steveswink.com >> >> >> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> game_edu mailing list >> game_edu at igda.org >> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu >> -------------- next part -------------- >> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... >> URL: >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> _______________________________________________ >> game_edu mailing list >> game_edu at igda.org >> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu >> >> >> End of game_edu Digest, Vol 48, Issue 7 >> *************************************** >> > _______________________________________________ > game_edu mailing list > game_edu at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu _______________________________________________ game_edu mailing list game_edu at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From pborder at msbcollege.edu Thu Nov 13 20:00:31 2008 From: pborder at msbcollege.edu (Peter Border) Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:00:31 -0600 Subject: [game_edu] game_edu Digest, Vol 48, Issue 7 References: <843B7F72-89E4-4B5D-810C-039D9CA8594A@cse.unsw.edu.au> Message-ID: I've used GameMaker a lot in introductory courses. It's VERY easy to pick up, and students generally like it. I think it works well as an introduction to programming, and it's cheap too ($0 for the basic version, ~$30 for all the features). You are correct that the games they make usually look pretty familiar, though not always. At this stage they're usually having a lot of problems with technical issues, and that drives their projects. Peter Border Programming and Game Development Co-coordinator Minnesota School of Business 1401 West 76th Street Richfield, MN pborder at msbcollege.edu -----Original Message----- From: game_edu-bounces at igda.org on behalf of Malcolm Ryan Sent: Thu 11/13/2008 6:07 PM To: IGDA Game Education Listserv Subject: Re: [game_edu] game_edu Digest, Vol 48, Issue 7 I am reluctant to use specific game-making tools like Unity or GameMaker for teaching game design out of concern that they are specifically designed to make games that are similar to what has come before, and so stifle students' creativity. But I don't have any particular evidence to back up this concern. What experiences do others have with these tools? Do they influence students to recreate existing game designs? Is this really a problem? Malcolm On 14/11/2008, at 3:06 AM, Rob Holt wrote: > For Unity, the educational is the same as the retail pricing, & I > second use of the tool, it is amazing. It imports Maya scenes > directly, can refresh them dynamically, & can also build for Wii & > iphone. The UI is written using lots of OSX technologies, & for a > while I think it is safe to say there will never be a PC or Linux > version. > > We made this in 2 days. The programmers had never used Javascript. > > http://tojam.ca/games_2008/office_smash.asp (Graphics Card > Intensive) > > JavaScript (& Actionscript which are both EMACS based) is a very good > base language to teach programming to artists. The Unity > implimentation allows quick results for a good feedback curve (really > NOT trying to start a what's the best language thread, I suggest > reading the last 5 years of Slashdot.org for detailed discussions on > the best language to begin teaching). > > On the Editor side, I wish GtkRadiant, Hammer or UnrealEd were as > quick or friendly. > > Robertson Holt > IADT _ Toronto > > ------------------------------------------------ > > On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 10:31 PM, wrote: >> Send game_edu mailing list submissions to >> game_edu at igda.org >> >> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit >> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu >> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to >> game_edu-request at igda.org >> >> You can reach the person managing the list at >> game_edu-owner at igda.org >> >> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific >> than "Re: Contents of game_edu digest..." >> >> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> IGDA Education SIG >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> >> Today's Topics: >> >> 1. Re: suggestions for readings? (David Thomas) >> 2. Re: suggestions for readings? (Kim Gregson) >> 3. Gamemaker for intro programming; who owns student work >> (Lewis Pulsipher) >> 4. Re: Gamemaker for intro programming; who owns student work >> (Steve Swink) >> 5. Re: Gamemaker for intro programming; who owns student work >> (carl) >> >> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> >> Message: 1 >> Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:48:13 -0700 >> From: "David Thomas" >> Subject: Re: [game_edu] suggestions for readings? >> To: ai864 at yahoo.com, "IGDA Game Education Listserv" >> >> Message-ID: >> <737c06080811110948m21e9d98dt240ce9c7913a5ff2 at mail.gmail.com> >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" >> >> On Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 9:34 AM, Ian Schreiber >> wrote: >> >>> As for the division between "play" and "fun," I'm not familiar >>> with any >>> readings that make explicit distinctions between the two, but I'll >>> go out on >>> a limb and say that play is an activity, and fun is the result of >>> (or >>> emotional reaction to) an activity, so the two terms describe >>> different >>> things and can't be directly compared. But that's just my reaction. >>> >>> - Ian >>> >> >> Can you play and not have fun? Sure.Can you have enjoyable play and >> not have >> fun? Maybe. >> Can you have fun and not play? Of course. >> >> So why do play and fun stick together as much as play and games (or >> fun and >> games for that matter)? >> >> I think something else that complicates the "fun" concept is that >> from what >> I've been able to dig up so far, the term fun is pretty new. It's >> not an old >> word by any measure, and the way it is used in, at least North >> American >> contexts, is something different than "fun as amusement" of the >> past 200 >> years. >> >> It's a bit out of my area, but I am led to believe that the meaning >> of the >> word as we use it in English might be more an American concept, and >> one that >> has filtered out into other languages. I would certainly like to >> hear from >> my global friends on that assumption. >> >> Sorry to tack this problem onto this particular thread. But I >> stumped at the >> moment on the fun concept and wonder either a) what I am missing or >> b) if >> there is actually a real problem here! >> >> -- David >> >>> >> -------------- next part -------------- >> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... >> URL: > > >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> Message: 2 >> Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:46:17 -0500 >> From: "Kim Gregson" >> Subject: Re: [game_edu] suggestions for readings? >> To: "IGDA Game Education Listserv" >> Message-ID: >> <1441945f0811111046h7b39d18au2ca0e9547534bb99 at mail.gmail.com> >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" >> >> I see fun as an effect. In the case of my class eventually we want to >> consider fun an effect of playing games. Entertainment, enjoyment, >> and >> engagement are effects, too that we might see from media use, and >> we have to >> consider how all the effects are related. There's a developing >> field of >> study looking at entertainment as a media use effect that I think >> will add >> a lot to the discussion too. Play is something people do. Games are >> one kind >> of thing (concept) people use to play >> >> When we study other media effects, we consider a variety of factors >> that >> could affect the "fun" effect, including >> - characteristics of the "media user" (in this case, game player) - >> past >> experiences, psychological factors, reasons for using the media, >> how they >> felt when they started using the media, genre they typically >> prefer, how >> they evaluated the media before we started (had they heard lots of >> bad >> reviews for instance), how much time they have to spend on media use >> - characteristics of the "media" (in this case the games) - quality >> of the >> media, difficulty of use, what does the user do with it (watch vs >> interact), >> content (really gory/bloody, sexual references, violence, >> characters that >> look like the user..) >> - characteristics of the environment (in this case where the games >> are >> played) - is the computer fast enough, does screen size matter, does >> fidelity of the audio playback matter, does the temperature of the >> room >> matter, the comfortableness of the couch/chair matter. >> >> We look at the effect too because there's usually a range of >> responses in >> that effect (in our case from not fun at all to so much fun I'm >> going to >> explode) - how we measure comes from how we define it, how we >> differentiate it from other effects. We have to see if there are >> physical >> results of having fun as well as emotional results since physical >> effects >> would be easier to measure. >> >> In my mind this is not something to be solved in a semester - lots >> of good >> questions and issues being raised right here and they've made for >> interesting reading. But lots of questions can be raised, relevant >> literature can be identified and summarized, some variables can be >> examined, >> perhaps a list of variables to consider in the future can be created. >> >> I'd love to get with people from a lot of different fields to see >> how they >> consider "fun" Probably they could suggest still other variables and >> measurement techniques. As David mentions - the idea of having fun >> is pretty >> new (maybe it's related to a certain amount of economic excess that >> allows >> for free time) but we know that games have been around longer than >> recorded >> history. Maybe the history and econ folks can shed some light; i >> need to >> track down some other email lists and get them in on the >> conversation >> >> A lot of my research has been as a media effects person. So that's >> my hammer >> and fun is my particular nail today. >> How else can we consider fun besides an effect or outcome? We need >> some >> different lenses to look at it I think. >> >> Kim >> >> On Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 12:48 PM, David Thomas >> wrote: >> >>> On Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 9:34 AM, Ian Schreiber >>> wrote: >>> >>>> As for the division between "play" and "fun," I'm not familiar >>>> with any >>>> readings that make explicit distinctions between the two, but >>>> I'll go out on >>>> a limb and say that play is an activity, and fun is the result of >>>> (or >>>> emotional reaction to) an activity, so the two terms describe >>>> different >>>> things and can't be directly compared. But that's just my reaction. >>>> >>>> - Ian >>>> >>> >>> Can you play and not have fun? Sure.Can you have enjoyable play >>> and not >>> have fun? Maybe. >>> Can you have fun and not play? Of course. >>> >>> So why do play and fun stick together as much as play and games >>> (or fun and >>> games for that matter)? >>> >>> I think something else that complicates the "fun" concept is that >>> from what >>> I've been able to dig up so far, the term fun is pretty new. It's >>> not an old >>> word by any measure, and the way it is used in, at least North >>> American >>> contexts, is something different than "fun as amusement" of the >>> past 200 >>> years. >>> >>> It's a bit out of my area, but I am led to believe that the >>> meaning of the >>> word as we use it in English might be more an American concept, >>> and one that >>> has filtered out into other languages. I would certainly like to >>> hear from >>> my global friends on that assumption. >>> >>> Sorry to tack this problem onto this particular thread. But I >>> stumped at >>> the moment on the fun concept and wonder either a) what I am >>> missing or b) >>> if there is actually a real problem