Event: Unfortunate Game Events Seminar

Unfortunate Game Events Seminar -A Seminar on Failures, Tragedies, and other Unpleasant Aspects of Games

May 19th, 2011 at the Danish Design School in Copenhagen.

The Unfortunate Game Events seminar explores the dark side of games: It is clear that games are not simply “fun”, but what does it mean when games are decidedly unpleasant? How and why do we deal with failure in video games? Does the structure of game necessitate straightforward heroics, or can games contain tragic content? Have the introduction of usability methods into game design and the expansion of the game audience led to games becoming too easy? How can these lessons from games be applied to other types of design?

Details after the fold:


The seminar is free, but space is limited, so reserve a seat by emailing seminar@jesperjuul.net.

The seminar is sponsored by DCDR, the Danish Centre for Design Research.

Up-to-date program with speaker bios and directions are available at http://www.jesperjuul.net/ludologist/unfortunate-game-events

Preliminary Program

12:30 Coffee, registration

13:00 Welcome by Jesper Juul

13:15 Miguel Sicart & Douglas Wilson: Aesthetics of Abusive Game Design, From Kaizo Mario to Marina Abramović

14:55 Sara Mosberg Iversen: Failure in a broad challenge perspective

14:25 Jesper Juul: Video Games, the Art of Failure

14:55 Break

15:10 Lisbeth Klastrup: Death in Games and Social Stories

15:40 Jaakko Steenros: Tragedy and Live Action Role-playing Games

16:10 Aki Järvinen: Social Disasters: The Role of Failure in Social Games

16:40-17:00: Final discussion

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