DIGRA 2009

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Breaking New Ground: Innovation in Games, Play, Practice and Theory, Brunel University, West London, United Kingdom, Tuesday 1st September - Friday 4th September 2009.


In response to popular demand, the conference committee for DiGRA 2009 have elected to move the deadline for full papers to 1st August 2009.

We hope that makes some people's lives a little less stressed.

Brunel University does not have a secure credit card payment system set up at present (one on the way, too late for us). But the university's finance department have advised us that delegates can telephone through their credit card details to the cash office:
 
Tel: 00 44 (0)1895 265264
Open UK/GMT time: 9.15 - 16.00
 
All major credit cards are accepted with the exception of American Express and Diners. Please also send the filled in registration form into sue.ramus@brunel.ac.uk before making payment by telephone, noting on the form or covering email that you will telephone your payment to the cash office, and, ensure that the cash office make a note of your name, affiliation and status (student/employed).

The organisers of the DiGRA 2009 conference are proud to announce the following keynotes for this year's event:

Dr Richard A Bartle

Dr. Richard A. Bartle co-wrote the first virtual world, MUD, in 1978; he has thus been at the forefront of the industry from its very inception. He divides his time equally between being an industry consultant and an academic specialising in
virtual worlds. His 2003 book, "Designing Virtual Worlds", is the standard text on the subject, and he is an influential writer on all aspects of virtual world design and development.

 

Dr Ian Bogost

Dr. Ian Bogost is a videogame designer, critic, and researcher. He is an Associate Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Founding Partner at Persuasive Games LLC. His research and writing considers videogames as an expressive medium, and his creative practice focuses on games about social and political issues. Bogost is author of Unit Operations: An Approach to Videogame Criticism (MIT Press 2006), recently listed among “50 books for everyone in the game industry,” of Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames (MIT Press 2007), and co-author (with Nick Montfort) of Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System (MIT Press 2008). Bogost’s videogames about social and political issues cover topics as varied as airport security, disaffected workers, the petroleum industry, suburban errands, and tort reform. His games have been played by millions of people and exhibited internationally.

 

Dr Espen Aarseth

Espen Aarseth is principal researcher at the Center for Computer Games Research, IT University of Copenhagen, and professor (20%) at the Department of Media and Communication, University of Oslo. From 1996 Aarseth was associate professor and from 2002 professor at the Department of Humanistic Informatics at the University of Bergen, which he co-founded. He holds an Cand.Philol. in comparative literature and a Dr.Art. in humanistic informatics, both from the University of Bergen.

He has supervised and acted as opponent for more game-related PhD dissertations than can comfortably be carried in a suitcase. He has published research on digital power and democracy, SF and cyberpunk, digital media, digital literature, humanistic informatics, games and narrative, women and gaming, game ontology, games and crossmedia, and mobile games.

He is also co-founding Editor-in-Chief of the journal Game Studies, founder of the Digital Arts and Culture conference series, and co-founder of the Philosophy of Computer Games conference series, and author of Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature (Johns Hopkins UP 1997), a comparative media theory of games and other aesthetic forms.

 

Mark Healey

Mark Healey is a UK based computer games developer. Healey started his career making games for the Commodore 64 home computer - his first published game was KGB Super Spy for Codemasters which led to developing the Educational Fun School series of games for Europress Software. Healey later Joined Bullfrog Productions to work with Peter Molyneux on titles such as Theme Park, Magic Carpet and Dungeon Keeper. When Molyneux left Bullfrog to form Lionhead Studios, Healey joined him, and worked as a senior artist/designer on the BAFTA award winning Black & White. Whilst still at Lionhead, he developed Rag Doll Kung Fu independently in his spare time, which was the first third party game to be distributed over Steam - Valve Corporation's online distribution system. He is a co-founder and Creative Director of Media Molecule, a computer games studio which published its first videogame, a cooperative platformer for the PlayStation 3 entitled LittleBigPlanet, which has been pioneering in the area of user created content.

Source: Wikipedia. Web. 15 Jun 2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Healey.

The Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) is an organisation that embraces all aspects of game studies, and the conference aims to provide a diverse platform for discussion and a lively forum for debate. We therefore welcome papers from any discipline focused on any aspect of games, play, game culture and industry. The conference will be the fourth DiGRA conference, following Utrecht, Vancouver and Tokyo, and welcomes contributions from scholars working in any area of interest to the association. The official business of the Subject Association will also be conducted at the conference.

Key Dates:

  • Deadline for all submissions for presentation at the conference (includes full papers, abstracts and workshop/panel/symposia proposals): Friday 17 April 2009 5pm GMT
  • Deadline for full papers for inclusion in digital proceedings: Friday 26 June 2009 5pm GMT
  • Notification of acceptance: June 1 2009
  • Deadline for booking on-campus accommodation June 30 2009
  • Conference Dates: 1-4th September 2009