Panels

Before It’s Too Late: The Preservation of Digital Games

Monday, June 21, 11:15am - 12:00pm.

Andrew Phelps, Rochester Institute of Technology; John Romero, Gazillion Entertainment; Matthew Kirschenbaum, University of Maryland; Henry Lowood, Stanford University

In a manner similar to the early film, radio, and television industries, thus far the game industry has not fully embraced the possibility that their creations will hold value and meaning years into the future. As a result, neither industry nor academia have embraced the need for archival and preservation processes as part of the natural development life‐cycle of digital games; if this lack of attention continues, future generations will not be able to explore the cultures, technologies, and content of early digital game history.  The primary objective of this panel is to reflect upon and engage participants in a wide‐ranging discussion of the needs for preservation activities, particularly as part of the development and maintenance process, rather than just as a post‐deployment activity. 

Developers with Opinions

Sunday, June 20, 2:30pm - 3:15pm

Jon Blow, Number None; Chris Hecker, Independent (formerly of EA Maxis / Spore); Rod Humble, EVP, Electronic Arts Play

Three developer luminaries answer your questions about them, the industry, research, or anything else. Registered FDG attendees will have a chance to submit questions, provocations, barbs, or barnacles beforehand, and the panel will choose the questions that will spur conversation among them, adding topics as they see fit.

Gaming Friendship: Social Network Sites as Fields of Play

Saturday, June 19, 5:15pm - 6:00pm

Liz Losh, UC Irvine; Frank Lantz, Area/Code and New York University; TL Taylor, IT University Copenhagen; Brenda Brathwaite, Slide

This panel looks at Facebook games both on their own terms and in comparison with casual games, MMOs, ARGs, and games on Twitter.  Panelists discuss how games on social network sites such as Facebook are designed to encourage the monitoring of friends and acquaintances, manage the timing of social exchanges, and graph and calculate social relationships to maximize player advantage.  Thus, such games reformulate existing social‐ludic networks and build on unexpected overlaps between digital life and material life, but they also serve constraining corporate interests in the “membership economy” model.

Good, Bad, or just plain Ugly? Morality and Heavy Rain

Sunday, June 20, 5:15pm - 6:00pm

Colleen Macklin, Parsons The New School for Design; Karen Schrier, Columbia University; Jose P. Zagal, DePaul University

Can we claim that games can portray complex moral situations as other forms of art have done? This panel discussion will feature gameplay demonstrations, thoughtful analysis, and a heated discussion of the ethical issues observed in the PS3 game "Heavy Rain".

White Cubes, Show Floors and Dance Parties: The Curation and Exhibition of Games

Sunday, June 20, 2:30pm - 3:15pm

Simon Carless, Chairman, Independent Games Festival, Global Brand Director, UBM Techweb Game Network; Richard Reinhart, Digital Media Director & Adjunct Curator, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive; Sam Roberts, Director, IndieCade International Festival, Cofounder, Codename; John Sharp, Professor, Savannah College of Art and Design‐Atlanta, co‐organizer of the Art History of Games

Games present significant challenges as a cultural form suitable for curation and exhibition—they resist many of the constraints and assumptions of traditional art display, and are often at odds with the traditional passive consumption of art exhibition attendance. And yet the curation and exhibition of games has become commonplace in both the art world and within the game conference and festival circuits. This panel will examine the successes, challenges and future of games curation and exhibition by bringing together key players in the field. The panelists will consider the traditions of gallery and museum display, the expectations and experiences afforded attendees, the processes of curation, the concerns of exhibition design and the role and purpose of games exhibition in the broader culture.

Demonstrations

June 19, Saturday, 7:30pm - 9:00pm

Double Dribble: Embodied, Mobile Learning

Gabriel Adauto and  Jacob Klein   

BeadLoom Game  

Acey Boyce and Tiffany Barnes   

TrackFX: Game, Database, and Mental Disability

Cecil Brown, Faraz Farzin, Eric Kaltman, Greg Niemeyer, Susan Rivera and Kimiko Ryokai  

Kodu AI Lab

Teale Fristoe and Noah Wardrip‐Fruin  

The Pataphysic Institute 

Mirjam P Eladhari  

Twig

Ian Horswill  

Lakitu: Runtime Repair of Game Faults using Event‐Driven Monitoring 

Chris Lewis and Jim Whitehead  

The Prom: an example of socially‐oriented gameplay 

Josh McCoy, Mike Treanor, Ben Samuel, Brandon Tearse, Michael Mateas and Noah Wardrip‐Fruin  

PromQueen 

Jakob Berglund Rogert  

Weatherlings

Louisa Rosenheck

Crystal Island: A Demonstration of a Narrative‐Centered Learning Environment for Middle School Microbiology

Jonathan P. Rowe, Lucy R. Shores, Bradford W. Mott and James C. Lester  

Playing with Words: From intuition to evaluation of game dialogue interfaces 

Serdar Sali  

SketchaWorld 

Ruben Smelik, Tim Tutenel, Klaas Jan de Kraker and Rafael Bidarra

Story Canvas: A Tool for Authoring Interactive Storyboards 

James Skorupski and  Michael Mateas   

Variations Forever: A Game of Exploring Game Design Spaces

Adam M. Smith and Michael Mateas  

Tanagra: A Mixed‐Initiative Level Design Tool 

Gillian Smith, Jim Whitehead and Michael Mateas  

Adventures Aboard the S.S.Grin: An Intelligent Social Tutoring System Demonstration 

Jim Thomas and Melissa DeRosier