here! >>> >>> -- David >>> >>>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> game_edu mailing list >>> game_edu at igda.org >>> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu >>> >>> >> -------------- next part -------------- >> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... >> URL: > > >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> Message: 3 >> Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 19:07:11 -0500 >> From: "Lewis Pulsipher" >> Subject: [game_edu] Gamemaker for intro programming; who owns student >> work >> To: game_edu at igda.org >> Message-ID: >> <790382db0811121607j77564d7ah7f3425a1f6c3f0e8 at mail.gmail.com> >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" >> >> Do you know of anyone who has used Gamemaker as a principal tool for >> teaching Introduction to Programming classes (not just for game >> students, >> but for programming students in general)? It would appear to be an >> ideal >> way to put some fun into elementary programming. >> >> >> Going back to the question of who owns student work, the response >> of the >> lawyer who writes the legal advice column for IGDA will be of >> interest: >> http://www.igda.org/columns/lastwords/lastwords_Nov08.php >> -------------- next part -------------- >> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... >> URL: > > >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> Message: 4 >> Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:28:30 -0700 >> From: "Steve Swink" >> Subject: Re: [game_edu] Gamemaker for intro programming; who >> owns >> student work >> To: "IGDA Game Education Listserv" >> Message-ID: >> >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" >> >> I haven't used Gamemaker, but if I may recommend checking out >> Unity, I think >> it's at least as good an option for putting fun into elementary >> programming. >> Plus, it's a proper 3d engine, has PhysX integration, and has one- >> click >> deployment to web, mac, and PC: >> >> www.unity3d.com >> >> It's what we at Flashbang Studios use for all our games (www.blurst.com >> ) and >> I'm currently teaching it to a class of 27 art students. It's going >> surprisingly well; the language is similar to Actionscript, but >> easier to >> learn and use. >> >> Also, the Unity guys are young, enthusiastic, and *extremely* open to >> unorthodox licensing solutions, including extended trials and so >> on. They >> really "get it" in terms of building a user base. I can't say >> enough good >> things about them and the Unity environment. >> >> Best, >> >> Steve >> >> On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 5:07 PM, Lewis Pulsipher >> wrote: >> >>> Do you know of anyone who has used Gamemaker as a principal tool for >>> teaching Introduction to Programming classes (not just for game >>> students, >>> but for programming students in general)? It would appear to be >>> an ideal >>> way to put some fun into elementary programming. >>> >>> >>> Going back to the question of who owns student work, the response >>> of the >>> lawyer who writes the legal advice column for IGDA will be of >>> interest: >>> http://www.igda.org/columns/lastwords/lastwords_Nov08.php >>> >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> game_edu mailing list >>> game_edu at igda.org >>> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu >>> >>> >> >> >> -- >> ______________________________________ >> >> Steve Swink >> >> Game Designer, Flashbang Studios >> Coordinator, Independent Games Festival >> 209 E. Baseline Suite 201 Tempe, AZ 85283 >> >> (480) 393-0885, Phone | (480) 626-5992, Fax >> (480) 353-6763, Mobile >> >> www.flashbangstudios.com >> www.steveswink.com >> -------------- next part -------------- >> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... >> URL: > > >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> Message: 5 >> Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 23:31:45 -0400 >> From: "carl" >> Subject: Re: [game_edu] Gamemaker for intro programming; who >> owns >> student work >> To: "IGDA Game Education Listserv" >> Message-ID: <003e01c94540$5ac4cc00$0a02a8c0 at sage> >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" >> >> - I like unity too. I have tried to contact them about educational >> pricing but no reply so far. Do you know if they have educational >> pricing? >> >> - any idea when their windows version will come out? >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: Steve Swink >> To: IGDA Game Education Listserv >> Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 11:28 PM >> Subject: Re: [game_edu] Gamemaker for intro programming;who owns >> student work >> >> >> I haven't used Gamemaker, but if I may recommend checking out >> Unity, I think it's at least as good an option for putting fun into >> elementary programming. Plus, it's a proper 3d engine, has PhysX >> integration, and has one-click deployment to web, mac, and PC: >> >> www.unity3d.com >> >> It's what we at Flashbang Studios use for all our games (www.blurst.com >> ) and I'm currently teaching it to a class of 27 art students. It's >> going surprisingly well; the language is similar to Actionscript, >> but easier to learn and use. >> >> Also, the Unity guys are young, enthusiastic, and extremely open to >> unorthodox licensing solutions, including extended trials and so >> on. They really "get it" in terms of building a user base. I can't >> say enough good things about them and the Unity environment. >> >> Best, >> >> Steve >> >> >> On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 5:07 PM, Lewis Pulsipher >> wrote: >> >> Do you know of anyone who has used Gamemaker as a principal tool >> for teaching Introduction to Programming classes (not just for game >> students, but for programming students in general)? It would >> appear to be an ideal way to put some fun into elementary >> programming. >> >> >> Going back to the question of who owns student work, the response >> of the lawyer who writes the legal advice column for IGDA will be >> of interest: http://www.igda.org/columns/lastwords/lastwords_Nov08.php >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> game_edu mailing list >> game_edu at igda.org >> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu >> >> >> >> >> >> -- >> ______________________________________ >> >> Steve Swink >> >> Game Designer, Flashbang Studios >> Coordinator, Independent Games Festival >> 209 E. Baseline Suite 201 Tempe, AZ 85283 >> >> (480) 393-0885, Phone | (480) 626-5992, Fax >> (480) 353-6763, Mobile >> >> www.flashbangstudios.com >> www.steveswink.com >> >> >> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> game_edu mailing list >> game_edu at igda.org >> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu >> -------------- next part -------------- >> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... >> URL: > > >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> _______________________________________________ >> game_edu mailing list >> game_edu at igda.org >> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu >> >> >> End of game_edu Digest, Vol 48, Issue 7 >> *************************************** >> > _______________________________________________ > game_edu mailing list > game_edu at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu _______________________________________________ game_edu mailing list game_edu at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/ms-tnef Size: 11412 bytes Desc: not available Url : From goldfile at gmail.com Fri Nov 14 02:44:40 2008 From: goldfile at gmail.com (S. Gold) Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 23:44:40 -0800 Subject: [game_edu] who owns student work In-Reply-To: <500405.39195.qm@web39706.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: When I originally pose this question related to IP I had said that I wanted your quotes for an article that a reporter was writing... many of you who replied have a mention in this story that was in today's Gamasutra: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3849/controversy_in_the_classroom_.php Susan On 11/13/08 8:15 AM, "Ian Schreiber" wrote: > > As for the IP ownership column (hooray for Jim!), it makes me wonder -- is > anyone here at a school that claims IP rights to student work, and if so, how > is this enforced? Is there a contract that students sign upon matriculation, > or is it simply the school making a loud claim and hoping it never goes to > court? > > - Ian -- Susan Gold goldfile at gmail.com "To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all." Oscar Wilde -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From goldfile at gmail.com Sat Nov 15 01:21:38 2008 From: goldfile at gmail.com (S. Gold) Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2008 22:21:38 -0800 Subject: [game_edu] a lot of cfp's Message-ID: Please recirculate as widely as possible to any who might be interested. Revised Call for Papers DiGRA 2009 *PLEASE NOTE THE NEW DATES FOR SUBMISSION AND DEADLINE FOR REGISTRATION FOR GUARANTEED ON-CAMPUS ACCOMODATION* Breaking New Ground: Innovation in Games, Play, Practice and Theory Brunel University, West London, United Kingdom, Tuesday 1st September -- Friday 4th September 2009 The Conference organisers for the Digital games Research Association conference 2009 are pleased to announce the first Call for Papers. 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 industry. The conference will be the fourth DiGRA conference, following Utrecht, Vancouver and Tokyo, and welcomes contributions from scholars working in any area of interest to the association. The official business of the Subject Association will also be conducted at the conference. The Conference invites the following proposals for consideration: Individual or Collaborative Papers Panels Workshops Posters Initial selection will be through the peer review of both full papers and abstracts of 500-700 words in all categories. Selection of presentations will be proportionate to the submissions received, and no distinction will be made between papers selected from abstract or full paper review. Panel and Workshop proposals should include abstracts for the contributions of all participants. Individual or collaborative papers ? addressing topics relevant to the wide remit of DiGRA (including therefore industry, education, political, social, theoretical concerns appropriate to the association). Presentations should be limited to 15-20 mins. Panel proposals ? 3 ? 4 papers which address a common theme, a common research method, a shared conceptual issue etc. Workshops ? proposals are invited for 2 ? 