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Abstract: "Player coordination is a key element in many multi-player real-time digital games and cooperative real-time multi-player modes are now common in many digital-game genres. Coordination is an important part of the design of these games for several reasons: coordination can change the game balance and the level of difficulty as different types and degrees of coordination can make the game easier or more difficult; coordination is an important part of 'playing like a team' which affects the quality of play; and coordination as a shared activity is a key to sociality that can add to the sociability of the game. Being able to exercise control over the design of these coordination requirements is an important part of developing successful games. However, it is currently difficult to understand, describe, analyze or design coordination requirements in game situations, because current frameworks and theories do not mesh with the realities of video game design. I developed a new framework (called PLATO) that can help game designers to understand, describe, design and manipulate coordination episodes. The framework deals with five atomic aspects of coordinated activity: Players, Locations, Actions, Time, and Objects. PLATO provides a vocabulary, methodology and diagram notation for describing and analyzing coordination. I demonstrate the framework's utility by describing coordination situations from existing games, and by showing how PLATO can be used to understand and redesign coordination requirements."

"In cross-functional teams, team performance depends on how skillfully function managers carry out the cross-function coordination of team members' complementary expertise and activities. In this paper, we argue (i) that function managers' coordination skills develop in part through the coordination experience gained from interacting with managers from other function, (ii) that coordination experience has general and firm-specific dimensions, and (iii) that coordination experience leads to better team performance. Using data on development teams in the electronic games industry, we show that coordination experience and its general and firm-specific components have a positive impact on the commercial success of electronic games, and that this effect is robust to tests for omitted variables and reverse causality. Our results have implications for the theory of learning and coordination in teams and for the practice of team design in project-based organizations."

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) disrupts the central and executive mechanisms of arm(s) and postural (trunk and legs) coordination. To address these issues, we developed a 3D immersive videogame-- Octopus. The game was developed using the basic principles of videogame design and previous experience of using videogames for rehabilitation of patients with acquired brain injuries.

This is the blog of Games and Learning Alliance (GaLA), Network of Excellence for Serious Games, a project " to shape the scientific community and build a European Virtual Research Centre aimed at gathering, integrating, harmonizing and coordinating research on SGs and disseminating knowledge, best practices and tools as a reference point at an international level. The other key focuses of the project are: the support to deployment in the actual educational and training settings; the fostering of innovation and knowledge transfer through research-business dialogue; the development high-quality didactics on SG by promoting and supporting courses at Master and PhD level."

"Meeting new friends through the world of massively multiplayer games is all well and good, but Sony seems to think MMO players need a little bit of help interacting with each other in the real world. They're so concerned about it, in fact, that they've patented a method for "coordinating real-world gatherings to promote online community.""

From the introduction: "This paper describes why and how an introductory video game design course was conceived and implemented, the best practices developed, and lessons learned since its first implementation in spring 2009. Introduction to Video Game Design was conceived at Johns Hopkins University as a creative, design-based course in which undergraduates work in collaborative, interdisciplinary teams on authentic projects. Students gained a broad knowledge of the gaming industry, along with practical development skills, through regular lecture-discussion sessions coordinated with weekly labs. The interdisciplinary student teams were mentored by industry professionals and worked throughout the semester to produce video games. The course development team faced a variety of challenges stemming from the inter-institutional, inter-departmental collaboration. The authors hope the case study described and evaluation data shared can help other schools planning to implement design-based courses, whether it is based on video game design or not."