#GameConCon
Founded in Spring 2011, Think.Play is a student-run group at the UO that highlights academic discussion of video games and video game culture. Think.Play hosts weekly meetings in the Knight Library where students are encouraged to take part in intellectual discourse. The Think.Play Steering Committee would like to announce plans to host an academic conference at the University of Oregon on March 1st.
We invite students, faculty, staff, and community members to submit proposals for panels, workshops, and papers that consider the topics of video game culture, production and consumption. We seek proposals that demonstrate a central thesis, from any and all disciplines, and especially those works that consider video game play, distribution, and development in Oregon. We also welcome submissions that propose a demonstration of video game-themed works of art for a one-hour poster session.
Possible proposal topics might be:
– video games based on television shows and/or movies
– the circulation of video games in public library collections
– representations of gender in Minecraft
– intersections of video games and porn studies
– an explanation of bloom lighting in relation to video game graphics
– militarization of video games
– ethnography and video game communities
– discovering sub-culture community through game play
– breaking into the gaming industry
– cyberbullying in online games
– representations of race in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games
– independent video game production in Oregon
– hacking, modding, and homebrewing video games
– finding mobility in virtual environments
– the transport of mobile gaming to African communities
– language and localization in video game distribution
– the used video game distribution market in 2014
– race and music in dancing games
– bar-cades and the cultural resurgence of arcade game play
– world-building in games
– games as a platform for education and learning
– applications of motion sensing technology specific to gaming
– artificial intelligence design for enemies in 2D scrolling video games
– video games and object-oriented programming languages
…anything else related to video games!
The deadline for submissions is 11:59 PM (Pacific) on Friday, February 7, 2014. Please submit all proposals to http://bit.ly/1mcmxSx
Individual Papers: Individuals submitting paper proposals should provide an abstract of 250 words of the topic and contact information. A paper presentation should run no more than 20 minutes with 10 minutes for discussion.
Pre-Constituted Panel Proposals: Panel coordinators should submit a 200-word rationale for the panel as whole. For each contributor, please submit a 250-word abstract, a short bio, and contact information. Panels should include 3-4 participants and should expect to run between 60-90 minutes.
Workshop Proposals: We seek workshop ideas that focus on video games scholarship and matters of professional game development. Topics might include: local indie-game development collaboration, art and motion-sensing technology, programming and mentoring, games development networking, indie-game publishing, etc.
Coordinators should submit a 350-word rationale (including some discussion of why the topic lends itself to a workshop format), a short bio, and contact information. For each workshop participant, please submit a title, short bio, and contact information. Workshops are intended to encourage discussion; contributors should plan on a series of brief, informal presentations.
Poster Presentations: We also welcome submissions that propose a demonstration of video game-themed works of art or game demonstrations for a one-hour poster session.
Proposal Deadline: Feb. 7th (Friday)
Notification Deadline: Feb. 9th (Sunday)
Conference Program Draft: Feb. 10th (Monday)
Event: Mar 1st (Saturday)
Please direct all questions about the conference and the submission process to: uo.thinkplay@gmail.com
Follow us on Twitter @UOThinkPlay, or on Facebook.
Conference Organizers:
Laura Barbour, Iris Bull, Tessa Freeland, Cory Ingram, Patrick Lee, Ana Dor Lind, Jon Paull, Rebecca Tobe
Think.Play 