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A course blog from Georgia Tech

Abstract: "Promoting WPI's Interactive Media and Game Development (IMGD) program at a major indus try trade show has the potential to attract new prospective students and broaden industry awareness of the IMGD program and students. This project designed a booth for PAX East, a popular gaming exposition in New England. We conducted interviews of student s, guidance counselors, and booth experts, and selected appropriate projects to showcase and students to showcase them. We then designed an advertisement, handouts, and an inviting layout for the booth, arranging for the necessary equipment and furniture w ithin the budget constraints. The IMGD PAX East booth promises to increase the awareness of the IMGD program, exposing more people to the game development students and program at WPI."

From the introduction: "The staggering growth of violent video games in recent years raises important socio - psychological questions concerning the relationship between the civilian population, the military , and the phenomenon of violence . This thesis is based on interviews with active - duty soldiers , veterans, psychologists and gamers alike, conducting original research to gain a better understanding of the lasting ramifications of this popular genre. Many studies have outlined the negative consequences of viole nt video games, but this mor e comprehensive analysis of the medium will show a more balanced picture of the true implications of this growing phenomenon . As I will demonstrate, the growth of video games is a net benefit for society. Video games as a growing new media - and a rapidly expanding part of our culture - are not to be purely defined by the overly - negative rhetoric that has been popularized by syndicated news and the public eye, as there are so much more "nutritious" benefits games have to offer to society."

"The game enjoyment threshold model was used to evaluate player feedback in the feasibility study of a serious game, Wellness Partners. This game was purposefully developed as a web-based application that combines digital gaming and social networking to promote physical activity and a healthy lifestyle. The game design team led by the second author consisted of current students and alumni at the Interactive Media Division at the School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California. The primary participants were middle-aged university staff (egos) and they were asked to invite at least one family member or friend to enroll in the game as their wellness partners (alters). Players can accumulate points by sending status updates about their physical activities or setbacks. They can redeem their points to collect virtual objects or play animations of a virtual character related to healthy activities. A tag cloud is generated based the frequency of physical activities reported by members in a playgroup."

from the abstract: "This paper investigates how real life goals may add benefits to games much like when contemporary games offer an alternative of monetary payment, to unlock novel features and facilitate progression in the game. For such an optional currency to be meaningful, there is a need for a discussion on how to determine, assign value of and validate these real life achievements. This paper aims to discuss the use of known activities from social media and ubiquitous gaming to evaluate and describe the value for real life activities and provide a balanced discernible outcome that can be used as an alternative to payment or mundane tasks which has to be performed in order to progress in games."

Abstract: Joseph Campbell's Monomyth not only provides a well-proven pattern for successful storytelling, it may also help to guide teams and team leaders through the challenges of change and innovation processes. In project "HELD: Innovationsdramaturgie nach dem Heldenprinzip" researchers of the University of the Arts Berlin and the Berlin Gameslab, part of the University of Applied Sciences HTW-Berlin, team up to examine the applicability of the Hero's Journey to change management using an adaptation of Campbell's pattern called „Heldenprinzip®". The project's goal is not to teach the stages of the Monomyth as mere facts but to enable participants of training courses and interventions to actually experience its concepts using a portfolio of creative and aesthetic methods. While a pool of aesthetic methods - like drawing, performing or role-playing - is already being used, the Gameslab subproject qualitatively researches the potentials for enriching and complementing these methods with interactive digital media and games. This paper discusses three types of game based learning treatments to be used in training and intervention sessions as well as teaching the Monomyth in a game based learning university course. The first option is providing participants with a game that follows the Hero's Journey and inducing them to reflect on the experience and its relation to the learning goal. An alternative strategy is to make participants go through a game sequence broaching issues that are relevant for a stage or the journey of change in general. Last but not least, digital equivalents of the non-digital aesthetic methods can be constructed using digital games or digitally enhanced set-ups for playful interactions. All three treatments have their merits and pitfalls, which are discussed in relation to the identified game-based learning scenarios: self-study, blended game-based learning and face-to-face sessions"

A presentation arguing that you can using internet games with enhancements available through micropayments

A short history of addictive games from Tetris to Angry Birds

"For millennia, humans have participated in rituals in order to experience meaning and purpose in life. With the rise of digital games as a form of media, designers are increasing seeking to use games to provide meaningful experiences - the kind of experiences provided by rituals. This project, Farosia, explores the mechanisms by which rituals convey meaning, and presents a detailed framework for how to incorporate ritual into interactive experience design. The project consists of several small game prototypes, each intended to emphasis different aspects of ritual. By developing and playtesting these prototypes, we were able to determine how to implement these ritual modes within digital experiences, and how to use them to create a more meaningful experience to the user."

Monica M. McGill's blog, assitant professor at Bradely University, one of her areas of study is game design curricula in US, UK and Canada. "Creating proposals in production courses, particularly games courses, is important in order to teach students to think about what they want to do for their project and why they want to do it."

"This is just a friendly reminder that early bird registration for the Games+Learning+Society (GLS) Conference ends in 1.5 weeks. This year, we reduced the student and teacher rates significantly. Early bird regular registration is $350, while it is a mere $50 for students and PK-12 teachers." UW-Madison, June13-15, 2012

Student game showcasing project "first jointly planned effort between USC's School of Cinematic Arts' interactive media division and its Viterbi School of Engineering's department of computer science. The two schools have offered an advanced games class together since 2007."

A regular stream of news stories from Ars Technica about video game development. Features RSS and Twitter feeds and comment forms.