DiGRA runs a conference ever year investigation the world of gaming. The DiGRA 2015 conference was themed around the diversity of play and they recently put the keynotes online.
Two presentations were particularly interesting and I figured I’d share them here.
This first talk is actually the final one of the conference. He says that games are framed uncertainties and explores that concept in a rather intriguing way. He actually asks the question “what makes this madness so enjoyable?”
DiGRA2015 – KEYNOTE – Markus Rautzenberg – Ludic Epistemology in an Age of new Essentialisms from Centre for Digital Cultures on Vimeo.
Markus Rautzenberg “Ludic Epistemology in an Age of new Essentialisms”
Markus Rautzenberg is a German philosopher currently working at Freie Universität Berlin. In 2007 he received his doctorate degree in philosophy with a thesis on a ‘Theory of Perturbation’. He received a DFG-doctoral scholarship at the graduate school ‘The Staging of the Body’ and a DFG-postdoctoral fellowship at the international graduate school ‘Interart’. His main fields of research are media theory, picture theory, aesthetics, the relation of iconicity and knowledge, epistemology and game studies.
In this next talk I really like the connection between delivering narrative while having cohesive and complementary game mechanics. I don’t agree with everything she goes into, particularly around The Stanley Parable, regardless it’s a neat presentation.
DiGRA2015 – KEYNOTE – Astrid Ensslin – Videogames as Unnatural Narratives from Centre for Digital Cultures on Vimeo.
Astrid Ensslin “Videogames as Unnatural Narratives”
Astrid Ensslin is a Professor of Digital Culture and Communication at Bangor University (UK). Her research sits at the interface between videogames and electronic literature, and she is currently running an AHRC-funded project on ‘Reading Digital Fiction’ (with Sheffield Hallam University and various non-academic organizations). Her main publications are ‘Literary Gaming’ (MIT Press, 2014), ‘The Language of Gaming’ (Palgrave, 2011) and ‘Canonizing Hypertext’ (Continuum, 2007).