Game Studies Utopia

Game studies is a very special research field with a veritable abundance of perspectives and outsets. Personally, I think that the wide variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives on games is a fantastic opportunity to create a truly multidisciplinary research field where we can all learn from each other and respect the validity of many different kinds of studies. I hope game studies will continue to be a curious research community producing all kinds of interesting knowledge about games and fruitful discussions on how to do scientific work in general.

I have just returned from the nice and interesting one-day conference “Under The Mask: Perspectives On The Gamer” at the University of Bedfordshire in Luton, UK. Again, many interesting studies from many perspectives, reflecting good work. The papers from the conference can be found here, including my own modest contribution.

Next week, I am off to a PhD seminar arranged by the newly established Nordic Game Research Network (NGRN) and hosted by Aalborg University. I have just been reading through the different position papers sent in, and I am once again impressed by the high quality and wise academic reflections that are displayed. We are a diverse group of people, coming from both humanistic, social science and natural science/engineering backgrounds, and I am looking forward to a good learning experience at the seminar.

Conference paper out

I am going the Under the Mask: Perspectives on the Gamer conference soon, which looks to be a really interesting and fun event. The papers that are online at the website now look very good, and here is a link to my own contribution.

Project description finally here

So, I have finally gotten around to putting up a description of my project here. Look and you will see!

Internet Research 9.0

I am also happy to announce that I am part of a great panel at the forthcoming Association of Internet Researchers (a.o.i.r.) conference “Internet Research 9.0: Rethinking Community, Rethinking Place” in Copenhagen in October. I will be in it together with Malene Charlotte Larsen, Thomas Ryberg, Anders Albrechtslund (all from Aalborg University) and Rikke Frank Jørgensen (Roskilde University and Danish Institute for Human Rights). More information about the conference should soon be available at the website.

Gamer conference in June

I recently had an abstract accepted for the conference “Under the Mask: Perspectives on the Gamer” at the University of Bedfordshire in June. I am really looking forward to this event, and the themes described at the website fit very nicely with my interests. Judging from the list of members of the Facebook group, it looks like mostly Brits are going to participate – but hopefully I won’t end up being the only one there speaking funny English.

My paper for this conference will deal with some of the theoretical considerations of my PhD project. I want to discuss the benefits and limitations of adapting literary theory – especially Paul Ricoeur’s theories on mimesis, narrative and identity – in order to understand the nature of the creative process of gamers producing, exchanging and negotiating narratives around the game.