Events

Games research is slowly diversifying in matters of representation as well as accessibility related investigations. Similarly, a materialist and embodied understanding of play (also digitally) seeps in more on a theoretical basis. However, we need to critically examine what kind of bodies are invited to participate in play and how. Where games and play are mostly conceptualized as entertainment for the majority of bodies, disabled people are often relegated to playing for  externally motivated purposes that are often driven by deficit oriented medical models of disability. Using the theory on the surrogate body in play, they illustrate how it can be instrumental to critically engage with norms governing digital play and identifying design opportunities playing with said bodily norms to holistically cater to disabled audiences. They do so by focusing on the critical analytical category of disability not just through an access oriented lens per se, but rather to bring principles of disability justice to play.

A discussion of the promise and peril of POC video game character voice acting, focusing primarily on the connections of Black male anger and Black fatherhood in God of War through the voice work of TC Carson and Christopher Judge, contextualized against the audio Brownface of two voice POC women characters in Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves.

We are increasingly asked to envision and implement respectful and non-extractive research involving marginalized communities. But we are rarely challenged to bring those principles to bear in our own research groups, where asymmetries of institutional power between colleagues, students, and staff are normalized. This interdisciplinary panel will discuss how to foster and maintain just relationships among researchers, with a focus on the principles and practices animating non-extractive student-supervisor relationships.

Dr. Bird will emphasize the two types of language taking place in video games: mechanical, coded language, and visual, representational language. She presents the importance of teaching the history of Indigenous representation in games and will break down various examples from Custer’s Revenge to the Mortal Kombat and Red Dead Redemption series to demonstrate these types of gamic language.

This event corresponds with an in-person workshop. Separate registration required and seating is limited.

Due to technological advancements, communicating with computer systems using natural language has become a casual phenomenon. Speech-based systems, like Siri or Cortana, have become widely popular among people due to their convenience. Speech interaction encompasses a social component as it reflects the fundamental human capacity for communication and enables interpersonal engagement through verbal exchange. This makes human-agent interaction an essential topic of research in the field of human-computer interaction.

This panel highlights emerging scholars in Black game studies. Panelists will present recent and/or ongoing work, sharing a glimpse of the emerging research questions animating the field. Topics include Black worldbuilding in and across games (Fletcher), perceptions of Black male exceptionalism in gaming cultures (Dashiell), and the relationship between avatar representation and Black user experience in social VR (DeVeaux).

This is a free, virtual event! Registration required.

In this workshop, members of the worker cooperative game studio SoftChaos will discuss how building structures of care and accessibility into the team's day-to-day working environment can strengthen the creative process of developing games, and will lead participants in interactive exercises to inspire them to bring similar ideas to their own work contexts. The workshop will take place online over two hours.

How should we conduct research in cooperation and partnership with Indigenous communities? What does it mean for Indigenous scholars and students to do research within the colonial structures and settler epistemologies of Western universities? The panelists, consisting of Indigenous students and researchers as well as settlers working with and for Indigenous communities, will share their perspectives and experiences on these questions. They will begin a conversation to help us consider these and other issues related to Indigeneity in the context of Western academic cultures and practices, and invite questions and discussion to develop our capacity to Indigenize research and scholarship.