(cue nostalgic music)

OK, so I haven’t had the chance to post reflections on the DiGRA 2007 Tokyo conference, as I assured my many travel-impared friends and colleagues I would. That doesn’t mean I didn’t mini-journal a few thoughts. In no particular order:

On the encouraging front, there finally seems to be some indications researchers might look to the vast body of leisure/sport studies for some clues to the ever popular “woman/games problem.” So I got to feel very clever having some names and reading suggestions at the ready.

The problematizing of previous assumptions seemed to be another theme (I suppose the negative framing of this would be a re-treading of previous ground). I think this is a positive step, because it does seem in the haste to flesh out game studies as a field, there do seem to be a bunch of pretty skeletal concepts and undefended assumptions. Like how does that oscillation between viewer and user (ala Manovich) actually work?

Of the two ‘big talks’ I actually saw, Castronova seemed to get mixed reviews; I personally felt (all three of the talks he gave) evoked an almost nostalgic, spirit of those traditional, ‘big ideas’ lectures. Prensky’s talk seemed to rub a lot of people the wrong way, and I heard many mumbled questions on whether Prensky knows his audience. I remember meeting Marc briefly at the first DiGRA conference in Utrecht. Sure, he’s not an academic. But I have to hand it to him– he does listen to what we have to say. And, really, anyone who listens (even while shaking their head, sure) to what he has to say, would know exactly what kind of talk he’d give, and in what style he’d give it. Poor Prensky (hey, this is probably my only opportunity to say that) is a victim of timing: against the chorus of voices calling for more data, more rigour, and more challenge, he called for game studies to reach out to the ‘common man’. Come on– had we not all agreed at DiGRA futures game studies had a dissemination problem?

How does our work get translated for…well, with industry, I think we have a start with some of the innovative sessions at the GDC (top research results and such). There’s a very tangible reason to at least attempt that problem, because we can see their shiny mountains of quarters from our ivory tower vantage points. But the media? Non-game studies academics and administrators? Game players (game literacy, anyone?)?

A few other observations: is this the end of Art at DiGRA? Now that artists have more respect with the usual art suspects (festivals, galleries, curators), perhaps the days of the DiGRA exhibition are past. Another theme: specialization.

A one off: Has anyone done a study on the ethnic diversity of game studies researchers?

Second one off: How about the next DiGRA in South America?

Best talk I saw: Grethe Mitchell’s presentation on game audio art (although I have an admitted art bias).

Talk I thought most about afterwards: Chris Swain and the Redistricting Game. We need more autopsies like this of social issues games, as the failures speak volumes (as do the successes). The point I stuck on: while the game appeared to engage the players, and the players could complete a survey afterwards on what they ‘learned’ (a situation I’m sure the survey was complicit in, but anyway), one failure of the project was that players for the most part did not take the real world action of sending a letter to their representative, supporting change. This, I feel, is telling. At the point where real world action was required, players took pause. And upon my own self-reflection, I would too. Really, that’s time to put your money where your mouth is– do you really trust the game showed you something, something credible, something real, about the issue? I’m not sure that *I* would. And that’s saying something.

Best talk I gave (in a long while): Critical Potential on the Brink of the Magic Circle. Afterward, it was great to connect with a group I hadn’t even considered when writing the paper: LARPers. Now I have several new examples of the idea, and hopefully I’ve articulated some of the design opportunities in these types of games.

Speaking of which: I finally had the chance to meet (long time fellow blogger) Gonzalo Frasca at the conference. Or did I? The only witness was a Swedish LARPer…and really, how trustworthy a witness is that? Maybe it’s all just part of her game… As such, I can continue to perpetuate the myth that Frasca and I cannot exist in the same time and space.

The game we looked everywhere for: Taiko no Tatsujin DS! (now ordered online). Games we did find: Theta (very cool), Daigasso! Band Brothers, and Mizuiro Blood (the later two sadly have challenged our entry-level knowledge of Japanese– but we’re still trying)