3 hour workshops that address a range of themes relevant to the aims of the association. Workshops that are particularly targeted at a wide audience are most welcome. Poster sessions ? presentations of work in progress in the format are most welcome and will be showcased throughout the event. The conference committee are also interested in including featured symposia/colloquia to address particular ?late-breaking? research projects or issue-based topics (an example might be a colloquia based around Wii research or a symposium based around Women in Games. Please contact a member of the conference organising committee with any expressions of interest. Graduate student participation In order to support graduate students and early career researchers the conference will focus on graduate student issues on its opening day, 1st September 2009. The conference organizers seek appropriate mentors to work with those addressing common themes/topics/issues in graduate roundtables. Strands Please also indicate your preference for consideration in one of the following broad strands: Games Culture Games and Commerce Games Aesthetics Games Education Games Design Games and Theory Key Dates Deadline for all submissions for presentation at the conference (includes full papers, abstracts and workshop/panel/symposia proposals): Friday 6 March 5pm GMT Deadline for full papers for inclusion in digital proceedings: Friday 26 June 2009 5pm GMT Notification of acceptance: June 1 2009 Deadline for booking on-campus accommodation June 30 2009 Conference Dates: 1-4th September 2009 Abstracts should be of 500-700 words and include an indicative bibliography. Full paper submissions may be of up to 6,000 words, not including bibliography. Full details of the submissions procedure, including the method of electronic submission, will be published here and on other forums as soon as possible. All contributions must be original, unpublished work. The conference language is English, and papers, abstracts and other proposals should be written in English. Delegates are also advised that individuals will be limited to one paper presentation and one other form of presentation to allow space and time for the largest number of participants. About the Conference Location Brunel University is located conveniently near Heathrow Airport and is on the London Tube system. A range of affordable accommodation is available on campus, including 1500 en suite rooms all on one campus, 400 standard bedrooms, 8 holiday flats (5-7 persons per flat), 51 specially adapted rooms for people with disabilities, plus hotel standard rooms in the Lancaster Suite. The Brunel Conference Centre boasts 22 theatres, 29 classrooms and 5 seminar rooms all presented to the highest standard. The following are also available: Free car parking (on application); Full office support for photocopying, faxing, internet and word processing (on application); Comprehensive range of audio visual and media services; Mini market; Pharmacy; Banking facilities; Reference library; Sports Facilities; Fitness Suite; Medical centre; 24 hour security; Self service cafeteria; Licensed bars and cafes. There are also a range of restaurants, cinemas and shopping in Uxbridge town. Local attractions Historic Windsor & Eton -Windsor Castle, Legoland and shopping are just 20 minutes drive away London - Central London and West End are easily accessed by bus or Underground. Historic Oxford is a 40 minute bus ride away. The Conference Organisers The conference is being hosted by a consortium consisting of Brunel University, University of the West of England and the University of Wales, Newport. Tanya Krzywinska, Professor of Screen Media, Brunel University Helen Kennedy, University of the West of England Barry Atkins, University of Wales Reader in Computer Games Design Dr Barry Atkins University of Wales Reader in Computer Games Design, International Film School, Wales University of Wales, Newport School of Art Media and Design, Caerleon Campus PO Box 179 Newport NP18 3YG Gwent barry.atkins at newport.ac.uk http://amd.newport.ac.uk/displayPage.aspx?object_id=4467&parent_id=4442&type =PAG http://amd.newport.ac.uk/displayPage.aspx?object_id=4421&parent_id=4267&type =SEC ------------------------------------------------ BA(Hons) Animation BA(Hons) Computer Games Design For a prospectus , contact UIC at newport.ac.uk ------------------------------------------------ From: Johannes Fromme To: GAMESNETWORK at uta.fi Sent: Thursday, 13 November, 2008 11:38:57 AM Subject: [GAMESNETWORK] Revised Call for Papers: "Computer Games / Players / Game Cultures" (again) Sorry, I chose the wrong link in yesterday's email (it is password protected). This one should work: http://wase.urz.uni-magdeburg.de/pub/bscw.cgi/d166949/CFP%20English.pdf Best regards, Johannes Johannes Fromme schrieb: > The University of Magdeburg, Institute for Educational Science, and the > Commission "Media Education" of the "German Association for Educational > Science" (Kommission Medienp?dagogik der Deutschen Gesellschaft f?r > Erziehungswissenschaft) invite to submit abstracts and papers for the > international conference "Computer Games / Players / Game Cultures". The > conference will be held in Magdeburg (Germany) from March 18 to 21, 2009. > > Call for Papers - revised (2nd) version > > The conference seeks to provide an interdisciplinary forum to present and > reflect upon the state which digital game studies has obtained in the past > decade as well as discuss perspectives for the future. The focus lies on > aesthetic, social, cultural and educational aspects of computer games, > including persistent (multiplayer) game worlds like MMOGs and new phenomena > like mobile digital gaming (for more details see > http://wase.urz.uni-magdeburg.de/bscw/bscw.cgi/d166949/CFP%20English.pdf). > > Following the discussion on this list about the pros and cons of DIGRA reviews > based on abstracts we have slighty revised our procedure and time schedule. > > We invite to submit suggestions for papers/talks or posters (with working > title, allocation to main topic) via e-mail to Johannes Fromme: > jfromme at ovgu.de until December, 7th, 2008. Submissions may include: > - Abstracts (700-1000 words) or full versions of papers of original, > unpublished research or theoretical work (individual or collaborative papers). > General surveys of key debates, problems, and empirical findings are > especially encouraged. > - Abstracts (500-700 words) for poster presentations (presentations of work > in progress in a poster session) > - Abstracts (500-700 words) for presentations of Ph.D. projects in a > special forum for doctoral candidates. > > All submitted abstracts und papers will be peer reviewed. Accepted papers, > posters und Ph.D. projects will be presented during the conference. The full > versions of the papers (talks) will be published in a handbook after the > conference (presumably by the end of 2009). Authors will have the chance to > revise their papers for the publication after the presentation and discussion > at the conference. > > The full version of the CFP can be downloaded here: > http://wase.urz.uni-magdeburg.de/bscw/bscw.cgi/d166949/CFP%20English.pdf > > Best, > Johannes Fromme > -- Prof. Dr. Johannes Fromme Institut f?r Erziehungswissenschaft Otto-von-Guericke-Universit?t Magdeburg Tel. +49 391 6716611 Internet: http://www.uni-magdeburg.de/mpeb/ EUROMEDIA 2009 15TH ANNUAL MEDIA CONFERENCE 1ST CALL FOR PAPERS WEBSITE http://www.eurosis.org/cms/?q=taxonomy/term/172 NOVOTEL BRUGGE CENTRUM BRUGES-BELGIUM APRIL 15-17, 2009 Organized by ETI Sponsored by EUROSIS University Hasselt Delft University of Technology Belgacom TTVI Ghent University DG-INFSO The 2009 EUROMEDIA conference covers the latest developments in web-multimedia and communications technology while also looking at their implementation in Broadband networking, mobile computing, broadband networking, distributed computing, telematics, E-technology and real world environments like embedded systems, security systems and training systems. New topics are human computer interaction with a focus on the interaction of users with multimodal interfaces and the usability and experiences of users with multimodal systems based on different media. The EUROMEDIA conference is held concurrently with the ECEC and FUBUTEC conferences. The conference is structured around 5 tracks: WEBTEC, which deals with web technology-COMTEC, which covers communications technology-MEDIATEC, which covers multimedia technology-APTEC, which provides an overview of media-integration and ETEC, which covers electronic commerce. The conference also features special workshops on E-Business, D-TV, Medical Imaging, Facial and Biometric Recognition, Computer Graphics and Cyber Security. WEBTEC The WEBTEC conference focuses on new developments with respect to Internet, Intranet, HTML/XML..., and WEB 2.0. Because of the large amount of new tools and developments, scientific papers focusing on this subject should always include references to other ideas and products. If your paper describes a new language or tool, include the theoretical basis, application, and (tested) experiences. Topics: Internet Viewers and Programs * Development and Design Tools for the Web * Tactical Internet * Web Programming * Web Simulation and Animation * Interactive Web Publishing Tools * Dynamic New Languages and Standards * Java Security * CORBA and the Web * IPV6 (next generation internetprotocol) Visual Programming Languages * Advanced Web Authoring and Development Tools * Visual Web Programming * Visual HTML - XML , XSL editors * Applets and Scripting Languages over Networks 3D Web Programs * 3D Worlds * Rule Based Programming for 3D Environments (avatars) * Building Online Communities * Web 2.0 social software Video and Audio Streaming on the Web * Video Telephony, Web Video and Web Conferencing * Video and Audio Libraries * Internet telephone networks AI on the Web * Intelligent Agents, Knowbots and REBOL Bots * Worm Programs, Data Mining and MDX, SQL, SQLJ Based Tools * Mobile Network Agents * Site Analysis Tools * Collaborative Filtering * Intelligent Interactive Characters * Semantic Web Applications * Webbased Information Systems Software for Web-based Business Applications and E-Commerce * Building Interactive Advertising and Information Interfaces * Business Objects and Business to Business E-Commerce * Customer Tracking Tools, E-Commerce Tools & Architectures * Electronic Cash Transfer Protocols on the Web * Joint Electronic Payments Initiative * Internet Open Trading Protocols * Security and E-Commerce * Web Based Training and Web Based Networked Simulation * PC VR Based Training MEDIATEC The MEDIATEC conference looks at new developments in multimedia technology. Step by step, multimedia computing becomes more common and more popular. CD-ROM-DVD technology, videoconferencing, and real-time 3-D animation have become widely available for standard hardware platforms. The type of papers we are looking for try to give a theoretical foundation to developments in multimedia hardware and software, if possible comparing different alternatives so that empirical results can form a basis for new standards and choice among alternatives. Topics: Multimedia Techniques and Telecommunications * Real Time Interactive Systems * Hardware for multimedia storage * Hardware and networks for multimedia transmission * CD-Interactive Systems and Online DVD Technology * Removable Storage Technology * Multimedia Sensors (RF Tags) * Intelligent Analysis and Interpretation of Multimedia Data Multimedia Authoring Tools and Software * Presentation Tools * Presentation Software * Animation /Facial Animation * Animation Tools * 3D Authoring Tools, 3D Graphics, 3D Accelerators and Motion Capture * Video and Audio Editing * PC-DVD Video Imaging, Editing Techniques and Tools * Video Compression Techniques and Tools * Video Accelerators * Non Linear Video Editing Systems * Digital Video * MPEG 5 PC-Video Encoding and Decoding * (MPEG) Image Compression * Colour Palette Strategies * Audio Editing * Digital Audio Software * CD Recording Software * Voice Recognition Systems * Industrial Applications * automatic speech recognition * Software Defined Radio Multimedia Building Blocks * Multimedia Databases * Toolboxes for Moving Graphics * Productivity Tools * Multimedia and CORBA COMTEC The COMTEC conference covers different types of communication technology utilising both fixed and mobile infrastructures. Of course, this conference must be seen in alliance with the overall theme of the conference: new media that are used on a world-wide basis in relation to information and communication infrastructures. Topics: Telecommunications Technologies * High Speed Interconnects * Optical Networks and Switching * Transport Networks * HSI in Parallel/Distributed Systems * Message Passing Communication Standards * Communication Servers and Networks * Access Networks and Protocols * Systems and Applications Software * Clusters and Load Balancing * Traffic Models and Performance Simulations * Fault Tolerance, Reliability Models, Performance Studies and System Validation Networks * Quality of Service * Multicast * ISDN, Intelligent Networks, LAN-WAN Interconnection, WIFI * Broadband and Wideband Networks * Information Super Highways, GRID * Network Management * Case Studies on Large