CGSA- Day 2 Afternoon, Session 1

Disclaimer: These are notes that I took throughout the presentation. There may be errors in understanding of content or mis-interpretation . With that being said, this session was a research group synopsis.

Research group-Verus

Suzanne de Castell, Jen Jenson, Stephanie Fisher, Nick Taylor, Florence Chee, Nis Bojin

• Theoretical framework for game studies research
• Actor-network theory and the ways they are trying to put it into use in the context of game studies research
• Past gendered based research had problems that
  • Not boy/girl play – but novice/expert (as discovered through using ANT instead of other frameworks)
  • Games as networked assemblages –
    • Different projects / different research questions using the same framework
    • “Ants in space” – the structures and affordances in different games (how the game shapes the player) and that trying to determine real life identity through avatars is quite erroneous, since art and game form are so different across the board. Therefore ANT will allow for research and analysis to occur across genres / game types (structures)
  • Explaining the research method, lab play, not as ‘contextually real’ but that is accounted for within the research design
  • competency is based on experience not on gender (as determined by eye tracking during novice & expert game play of both genders)
  • bodies
• virtual usage in broad geographical locations – looking for virtual world players (in both public and private spaces, predominantly public) and to compare the ways in which players around the globe play in virtual worlds. Geography (location) as an actor in the network in ANT
• Work in schools: evaluating the use of educational game used in schools. Different school sites change the play / game. Schools as an actor within the network. Different variables (technology, attitudes, etc) influenced the results
• Video Game Club – gender and game play; space and entitlement differences based on club structure over two years.
• Design: looking to make games with educational content in reaction to the results of the different actors researched in the network as described above. Aiming to consider content as an actor within the overall network that dictates design choices. De-prioritizing content as a design problem