EXPERIENCING DIGITAL GAMES: USE, EFFECTS & CULTURE OF GAMING
Pre-Conference to ECREA’s fourth European Communication Conference, ECC
2012 (Istanbul, Turkey), 23 – 24 October 2011
In the past decades, digital games have diversified into a broad range
of forms each with their specific interactions and experiences: from
rapid button mashing in shooter games to group chat in role-playing
games, to wild dancing in party games and to actual running around in a
city and engaging with the environment in location-based mobile games.
Thus digital games have increasingly come to be seen as generators of
experiences rather than just sources of mediated content. You do not
just receive games, you live them!
Continues after the jump
Understanding digital game experience presents an important challenge
for present-day communication research. Not just is there a plethora of
different types of games, the very fact that an experience occurs
between the player and the mediated content implies that characteristics
of the user, device, (social) context and culture at large need to be
taken into account. In this regard, traditional use and effects models
from communication studies and media psychology have proven useful but
still fall short in describing and mapping the specificities of digital
gaming. Digital game-specific theories and analytical frameworks on the
other hand have often had a hard time linking up with mainstream
communication and media research as they are often perceived as too
idiosyncratic for use beyond digital gaming.
The pre-conference “Experiencing Digital Games” aims to bridge this gap
and open a vital discussion on the use, effects and culture of digital
gaming. To enable a broad discussion on the gaming experience, different
disciplinary approaches, methods and perspectives are welcomed,
including production research, content analyses, effects and use
research, cultural analysis, design-oriented approaches etc.
Conference topics include (but are not limited to):
– Everyday experience& culture of digital games
– Use aspects of digital games
– Effects of digital game experiences
– Gamer characteristics and experiences
– Designing specific forms of game experience
– Comparisons of different forms of gaming
– Immersion& presence
– Game experience and motivations for playing
– Game content analysis and experience
– Methodologies for game experience research
– Avatars, identification and self-representation in virtual worlds
– Social interaction in digital games as a specific form of game experience
– General theoretical and empirical approaches regarding game experience
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Abstracts
Anyone wishing to propose a paper for presentation at the conference is
invited to submit an anonymized extended abstract of no more than four
pages (10000 characters including spaces) in APA style to the organizing
committee at the email address
precon@digital-games.eu
before 28 February 2012.
The abstracts will be subject to a peer review process. Notification of
acceptance will be sent by 31 March 2012.
When submitting the abstract, please include a separate cover page
including the following contact details:
– title
– name
– department/organization
– address
– e-mail
Abstracts should make it absolutely clear what the current status of the
proposed work is. A preference is given to finished work ready for
presentation (note: this includes theoretical/ conceptual papers, if the
concept itself is the main object of presentation and not some related,
yet unfinished empirical work). By sending in an abstract, the authors
agree to personally present their research at the conference.
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Location& Main Conference
ECC 2012 will take place at Bilgi University (Istanbul, Turkey) from
24-27 October 2012. Istanbul is Turkey’s largest city, and with more
than 13 million inhabitants, it is one of the largest metropolitan areas
in Europe. Located on the Bosphorus strait and stretching along the
Golden Horn, the city is situated both in Europe and Asia. It offers a
rich Roman, Christian and Ottoman heritage in its historic districts, as
well as the pulsating street life of a modern city. Bilgi University,
founded in 1994, has three centrally located campuses that are
interconnected via Shuttle Buses. More information on the university can
be found via Bilgi’s website:
The main ECC conference will provide a broad platform to meet and
discuss the profound transformations that are taking place globally in
the mass mediated societies. The proposed theme “Social Media And Global
Voices” opens a space for a vibrant discussion in the European academic
scene. The main conference will offer a large variety of scientific
panels, podium discussions and meetings. ECREA’s Sections, Networks,
Temporary Working Groups will organize thematic sessions and or panels,
covering a wider range of topics related to (mediated) communication.
More information on the ECC 2012 and the respective Calls for Proposals
can be found here:
http://www.ecrea2012istanbul.eu/
During the main conference, the Temporary Working Group will organize a
Business Meeting and a Panel with invited speakers, presenting selected
research findings to the main ECREA audience.
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About the TWG “Digital Games Research”
The Temporary Working Group “Digital Games Research” was founded in
2011, giving European communication scholars interested in computer and
video games research a dedicated home in ECREA.
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Additional Information
The language of the pre-conference is English. Full papers should be
ready at least two weeks before the conference (19 October 2012), so
that conference participants have the opportunity to read them.
Depending on the number, quality and coherence of the submissions, a
publication of a proceedings volume will be considered.
Further information about the pre-conference can be found at the TWG’s
website:
www.digital-games.eu
We will update the website with the final programme and additional
information in the coming months.