Networks Simulation technology * Network Planning & Management & Software Radio * Broadband convergence networks (BcN) Network Security * Encryption and Coding * Software Protocols * Privacy, ID Verification, Authentication, Message Integrity, Message Non-Repudiation and Security Policies * Access Control + Firewalls + Intrusion Detection * Smart Card Technology Mobile Communications * Satellite Services * WAP compliant Broadband Mobile Communication * Voice Paging, Mobile Fax, Mobile Video Text * 3G Networks * Mobile Networks Planning * W-CDMA (3rd generation mobile telecommunications) * Mobile adhoc networks (MANETS) TV Technology * CATV, HDTV, 3D TV * Interactive Video * DAVIC * Digital TV * DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) QoS * QoS in TP Networks * QoS in ATM Networks * QoS in Public Networks * QoS in Mobile Networks * QoS in Heterogeneous Networks * QoS Charging APTEC The APTEC conference shows how effectiveness and efficiency of individuals and public and private organisations can be improved using telematics, advanced communications, and multimedia technology. Papers in the APTEC conference should present the relation between the type of activity that is supported by new technology and the characteristics of the technology itself. If possible, empirical test results should be included in the paper. Topics: Telematics Consumer Applications * Home Banking * Video-on-Demand, Video and PC-Gaming * Video Kiosks Cooperative Telematics Applications * Home Shopping * Teleconsulting * Teleworking * Teleprocessing * Telepresence * Web Enabled Devices Tele-Education * Tele-Teaching * Multimedia and DVD Technology * Computer Based Training * CBT Authoring Software * Computer Assisted Instruction * Simulation Based Training * Interactive Tools * Tele-Education on the Web * Case Studies Integrated Enterprise Software and Groupware * Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) * VHDL and Verilog Applications * Product Data Interchange * Synthetic Environments and Simulation on the Web * Distributed Simulation (DIS) * Virtual Reality * Innovative e-mail applications * Shared Memory, Shared Screen * Group Decision Support * Group Scheduling * Group Editing * Video Conferencing and standards * Desktop Video Conferencing * Workflow Software * Putting Interactive Training Online Telemedicine * Multimedia * Real-Time Systems * Telediagnostic * Fault Tolerance * Telemonitoring * Data Bases * Case Studies Ubiquitous computing Applications * health care * Pervasive computing * Video human interaction * Mediascapes * Interactive posters * Electronic tags * Ambient intelligence * System architecture and concepts, software and intelligent receptors * Smart homes and transport (cars,planes, Digital home concept) * smart surroundings using ubiquitous wireless sensor networks * self organising digital sensor networks of individual motes * GPS, active RFID technology * context aware systems (f.ex SIREN) * privacy and security from motes, smart sensors to smart dust Embedded Systems and future product market combinations * modelling specification and validation of embedded systems * intelligent clothing and polytronics * rfid technology * intelligent products and environments * active silenced machines (adaptronics) * simulated environments (reverse engineering) * man-machine interaction (converging technology) * security systems (biometric and other dataprocessing techniques Multimodal communication *context sensitive sensing *affective computing *speech recognition, recognition of facial expressions *recognition of emotion in text, speech and video *usability *engineering experiences ETEC The ETEC conference reviews the latest trends and technologies applied in the growing field of electronic commerce. This track will be exclusively dedicated to practical applications in business to business and business to customer environments. E-Commerce provides valuable guidance on reconfiguring the structure and interaction between organisations, businesses, and customers, to create effective new possibilities and to stay ahead of competition, by implementing new advanced information and communications technology. The track focuses on the reality rather than the hype which tends to surround these items. This conference is a unique occasion to find out the key issues and essential facts from case studies and unbiased expert presentations. . Tele-X . E-commerce . Security . Medical Information Systems . Challenges of tomorrow and beyond Trust and security: provisions and instruments . Online availability of public services . Service survivability and maintainability . Interoperability of services . Security in e-democracy (including e-participation and e-voting) . E-justice (administration and workflow security for legal processes) . Secure federating information access (from different government and third party agencies) . Security and reliability in media integration . Secure e-government and Identity Management . Security and reliability of Smart Card System . Availability and reliability of mobile services . Data protection and data privacy (e.g. e-health and e-education) . Intrusion detection and prevention . Anti-spam legislation and solution . Public-private- partnerships management . Role-based management and usage restriction Special Tracks Special Track on Knowledge Management and e-Mobility * Knowledge warehouse * Knowledge acquisition and datamining * E-blended learning * MPEG2 standards in e-mobility Special Track on In-Car Applications This track will cover the embedded systems envisaged in future car design based on multimedia applications. * Look-Ahead Radar * Automatic Braking * Blind Spot Detection * Steer by Wire * LEDS * Lane Departure Warning * Conversational Voice Recognition * Drowsiness Sensors * Cockpit Controllers * Split Displays * In-car Entertainment Systems * Glass Cockpit/HUD Displays * Smart Navigation * Networking * Integrated Sensors Special Track on Facial Recognition or Non Verbal Communication Facial expressions play an important role in human communication. We are able to read emotions from human faces. Turn taking in human dialogues can be regulated by facial expressions. There is an ongoing discussion about the universal character of emotions. Psychologist P. Ekman claims that there are 6 universal emotions corresponding with unique facial expressions: happiness, sadness, disgust, anger, fear and surprise. But there are much more emotions, which can be conveyed by facial expressions, way of speaking, gestures and other body language. For many years researchers have been involved in the automatic recognition and generation of emotions. There are systems which are able to read faces and analyze speech signals to recognize emotions. Researchers have developed ?talking faces? which are able to show facial expressions and to speak with appropriate emotions. At this moment here robots and avatars which are able to display emotions and are able to recognize emotion. The goal of the session/track is to invite researchers to present papers in the area of non verbal communication. Special Track on Virtual Reality 2.0 Applications This track will cover Virtual Reality 2.0 Applications using Motion Capture Technology in * Advertising * Healthcare * Market research * Auto Safety * Mobile Phones * Security Workshops e-business information management or e-BIM Information is a strategic resource in every organisation. In Business Information Management (BIM) we focus on the continuous improvement of the quality of the information, that is intrinsic in business processes and is supporting management decisionmaking. In e-Business Information Management (e-BIM) internet based information modelling analyzing and presentation is a hot issue and is part of a company?s competitivity. Themes: * e-business, e-marketing, e-services * business process modelling * management information systems * content management * business intelligence * management reporting * e-learning Organised by Jeanne Schreurs, Hasselt University, Diepenbeek, Belgium Medical Imaging Systems In recent years, extensive research has been performed to develop more and more efficient and powerful medical imaging systems. Such systems are crucial for medical specialists, allowing a deeper analysis and to understand what is going inside the human body, and therefore they play an essential role for adequate medical diagnosis and treatments. To accomplish efficient and powerful medical imaging systems, many research works have being done in many domains, like the ones related with medical image devices, signal processing, image processing and analysis, biomechanical simulation and data visualization. The main goal of the Workshop ?Medical Imaging Systems? is to bring together researchers involved in the related domains, in order to set the major lines of development for the near future. Therefore, the proposed Workshop will consist of researchers representing various fields related to Medical Devices, Signal Processing, Computational Vision, Computer Graphics, Computational Mechanics, Scientific Visualization, Mathematics and Medical Imaging. The Workshop endeavors to contribute to obtain better solutions for more efficient and powerful medical imaging systems, and attempts to establish a bridge between clinicians and researchers from these diverse fields. The proposed Workshop will cover topics related with medical imaging systems, such as: ? image acquisition ? signal processing ? image processing and analysis ? modelling and simulation ? computer aided diagnosis ? surgery, therapy, and treatment ? computational bioimaging and visualization ? software development ? virtual reality ? telemedicine systems and their applications Organised by Joao Tavares of the University of Porto, Portugal D-TV Workshop 3rd Workshop on Digital Television & Digital Special Interest Channels at the Euromedia 2009 - From Realisable Visions to Feasible and Sustainable Applications. Scope: In contrast to traditional TV DTV is a telecommunication system for broadcasting and receiving moving pictures and sound by means of digital signals. It uses digitally compressed modulation data, which requires decoding by a specially designed television set or a standard receiver (set-top box) as well as via PC-TV based on ADLS (VDSL). Digital Television has several advantages regarding technically as well as content and programme related aspects. One of the most significant is the use of a smaller channel bandwidth. This frees up space for more digital channels, other non-television services such as pay-multimedia services and the generation of new revenue models based on interactive advertisement and marketing features. Furthermore there are special services such as multicasting (more than one programme on the same channel), electronic programme guides and interactivity providing a wider range of application. Accordingly within the last year a growing up of specialised digital TV channels (Special Interest Channels) has to be observed European wide. This new growing up stream is mainly characterised by the phenomena of merging television (TV) and information technology (IT) know how, methods and techniques. In this context the workshop targets to show up the development in both directions: the technically aspects as well as the content and programme issues. It provides a presentation and discussion platform for exchanging experiences made within the establishment as well as the maintenance of digital special interest channels. Main focus will be to point out the interdependencies and the mutual influences of technically streams and content respectively service related issues. Topics: * Broadband Television * Interactive Television * IPTV - Web-TV * DVB-H, DVB-T, DVB-S, DVB-C * MHP & Interactive Television * Set-Top-Boxes * Full Digital Production Chain Management * Digital-Video-Journalism * DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) * FreeTV & PayTV * Interactive