Games Research Methods

Seminar is over

frans — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 09:56:45 +0000

The organisers want to thank everyone involved — particularly our distinguished commentators, Jussi Holopainen and Mikael Jakobsson — on making the Games Research Methods seminar such an inspiring and interesting event. More than 60 people (as much as could fit into the room) discussed for intense two days the 17 research papers that were distributed among the participants. The questions and comments will hopefully help the authors while they prepare their work for publication (some selected papers will be invited for a special issue in Simulation & Gaming journal, and many other might be valuable contributions to a games research methods book project that was discussed during the seminar). Thank again — with this kind of contributions, the work in scientific and scholarly understanding of games and play will continue to evolve!

Facebook group for the seminar, papers now available

frans — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 13:25:42 +0000

Want to network with other seminar participants? Discussion, sharing of tips, comments, suggestions — before, after and during the seminar? There is now a Facebook group available that you can join to link with your colleagues from the seminar: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=107194815975015

The seminar papers are being distributed among the seminar participants before the event (most of them are already available here, the rest coming soon). Since these are unpublished working papers, they are available only for the registered participants. If you have registered, but have not received your link and password, please contact .

Full Papers deadline extended

ka1sa — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 12:08:54 +0000

Due to numerous requests, the deadline for full papers has now been extended to 14th of March 2010.

All seats gone at Games Research Methods seminar

ka1sa — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 11:21:31 +0000

The seminar is now fully booked. Thank you for your interest.

Seminar Programme and Registration Open

frans — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 12:25:49 +0000

The seminar programme for the Games Research Methods seminar is now available here. We also have a limited number of seats reserved for non-presenting participants; the seminar is free of charge, so we recommend registering as soon as possible by sending email to: . There is also more information available about the travel and accommodation options at the seminar website. See also the page giving directions to the seminar venue. Welcome to Tampere!

Update: the seminar commentators announced

frans — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:49:06 +0000

We are happy to announce the names of two invited commentators for the Games Research Methods seminar. The discussions on seminar papers will be opened by Associate Professor Mikael Jakobsson from Malmö University, School of Arts & Communication, and Principal Researcher Jussi Holopainen, User Experience & Design Team, Nokia Research Center. For more, see the Call for Papers.

Update: a special issue in S&G

frans — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:12:29 +0000

An update to the CFP: the seminar will join forces with the Simulation & Gaming journal, and the best working papers will have the option of being selected for a special journal issue. More on S&G, see: http://sag.sagepub.com/. For more on the seminar, see the Call for Papers.

Call for Papers: Games Research Methods seminar

frans — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:35:47 +0000

Updates: there is now an option of a special issue in S&G being edited of the best papers; the seminar commentators will be Mikael Jakobsson and Jussi Holopainen.

What are the approaches and methods that are useful while studying games, play and related phenomena? The dynamic nature of interactive game form, the changing strategies adopted during actual play, as well as the multiple research questions that surround the design, implementation, distribution as well as the social uses of games all present their distinctive requirements for the methods that are suitable for their study.

A rich collection of different scientific and scholarly approaches has been adopted to use in the games research. At the same time the researchers have found it often necessary to modify the established practices to better address the ludic nature of their subject of study. For example, the ethnographic methods as practiced in the history of anthropology do not necessarily fit the study of virtual game worlds without some adjustments. Similarly, the methods that have been designed in computer sciences to study usability issues of computer software are not always optimal for the study of game play experiences. Also, requirement for researchers to play games themselves presents also unique demands to the working practices and facilities of games researchers.

‘Games Research Methods’ seminar invites presentation from multiple topics and points of view, in order to facilitate dialogue and exchange of ideas among the research community. The organiser, University of Tampere Games Research Lab invites theoretically as well as more practice oriented papers, as well as case studies that show particular approaches being used in actual analysis. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

means for approaching and understanding player experiences,
approaches suitable for cultural and social study of games and gamers,
methods for game innovation and design,
innovative modifications of established research methods,
questions of validity as regards to game studies,
critique of research methodologies based on game studies,
solutions and experiences from setting up games research labs,
comparative and multi-method research approaches.

The seminar is sixth in the annual series of game studies working paper seminars organised by the Games Research Lab in the University of Tampere. Due to the work-in-progress emphasis, we strongly encourage submitting late breaking results, working papers and/or submissions from graduate students. Early considerations from projects currently in progress are most welcome, as the purpose of the seminar is to have peer-to-peer discussions and thereby provide support in refining and improving research work in this area. After the seminar, separate consideration will be given to various options of publishing the seminar papers.

The papers to be presented will be chosen based on extended abstract review. Full papers are distributed prior the event to all participants, in order to facilitate discussion.

The two-day event consists of themed sessions that aim to introduce current research projects and discuss ongoing work in studies of games, play and their relation to surrounding phenomena. The seminar will be chaired by professor Frans Mäyrä (Department of Information Studies and Interactive Media, University of Tampere). There will be also invited paper commentators (to be announced later).

The seminar will be held in Tampere, Finland and will be free of charge; the number of participants will be restricted. The seminar is part of the Creation of Games Cultures consortium (http://finnishgamecultures.wordpress.com/).

Important Dates

Abstract Deadline: January 15, 2010
Notification of Acceptance: January 31, 2010
Full Paper deadline: March 7, 2010
Seminar dates: April 8-9, 2010

Submission Guidelines

The extended abstract submissions should be between 500-1000 words (excluding references). Abstracts should be sent to as plain text only (no attachments). Guidelines for submitting a full seminar paper will be provided with the notification of acceptance.

Our aim is that everyone participating has been able to read materials submitted to the seminar, therefore the maximum length for a full paper is set to 6000 words (excluding references). Note also that the presentations held at the seminar should also encourage discussion, instead of only repeating the information presented in the papers. Tentatively, every paper will be presented for 10 minutes and discussed for 20 minutes.

Seminar web site: http://gamesmethods.wordpress.com/

Organised by: http://gamelab.uta.fi.

University of Tampere / INFIM / Games Research Lab