The Heldrich Hotel, New Brunswick, New Jersey USA
April 8-9, 2011
http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/conferences/game-behind-the-game
We invite you to submit abstracts, proposals and posters for a two-day conference that addresses the video gaming industry and business models, and will include presenters and papers on industry approaches to strategy, positioning, and management; legal and regulatory challenges; emerging trends in demographics and applications, as well as marketing and media responses. This conference is hosted by the Rutgers School of Communication and Information and the Institute for Information Policy (IIP), and will be held at the Heldrich Hotel in New Brunswick, NJ. Details about the conference can be found below.
AIM
Our goal is to foster a professional conversation and debate among industry leaders, experts, and scholars who share interests in video games as they relate to policy, law, and society, with specific attention to legal implications, business models, and economic forces unfolding. While gaming discourse often centers on technology, game design, and platform development, we will focus instead on the leadership and direction of the “metaverse:” from the management of sub-economies inside virtual worlds to bandwidth management; from marketing to the disenfranchised to creating entertainment franchises; and from using social gaming to save the world or to create new world orders. Games, gaming economies, and the use of gaming for training and modeling in technical, professional, militaristic, medical, and educational arenas shape our relationships to each other and to what we want as individuals and as communities.
The conference will be held at the Heldrich Hotel in New Brunswick, New Jersey from late afternoon on Friday, April 8th 2011 to late afternoon on Saturday, April 9th. We are planning for an attendance of more than 150 professionals, experts, scholars, and students. We invite you to join us as we identify key issues and questions, consider and recommend policy alternatives, and influence a research agenda around the “game behind the game” or the business implications underlying the industry.
SCOPE:
Topics of interest include but are not limited to:
Business and Economic
· Labor, production, demand, and consumption of games
· Economics and business models in the game industry
· Virtual goods, money, property and/or services
· Packaging/bundling of gaming into entertainment of all kinds (books, movies, games, theme parks, etc.)
· New markets (disenfranchised communities, inexpensive games, etc.)
· Marketing and market strategies
· Gaming and the globalization processes
· The economy within videogames / when “virtual” money becomes real
· Bandwidth and video games
· Videogame impacts on telecommunications infrastructure
Applications
· Business applications of gaming platforms
· New technology and non-traditional applications (e.g. defense)
· Games as social platforms
· Developing games in virtual worlds
Law and Policy
· Legal aspects (e.g. Supreme Court case of California law)
· Policy/regulatory environment/constraints of videogames
· “Filters” and videogames; videogame regulation
· Ethics and games
· Political role of videogames
Society
· The role of the press/media in gaming industry
· Social, political and ethical issues related to digital games and gaming
· Women and diversity in games/representations and stereotypes in games
· Gamer culture and community trends
· Impacts of videogames on society
STRUCTURE:
The conference will use a speakers/panels/workshops format, using pre-distributed abstract papers as a basis for discussion. It will include: discussions from leaders in academia and industry; peer-reviewed paper sessions, panel sessions (including academic and industry discussions), a poster session, and exhibits from industry-leading vendors.
SUBMISSIONS PROCESS:
For abstracts: Please submit a 500 word abstract by following the screen instructions here:
http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/conferences/game-behind-the-game/cfp/abstracts.html
For panel proposals: Please submit your proposal by following the screen instructions here:
http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/conferences/game-behind-the-game/cfp/panel-proposal-submissions.html
For student posters: Please submit your posters by following the screen instructions here:
http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/conferences/game-behind-the-game/cfp/posters.html The deadline for submission of abstracts, proposals and posters is December 15, 2010. All submissions are subject to a blind refereeing process.
Please feel free to also forward any questions about submissions to Dr. Julio Angel Ortiz. Information on the conference can be found at: http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/conferences/game-behind-the-game
REGISTRATION:
Registration will open in January 2011 and ending in April 2011. Please check our conference website for registration information and fees.
BEST PAPER AND POSTER AWARDS:
An award will be offered to the authors of the best paper and best poster accepted to the conference. The award intends to cover only their travel and lodging expenses.