Video * Interactive Advertising Formats * Event Oriented Interview Formats * Event Driven Program Schemes & Formats * Mobile Content * Cross-Format Content & Knowledge Pooling * Cross-Media Content Production & Distribution * Indexing and Retrieval of Digital Content * Semantically Enrichment of Digital Content * Security & Digital Rights Management (DRM) * Watermarking & Copyrights & Protection * Cross-platform productions on TV Media-Convergence * Peer-to-peer Grid TV Applications Organised by Hasn-Joachim Nern, DT-TV Cybersecurity Access Control, Applications of Cryptography, Attacks and Viral Software, Authentication and Authorization, Biometrics and Applications, Critical ICT Resources Protection, Data and System Integrity, Data Protection, Ethics, Digital Content Security, Identity Management, Information Hiding, Information Warfare, Internet and Web Security, Intrusion Detection, Peer-to-Peer Security, Privacy Enhancing Technologies, Risk Analysis and Management, Secure Electronic Voting, Secure Sensor Networks, Secure Systems Development, Security Architectures, Security Economics, Security Education, Security Management, Security Metrics, Smart Cards, SPAM, SPIT, SPIM, Trust Management and Models Computer Graphics Applications TUTORIALS Tutorials can be proposed in the following three categories: T1- Introductory tutorials T2- State of the Art Tutorials T3- Software and Modelware Tutorials Tutorial proposals should be emailed to Philippe.Geril at eurosis.org POSTER SESSION The poster session only features work in progress. Next to the actual poster presentation, these submissions also feature as short papers in the Proceedings. STUDENTS SESSION This session is for students who want to present their work in progress or part of their doctoral thesis as a paper. Student papers are denoted by the fact that only the name of the student appears on the paper as an author. They are published as short papers in the Proceedings. DIVERSE ACTIVITIES For demonstrations or video sessions, please contact EUROSIS. Special session will be set up for vendor presentations in coordination with the scientific program. User Group meetings for simulation languages and tools can be organised the day before the conference. If you would like to arrange a meeting, please contact the Conference Chairs. We will be happy to provide a meeting room and other necessary equipment. Exhibition There will be a special exhibition section for universities and non-profit organisations, and a special section for publishers and commercial stands. If you would like to take part in this exhibition please contact the EUROSIS for a full price schedule and stand layout. Deadlines and Requirements DECEMBER 15, 2008 (EARLY BIRD SUBMISSION) JANUARY 20, 2009 (SUBMISSION DATE) FEBRUARY 5, 2009 (LATE SUBMISSION) Notification of acceptance or rejection will be sent in the period FEBRUARY 15, 2009 Camera-Ready Copies: MARCH 25, 2009 All EUROSIS Proceedings are indexed by ISI-THOMSON and INSPEC As this event is being held in Belgium, our home country, we are required to add on a 21% VAT surcharge. In order for you to get a VAT refund, have your registration paid by your university, institute or company as they have a VAT number. If you prepay personally it is possible you cannot reclaim the VAT. All prices below are without VAT. REGISTRATION FEES Registration Authors EUROSIS Other Fees Members Participants Pre-Reg before 495 Euro 495 Euro 555 Euro March 25, 2009 Reg after Pre- March 25, 2009 registration 535 Euro 595 Euro Required Registration fees should preferably be paid in EUROs, but can also be paid in the equivalent amount of US$.. Payment is possible by Creditcard The registration fee includes one copy of the Conference Proceedings, coffee and tea during the breaks, all lunches, a welcome cocktail, the conference dinner and conference visit. Author Registration Authors are expected to register early (at a reduced fee) and to attend the conference at their own expense to present the accepted papers. Without early registration and payment, the paper will not be published in the Conference Proceedings. Each registration covers one presentation. PAPER SUBMISSION TYPES FULL PAPER (including abstract, conclusions, diagrams, references, at least five pages, double column) During review, the submitted full papers can be accepted as a regular 5 page paper. If excellent, full papers can be accepted by the program committee as an extended (8-page) paper. Each submission will be reviewed by at least three members of the International Program Committee. EXTENDED ABSTRACT (at least five pages, single column) Participants may also submit a 5 page extended abstract for a regular (5 pages) or short (3 pages) paper or poster, which will be reviewed by the International Program Committee. All accepted papers will be published in the EUROMEDIA'2009 Conference Proceedings. SHORT ABSTRACT (at least three pages) Participants may also submit a 3 page abstract for a short paper or poster, which will be reviewed by the International Program Committee. All accepted papers will be published in the EUROMEDIA'2009 Conference Proceedings. ONE PAGE ABSTRACTS ARE NOT ACCEPTED. Refereeing and Camera-ready papers The notification of acceptance or rejection, in combination with suggestions to improve the paper, will be sent by FEBRUARY 15, 2009. Along with the notification of acceptance, an author kit with complete instructions for preparing a camera-ready copy for the Proceedings will be sent to authors of accepted abstracts or drafts. The camera-ready copy of the papers must be in by MARCH 20, 2009. In order to guarantee a high-quality conference, the camera-ready papers will be checked as well, to check see the suggestions of the program committee have been incorporated. VENUE The EUROMEDIA 2009 will be co-located with the FUBUTEC 2009/ECEC 2009 conferences. Paying registration for either one of the conferences allows you to visit sessions from all three conferences. The conference itself is held in the beautiful Medieval city of Bruges (an UNESCO Heritage site) known as the Venice of the North. http://www.brugge.be http://foto.brugge.be/slides/slides.htm All conferences are co-located at the Novotel Brugge Centrum. http://www.novotel.com/gb/hotel-1033-novotel-brugge-centrum/index.shtml which is located in the very heart of the historic city of Bruges. CONFERENCE VISIT A visit will be envisaged to a company relevant to the conference. In this case it will be New Holland in Zedelgem, just outside Bruges. http://www.cnh.com/wps/portal/cnhportal The conference dinner will be held at the Huisbrouwerij Halve Maan http://www.halvemaan.be/ While a reception will be given on Wednesday the 15th of April at the Town Hall of Bruges. REPLY CARD Surname:.................................................. First Name:............................................... Affiliation:.............................................. MailingAddress:........................................... .......................................................... ......................................................... Zipcode:...........City:.................................. Country:.................................................. Telephone:....................Fax:........................ E-mail:................................................... Yes, I intend to attend the 2009 Euromedia Conference: * Without presenting a paper * Contributing to the Exhibition * Proposing a vendor presentation with the following title:.................................................... * Proposing a tutorial about the following subject: * Proposing a panel discussion with the following title: * Proposing the following short paper (abstract at least 2 pages) * Proposing the following full paper (based on extended abstract or full paper submission Title of submission .................................. ................................... The paper belongs to the following theme (please tick one): [] WEBTEC * Internet Viewers and Programs * Visual Programming Languages * 3D Web Programs * Video and Audio Streaming on the Web * AI on the Web * Software for Web-based Business Applications [] MEDIATEC * Multimedia Techniques and Telecom * Multimedia Authoring Tools and Software * Multimedia Building Blocks [] COMTEC * Telecommunications Technologies * Networks * Network Security * Mobile Communications * TV Technology * QoS [] APTEC * Telematics Consumer Applications * Cooperative Consumer Application * Tele-Education * Integrated Enterprise Software and Groupware * Telemedicine * Ubiquitous Computing Applications * Embedded Systems and Future Product Market Combinations * Multimodal communication [] ETEC * Tele-X and E-Commerce * Knowledge Management and E-Mobility Special Tracks: [] Knowledge Management and e-Mobility [] In-Car Applications [] Facial Recognition or Non Verbal Communication [] Virtual Reality 2.0 Applications Special Workshops: [] e-BIM [] Medical Imaging Systems [] D-TV [] Cybersecurity [] Computer Graphics Do you know others interested in the topic of the conference? Name: .................................... Address: ..................................... ........................................... For general information, contact the EUROSIS: European Simulation Office, c/o Philippe Geril Greenbridge NV Wetenschapspark 1 Plassendale 1 B-8400 Ostend, Belgium Tel: +32 59 255.330 Fax: + 32 59.255.339 Email: philippe.geril at eurosis.org Further information about the 2009 EUROMEDIA Conference can be found on WWW under: http://www.eurosis.org/cms/?q=taxonomy/term/172 First Call for Papers Eurographics 2009 Workshop on 3D object retrieval ( http://3dor.ge.imati.cnr.it/ ) March 29, 2009 Munich, Germany 3D content is now widely recognized as the upcoming wave of digital media. Inexperience and professional users are becoming more and more actively involved in the content creation pipeline and ask for intuitive and effective tools for creating, sharing, retrieving and re-using 3D content. Search and retrieval of 3D objects is therefore rapidly become a key issue in the upcoming panorama of multimedia content, both in general usage scenarios, such as online gaming or 3D social networks, and in scientific domains, such as molecular biology and medicine. The development of efficient search mechanisms is required for the effective retrieval of 3D objects from large repositories, both of a single class (such as human faces) and across classes. The aim of this workshop is to stimulate researchers from different fields (computer vision, computer graphics, machine learning, human-computer interaction, semantic web) who work on the common goal of 3D object retrieval, to present state-of-the-art work in the field and thus provide a cross-fertilization ground that will stimulate discussions on the next steps in this important research area. Topics Topics of interest include but are not limited to : - 3D object similarity and matching - 3D Object classification, indexing, and mining - Feature extraction, model decomposition and segmentation - Partial and many-to-many matching - Matching under uncertainty and noise - Query interfaces and search modalities - Multi-level representations for matching and retrieval - Semantics-driven 3D object retrieval and classification - Sketch-based retrieval - Benchmarking issues - Relevance feedback methods - Active learning - Generative / Discriminative approaches in 3D object categorisation - Applications in Multimedia industry - Applications in CAD industry - Applications in Games industry - Applications in Biometrics - Applications in e-Science - Applications in e-Learning - Applications in Medicine and Biology - Applications in Cultural Heritage Important Dates Submission deadline: Friday, January 9, 2009 (24:00 GMT) Notification of acceptance: Friday, February 20, 2009 Camera-ready papers deadline: Thursday, February 26, 2009 Workshop: Sunday, March 29, 2009 (one full day) Organisation Workshop Chairs Ioannis Pratikakis ( IIT / NCSR ?Demokritos?, Greece ) Michela Spagnuolo ( IMATI / CNR, Italy ) Programme Chairs Theoharis Theoharis ( Department of Informatics, University of Athens, Greece ) Remco Veltkamp, ( Utrecht University, NL ) International Programme Committee Yiannis Aloimonos (UMIACS, USA) Philipos Azariadis (University of the Aegean, Greece) Alberto Del Bimbo (University of Florence, Italy) Petros Daras (Informatics and Telematics Institute, Greece) Bianca Falcidieno (IMATI-CNR, Italy) Dieter W. Fellner (Fraunhofer IGD, Germany) Daniela Giorgi (IMATI-CNR, Italy) Frank Ter Haar (Utrecht University, The Netherlands) Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann (University of Geneva, Switzerland) Simone Marini (IMATI-CNR, Italy) Ron Kimmel (Technion, Israel) Georgios Papaioannou (AUEB, Greece) Nicholas Patrikalakis (MIT, USA) Stavros Perantonis (IIT / NCSR Demokritos, Greece) Karthik Ramani (Purdue University, USA) William Regli (Drexel University, USA) Marcos Rodrigues (University of Sheffield, UK) Nikolaos Sapidis (University of the Aegean, Greece) Dietmar Saupe (University of Konstanz, Germany) Francis Schmitt (TELECOM ParisTech, France) Ariel Shamir (Efi Arazi School of Computer Science, Israel) Daniel Thalmann (EPFL, Switzerland) Theodore Trafalis (University of Oklahoma, USA) Titus Zaharia (Institut National des Telecommunications, France) Contact Information Ioannis PRATIKAKIS Computational Intelligence Laboratory Institute of Informatics and Telecommunications National Center for Scientific Research "Demokritos" 15310 Athens, Greece Tel: +30-210-650 3183 E-mail: ipratika at iit.demokritos.gr Michela SPAGNUOLO Istituto per la Matematica Applicata e le Tecnologie Informatiche Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche Via De Marini, 6 - 16149 Genova Phone: +39-0106475677 Fax: +39-0106475660 Email: spagnuolo at ge.imati.cnr.it -- Susan Gold goldfile at gmail.com "To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all." Oscar Wilde -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From goldfile at gmail.com Sun Nov 16 13:06:10 2008 From: goldfile at gmail.com (S. Gold) Date: Sun, 16 Nov 2008 10:06:10 -0800 Subject: [game_edu] FW: Online Survey on Gamers Message-ID: -- Susan Gold goldfile at gmail.com "To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all." Oscar Wilde ------ Forwarded Message From: Paul Pivec Date: Sat, 15 Nov 2008 21:57:37 +0200 Subject: Online Survey on Gamers As part of my PhD, like many others, I am hosting a few surveys. Hopefully some you can help by having your staff, friends, students, anyone really, do this online survey and working memory test. It focuses on gamers but non-gamers can do it as well and it takes less than a minute. http://www.gamedesigncampus.com/surveys/survey1.swf Thanks in advance Paul Pivec. ------ End of Forwarded Message From amgruber at dbq.edu Sun Nov 16 21:12:37 2008 From: amgruber at dbq.edu (Anne Marie Gruber) Date: Sun, 16 Nov 2008 20:12:37 -0600 Subject: [game_edu] elements of play Message-ID: <49207EB70200009E0002BE3A@mailhost.dbq.edu> I wanted to pass this along to add to the conversation about fun & play: Jon-Paul Dyson spoke at the Gaming, Learning, & Libraries Symposium a couple weeks ago. He is a VP/Curator at Strong National Museum of Play. He described the elements of play, which are also on the museum's website: http://www.museumofplay.com/about_play/elements.html And he did differentiate play from fun as several people on the list have as well. Dyson mentioned that he edits a new interdisciplinary journal, American Journal of Play, which will definitely contribute to this conversation. The journal website is: http://www.americanjournalofplay.org/ AM Anne Marie Gruber Assistant Director for Library Instruction & Public Services Charles C. Myers Library 202 University of Dubuque Email address: AMGruber at dbq.edu Office phone: (563) 589-3849 http://cginspirationud.wordpress.com From kschrier at alum.mit.edu Mon Nov 17 13:19:22 2008 From: kschrier at alum.mit.edu (Karen Schrier) Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2008 13:19:22 -0500 Subject: [game_edu] Call for Chapters: Ethics and Game Design Book Message-ID: <9a7a2f220811171019j1ec46416u7440ac893b7fae31@mail.gmail.com> Sorry for the Cross-postings! Hi all! I am editing a new book with David Gibson called "Ethics and Game Design: Teaching Values through Play," to be published by Information Science Reference (formerly Idea Group Reference) (an imprint of IGI Global), scheduled for release in 2010. I invite you all to contribute to the book, which will provide a diverse and comprehensive compendium of case studies, theoretical frameworks, and empirical research in the emerging field of ethics development through games and play. Your proposal would be due on or before January 15, 2009 (a brief two to three-page synopsis will suffice), with accepted proposals notified by February 1, 2009. The full chapter is due by April 1, 2009. We are looking for academics and practitioners from a wide variety of disciplines and perspectives to contribute. Full call: http://www.columbia.edu/~kls2108/callforchapters.htm Thanks! Karen Schrier CALL FOR CHAPTER PROPOSALS Proposal Submission Deadline: January 15, 2009 Ethics and Game Design: Teaching Values through Play A book edited by Karen Schrier, Teachers College, Columbia University, USA, and Dr. David Gibson, University of Vermont, USA http://www.columbia.edu/~kls2108/callforchapters.htm Introduction Ethics is the practice of enacting moral judgment to achieve a better life?the process of making choices according to one's own conception of how to be a good person. Games and simulations can be rich playgrounds for the practice of these ethical choices, as they offer the ability to iterate and reflect on multiple possibilities and consequences. As such, educators and researchers are beginning to consider the use of games in supporting ethical reasoning and character development. Moreover, games have been and continue to be the subject of conversations, controversies, and deliberations about ethics. Game developers, publishers, and the public often differ in opinion about the choices made in the creation and promotion of a game, bringing up larger questions about the role of entertainment, art, and business in our society. The potential for games to foster ethical thinking and discourse?and not whether games are inherently good or bad?will be the thrust of this timely book. Objective of the Book Ethics and Games Design will provide a diverse and comprehensive compendium of case studies, theoretical frameworks, and empirical research in the emerging field of ethics, values, games, and play. This book will take a cross-disciplinary approach, inviting research, critiques, and perspectives from computer science, education, philosophy, law, media studies, management, psychology, and art history. The publication has three main goals. First, it will seek to define this emerging and essential new field. Second, this book will serve as a collective source for students, educators, practitioners, and researchers who are interested in understanding the current state of the discipline. It will locate the field diachronically and thematically, while highlighting the work of both well-established and emerging researchers and practitioners. Finally, this publication will inspire and motivate further interdisciplinary dialogue and research on the topic of ethics and games. It will frame the major research questions, issues, methodologies and problems, which we can then use to both expand and refine the field. Such a rigorous foundation for the study of ethics will help to appropriately inform future games, policies, standards, curricula, products, and the like. Target Audience The target audience is very diverse, ranging from practitioners of game development to journalists, to philosophers and educators. Researchers and students studying game design, media and games will find this an essential text for understanding how to better design, teach, and study the current generation of learners. Educators will use this to further their understanding of the potentials and limits of games, and how to creatively incorporate emerging technology into their curricula, standards, and policies. Game developers and publishers can use this text to further their designs, to help refine their choices and practices, and to better think through the implications of their decisions. Journalists, cultural critics, and reviewers can use this publication to consider alternate ways to view games and the nature of their controversies. Finally, this text will attract members of diverse academic, development, and consumer communities to interact, share and discuss findings, frameworks and theories. Recommended topics include, but are not limited to, the following: ? Definition of the field of ethics and games ? Historical and contemporary context of ethics and games ? Limits and constraints in assessing ethics ? Criteria for studying ethics and games ? Case studies (from researchers, educators and practitioners) ? Ethics and new media literacy ? Teaching ethics skills ? Educational opportunities and limits for teaching values through play ? Schools and the ethics of gaming ? Ethics and standards in game development ? Ethics in the promotion of games ? Communities of play and ethics ? Cheating and games ? Issues of race, sex, violence, and gender in games ? Ethics and the games business ? Future implications and the ethical citizen Submission Procedure Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit on or before January 15, 2009, a 2-3 page chapter proposal clearly explaining the mission and concerns of his or her proposed chapter. Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by February 1, 2009 about the status of their proposals and sent chapter guidelines. Full chapters are expected to be submitted by April 1, 2009. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-blind review basis. This book is scheduled to be published by IGI Global (formerly Idea Group Inc.), publisher of the "Information Science Reference" (formerly Idea Group Reference) and "Medical Information Science Reference" imprints. For additional information regarding the publisher, please visit www.igi-global.com. Inquiries and submissions can be forwarded electronically (Word document) to: Karen Schrier Teachers College, Columbia University, USA E-mail: kschrier at alum.mit.edu or kls2108 at columbia.edu -- _________ Karen Schrier kschrier at gmail.com kls2108 at columbia.edu kschrier at alum.mit.edu kschrier at scholastic.com From kimatiu at gmail.com Tue Nov 18 22:48:38 2008 From: kimatiu at gmail.com (Kim Gregson) Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2008 22:48:38 -0500 Subject: [game_edu] Tenure Track position open at Ithaca College Message-ID: <1441945f0811181948s5b230e28xc4894ba2fb1c9c0@mail.gmail.com> Here's the text of the ad. Let me know if you have any questions. It's a chance to get in on the ground floor of a new major that has strong institutional support. The school has a strong hands-on professional history. I like the students - they're sharp and motivated. The faculty all get along which is a very good thing. ---------- Assistant Professor ? Game Design and Production Department of Television-Radio Roy H. Park School of Communications Ithaca College's Department of Television-Radio is accepting applications for a full-time, tenure-eligible Assistant Professor position in Game Design and Production, to begin August 16, 2009. This position offers the successful applicant the opportunity to teach and produce in one of the strongest undergraduate communications programs in the country. The ideal candidate will be equipped to create an environment that encourages student learning, will have a demonstrated record of professional accomplishment, and will bring additional visibility to the department, both within the college and nationally. Serving as academic advisor to students and on department, school, and college committees is also expected. Teaching responsibilities will include a mix of classes in game design and production. This could include game design basics, 2D and 3D game development, genre specific game design, the videogame industry, and 3D animation. In addition, the candidate will have the opportunity to design new classes for the game design major that is based on the IGDA Curriculum Framework; check http://parkgameportal.com fro more information on the new major. Qualifications: Ph.D., M.F.A. or Master's degree plus significant professional experience in game development required. College level teaching experience is preferred. Experience with 3D animation is highly desirable. A commitment to a liberal arts education within a professional program is expected. Interested individuals should apply online at www.icjobs.org and attach the requested documents. Questions about the online application should be directed to the Office of Human Resources at (607) 274?1207. Review of applications will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled. Ithaca College is committed to building a diverse academic community and encourages members of underrepresented groups to apply. Experience that contributes to the diversity of the college is appreciated. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From goldfile at gmail.com Sat Nov 22 11:54:26 2008 From: goldfile at gmail.com (S. Gold) Date: Sat, 22 Nov 2008 08:54:26 -0800 Subject: [game_edu] Vancouver GDC - May 2009 Message-ID: Hello everyone. Currently the IGDA EdSIG is not planning on developing any education content for the upcoming Canada GDC in May 2009. Perhaps you might want to put in a submission so I am forwarding the info to you. May 12-13, 2009 Vancouver, BC Dear Susan Gold, The call for submissions to present lectures at Game Developers Conference? Canada 2009 is now open. GDC Canada will take place at the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre (VCEC) May 12-13, 2009. GDC Canada is a forum for Canadian developers to share best practices for fostering excellence and quality games within their region and distributed globally. This event emphasizes studying the challenges and opportunities of creating games with long production cycles, large development teams, and multi-platform releases. The tracks for GDC Canada are structured according to production stages of game development: * Concept/Preproduction * Production * Finalling * Post-Launch This unique approach provides insight on improvements every game professional can make to better understand production cycle efficiencies and their teammate?s point of view in the production cycle. Your submissions should target the intermediate level Canadian game developer with 4 ? 10 years of work experience. Each proposal will be evaluated by the advisory board before final decisions are made. Submit your proposal by Friday, November 28, 2008 You may want to save this personalized URL to return to this page at a later time. This link logs you in automatically, by-passing the password requirement. If you share this link you may be compromising your personal data. For more information, please visit GDC-Canada.com or contact me at idelillard at think-services.com. GDC Canada May 12-13, 2009 Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre (VCEC) Vancouver, BC, Canada Thank you for your submission. Best, Izora Izora de Lillard Content Manager idelillard at think-services.com -- Susan Gold goldfile at gmail.com "To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all." Oscar Wilde -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tomdowd at ameritech.net Tue Nov 25 10:35:56 2008 From: tomdowd at ameritech.net (Tom Dowd) Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2008 09:35:56 -0600 Subject: [game_edu] Tenure Track positions in Chicago In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <002d01c94f13$8369c610$8a3d5230$@net> Last minute re-posting. Columbia College Chicago, an urban institution of over 11,500 undergraduate and graduate students, emphasizes the arts, media, and communications in a liberal arts setting. The Interactive Arts and Media Department, a dynamic, growing department in the heart of downtown Chicago, a city rich in digital media resources, invites applications for a full-time, tenure track appointments. The start date is August, 2009; the application deadline is Dec. 1, 2008. Game Design Position Columbia College Chicago seeks a full-time, tenure track faculty member for teaching and leadership in the Design/Development track of its Game Major. Candidates for this position should ideally be credited with a game design position on at least two completed or shipped game titles. Candidates must also show interest and expertise in advanced game design theory, programming/scripting fundamentals, world and mission building, and team leadership and organization as they will be asked to teach classes covering these and other areas. The successful candidate will have an advanced degree, significant professional accomplishments in the game industry, and teaching experience at the college level. In addition to teaching, responsibilities include ongoing professional achievement, mentoring and advising students, service on department and college committees, curriculum development, and a commitment to teaching excellence. Interactive Arts & Media Position Columbia College Chicago seeks a full-time, tenure track faculty member for teaching and leadership in the Interactive Arts & Media major. Candidates should show interest and expertise in team leadership and organization, and in one or more of the following disciplines: interactive arts, multimedia, 3D modeling and animation, interaction and interface design. A working knowledge of applications that enhance communication and collaboration, as well as programming languages such as .NET, C#, SQL, ASP, CSS, and XML are also desirable. The candidate will be asked to teach classes covering these and other areas. The successful candidate will have an advanced degree, significant professional accomplishments dealing with creating interactive art or applications, and teaching experience at the college level. In addition to teaching, responsibilities include ongoing professional achievement, mentoring and advising students, service on department and college committees, curriculum development, and a commitment to teaching excellence. We offer a competitive salary and excellent benefits package. Please address a letter of interest including qualifications, statement of teaching philosophy, a current academic vitae/resume and three references (names, addresses and phone numbers are sufficient) to: Interactive Arts and Media Search, Columbia College Chicago, 600 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60605-1996 or email materials to: iamsearch at iam.colum.edu. Minority and Women applicants are especially encouraged to apply. Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/D/V. For more information about the Interactive Arts and Media Department, visit our website at: http://iam.colum.edu and http://game.colum.edu. For information on employment at Columbia College Chicago, see: http://web2.colum.edu/hr. ----- Tom Dowd Columbia College Chicago Faculty/Interactive Arts and Media (Game Design Major) tdowd at colum.edu From: game_edu-bounces at igda.org [mailto:game_edu-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of S. Gold Sent: Saturday, November 22, 2008 10:54 AM To: IGDA Game Education Listserv Subject: [game_edu] Vancouver GDC - May 2009 Hello everyone. Currently the IGDA EdSIG is not planning on developing any education content for the upcoming Canada GDC in May 2009. Perhaps you might want to put in a submission so I am forwarding the info to you. May 12-13, 2009 Vancouver, BC Dear Susan Gold, The call for submissions to present lectures at Game Developers ConferenceR Canada 2009 is now open. GDC Canada will take place at the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre (VCEC) May 12-13, 2009. GDC Canada is a forum for Canadian developers to share best practices for fostering excellence and quality games within their region and distributed globally. This event emphasizes studying the challenges and opportunities of creating games with long production cycles, large development teams, and multi-platform releases. The tracks for GDC Canada are structured according to production stages of game development: * Concept/Preproduction * Production * Finalling * Post-Launch This unique approach provides insight on improvements every game professional can make to better understand production cycle efficiencies and their teammate's point of view in the production cycle. Your submissions should target the intermediate level Canadian game developer with 4 - 10 years of work experience. Each proposal will be evaluated by the advisory board before final decisions are made. Submit your proposal by Friday, November 28, 2008 You may want to save this personalized URL to return to this page at a later time. This link logs you in automatically, by-passing the password requirement. If you share this link you may be compromising your personal data. For more information, please visit GDC-Canada.com or contact me at idelillard at think-services.com. GDC Canada May 12-13, 2009 Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre (VCEC) Vancouver, BC, Canada Thank you for your submission. Best, Izora Izora de Lillard Content Manager idelillard at think-services.com -- Susan Gold goldfile at gmail.com "To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all." Oscar Wilde -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sean at cs.gmu.edu Tue Nov 25 10:41:42 2008 From: sean at cs.gmu.edu (Sean Luke) Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:41:42 -0500 Subject: [game_edu] Where to post *CS* (technical) game design academic job positions? Message-ID: <492C1CB6.8020909@cs.gmu.edu> In March I asked where to advertise for assistant professor positions for artists in game design. This got a number of helpful responses (thanks!) but spawned a monster thread (see http://tinyurl.com/5h7g5h ). So... risking another monster thread, I'm back with the following: GMU will soon be advertising for a position in the *Computer Science* department doing computer game design and development. This is a tenure-track PhD *CS* position rather than an artist-oriented position (of course, we're very interested in those who do both!). Ordinarily in CS we'd post to CACM, IEEE Spectrum, cra.org, etc., the usual haunts of those looking for CS academic jobs. But I've observed that it can be challenging to find PhDs in CS fields related to computer game design/development who also know enough about the tools and mores of the industry to be really good at teaching the topic. So: where else should we post? Where does that rare PhD who Knows the Game Industry lurk? - Gamasutra/Game Developer Magazine? Or is that really too dominated by people looking for industrial jobs? - This honorable list? - Some secret location in the GDC? - etc. Sean From goldfile at gmail.com Tue Nov 25 17:33:01 2008 From: goldfile at gmail.com (S.Gold) Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2008 14:33:01 -0800 Subject: [game_edu] The Global Game Jam Message-ID: I just wanted to let everyone know that the Global Game Jam website is up http://globalgamejam.org and we are adding host sites daily (at some point soon I will have to stop, but the demand is huge). You can see we have numerous prestigious studios and institutions from all over the world ready to host this great project in creativity and innovation. Please encourage your students, friends and peers to sign-up. We expect over 1500 people (pros and and novices in games) to be designing & developing video games in this world wide events. It is 48 hours in a unique idea space the weekend of January 30th through February 1st, 2009. Constraints and mechanics are being developed by some of the greatest minds in the industry. Afterwards the GGJ concludes we will host the games on our site so that everyone can play them. We will also have an entire afternoon devoted to the project at GDC this year. Please contact me if you have any questions, Susan -- In a completely sane world, madness is the only freedom! - J. G. Ballard -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Enda.Dunican at itcarlow.ie Wed Nov 26 05:41:52 2008 From: Enda.Dunican at itcarlow.ie (Enda Dunican) Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2008 10:41:52 -0000 Subject: [game_edu] The Global Game Jam In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Dear Susan We have been running Ireland's first games development course for the past number of years. I see from your website that you do not have an Irish host as of yet. I was just wondering how much work has to be done at the local venue? How is the supervision done remotely etc? I look forward to hearing from you. Regards Enda Dr. Enda Dunican Lecturer in Computing, Dept. of Computing and Networking, Institute of Technology Carlow, Kilkenny Road, Carlow, Ireland. (Tel: 1-353-(0)59-9170508 + Email: enda.dunican at itcarlow.ie From: game_edu-bounces at igda.org [mailto:game_edu-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of S.Gold Sent: 25 November 2008 22:33 To: list Subject: [game_edu] The Global Game Jam I just wanted to let everyone know that the Global Game Jam website is up http://globalgamejam.org and we are adding host sites daily (at some point soon I will have to stop, but the demand is huge). You can see we have numerous prestigious studios and institutions from all over the world ready to host this great project in creativity and innovation. Please encourage your students, friends and peers to sign-up. We expect over 1500 people (pros and and novices in games) to be designing & developing video games in this world wide events. It is 48 hours in a unique idea space the weekend of January 30th through February 1st, 2009. Constraints and mechanics are being developed by some of the greatest minds in the industry. Afterwards the GGJ concludes we will host the games on our site so that everyone can play them. We will also have an entire afternoon devoted to the project at GDC this year. Please contact me if you have any questions, Susan -- In a completely sane world, madness is the only freedom! - J. G. Ballard -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sean at cs.gmu.edu Wed Nov 26 12:45:09 2008 From: sean at cs.gmu.edu (Sean Luke) Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2008 12:45:09 -0500 Subject: [game_edu] Assistant Professor Position, Computer Game Design (job posting) Message-ID: <492D8B25.1070407@cs.gmu.edu> Tenure-Track Assistant Professor Position Computer Game Design Department of Computer Science George Mason University Fairfax, Virginia (Washington, DC) The Department of Computer Science in the Volgenau School of Information Technology and Engineering at George Mason University invites applications for a tenure-track faculty position at the rank of Assistant Professor beginning Fall 2009. The position is in the area of Computer Game Design. Applicants must have a research focus on computer games technology -- for example, in the areas of artificial intelligence, computer graphics, real-time animation, simulation and modeling, distributed systems, computer security, or software engineering as applied to computer games. Minimum qualifications for the position include a Ph.D. in Computer Science or a related field, demonstrated potential for excellence and productivity in research, and a commitment to high quality teaching. The department has over 40 faculty members with wide-ranging research interests including artificial intelligence, algorithms, bioengineering, computer graphics, computer vision, databases, data mining, security, human computer interaction, parallel and distributed systems, real-time systems, robotics, software engineering, and wireless and mobile computing. For more information on the department, visit our Web site: http://cs.gmu.edu/. George Mason University is located in Fairfax in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC. Northern Virginia is home to one of the largest concentrations of high-tech firms in the nation. There are excellent opportunities for interaction with government agencies and industry. For full consideration please submit application and application materials on-line at http://jobs.gmu.edu (position number F9084z) To apply, you will need a statement of professional goals including your perspective on teaching and research, a complete C.V. with publications, and the names of three references. The review of applications will begin immediately and will continue until the positions are filled. GMU is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. Women and minorities are strongly encouraged to apply. From Enda.Dunican at itcarlow.ie Fri Nov 28 05:11:59 2008 From: Enda.Dunican at itcarlow.ie (Enda Dunican) Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2008 10:11:59 -0000 Subject: [game_edu] The Global Game Jam In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Dear Gina I was wondering if you received my previous email? Regards Enda Dr. Enda Dunican Lecturer in Computing, Dept. of Computing and Networking, Institute of Technology Carlow, Kilkenny Road, Carlow, Ireland. (Tel: 1-353-(0)59-9170508 + Email: enda.dunican at itcarlow.ie From: game_edu-bounces at igda.org [mailto:game_edu-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of S.Gold Sent: 25 November 2008 22:33 To: list Subject: [game_edu] The Global Game Jam I just wanted to let everyone know that the Global Game Jam website is up http://globalgamejam.org and we are adding host sites daily (at some point soon I will have to stop, but the demand is huge). You can see we have numerous prestigious studios and institutions from all over the world ready to host this great project in creativity and innovation. Please encourage your students, friends and peers to sign-up. We expect over 1500 people (pros and and novices in games) to be designing & developing video games in this world wide events. It is 48 hours in a unique idea space the weekend of January 30th through February 1st, 2009. Constraints and mechanics are being developed by some of the greatest minds in the industry. Afterwards the GGJ concludes we will host the games on our site so that everyone can play them. We will also have an entire afternoon devoted to the project at GDC this year. Please contact me if you have any questions, Susan -- In a completely sane world, madness is the only freedom! - J. G. Ballard -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From young at csc.ncsu.edu Sun Nov 30 18:02:01 2008 From: young at csc.ncsu.edu (R. Michael Young) Date: Sun, 30 Nov 2008 18:02:01 -0500 Subject: [game_edu] Faculty Position in Games Message-ID: <432D4944-8313-41A3-901B-47908B464124@csc.ncsu.edu> Dear Colleagues, NC State's Computer Science Department is looking to hire faculty in the area of computer game development for positions starting in August of 2008. I've pasted the job ad below, but you can find more details at the department's web site here: http://www.csc.ncsu.edu/employment/jobs/27 We have a very strong department and an emphasis both on research and education in the area of games. Our department collaborates regularly on games-related projects with faculty from art and design, education, humanities and social sciences and has close relationships with the North Carolina game industry, including leading engine providers like Epic Games and Emergent Game Technologies as well as strong studios like Electronic Arts, Destineer and Virtual Heroes. The university's newly created Digital Games Research Center (http://dgr.ncsu.edu ) is home to 16 faculty from across the university that work on games research and teaching. New faculty in CS will be encouraged to take a leading role in the DGRC's efforts to advance the sciences of computer games. We have a new undergraduate concentration in game development and our recent BS graduates have successfully found positions at leading game companies, including Destineer Studios, Epic Games, Icarus Studios, id Software, Virtual Heroes, Inc. and many more. Our graduate students working in games have found positions in both industry and academia, including Emergent Game Technologies, Georgia Tech, IT University Copenhagen, University of California at Santa Cruz, USC's Institute for Creative Technologies and Virtual Heroes, Inc. If you have more questions about this position, drop me an email or give me a call. Please distribute to any interested parties. -M The Department of Computer Science at NC State University (NCSU) seeks to fill multiple tenure track faculty positions starting August 16, 2009. Successful candidates must have a strong commitment to academic and research excellence, and an outstanding research record commensurate with the expectations of a major research university. Required credentials include a doctorate in Computer Science or a related field. While the department expects to hire faculty primarily at the Assistant Professor level, candidates with exceptional research records are encouraged to apply for senior positions. Exceptional candidates in all areas of Computer Science will be considered, but of particular interest are candidates specializing in Computer Games and in Software Engineering. New Games faculty will play an active role in the Digital Games Research Center. New Software Engineering faculty will play an active role in the Center for Open Software Engineering and in the Secure Open Systems Initiative. The Department is one of the largest and oldest in the country. It is placed in the NCSU?s College of Engineering, which has recently received significant increases in private and public funding, faculty positions, and facilities that will assist the Department in attaining its goals. The department?s research expenditures and recognitions are growing steadily. For example, we have one of the largest concentrations of the prestigious NSF Early Career Award winners (18 total). NCSU is located in Raleigh, capital of North Carolina, which forms one vertex of the world-famous Research Triangle Park (RTP). RTP is an innovative environment, both as a metropolitan area with one of the most diverse industrial bases in the world, and as a center of excellence promoting technology and science. The Research Triangle area is routinely recognized in nationwide surveys as one of the best places to live in the U.S. We enjoy outstanding public schools, affordable housing, and great weather, all in the proximity of the mountains and the seashore. Applications will be reviewed as they are received. The positions will remain open until suitable candidates are identified. Applicants will receive consideration starting December 15, 2008. Applicants should submit the following online at http://jobs.ncsu.edu (reference position number 04-69-0808): cover letter, curriculum vitae, research statement, teaching statement, and names and complete contact information of four references, including email addresses and phone numbers. Candidates can obtain information about the department and its research programs, as well as more detail about the positions advertised here at http://www.csc.ncsu.edu/. Inquiries may be sent via email to: facultyhire at csc.ncsu.edu. North Carolina State University is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer. In addition, NC State University welcomes all persons without regard to sexual orientation. Individuals with disabilities desiring accommodations in the application process should contact the Department of Computer Science at (919) 515-2858. R. Michael Young Director, Liquid Narrative Group Department of Computer Science, NC State University http://liquidnarrative.csc.ncsu.edu/rmy/