In the unsettledness of this field, this forum recognizes those disciplinary forces that frequently attempt to silo the study of digital games into a narrow set of purposes, such as edutainment or gamification, or relegates digital gaming completely into the margins of “low” or “pop” culture. We seek to address how games have contributed to the digital humanities specifically, and how they might impact its future. In other words, where is video game studies in the digital humanities? And more broadly where can we identify intersections in cultural criticism, video game studies, and video game development?
To participate in the discussion, which is already off with a bang, head on over to HASTAC. (Note that you’ll need to register on the site to comment in the forum.)
Last weekend several members of the CUNY Games Network traveled to the University of Maryland to THATCamp Games, a game-flavored version of the humanities and technology unconference. We had a great time facilitating a session of our “What’s Your Game Plan?” educational game brainstorming game at a BootCamp on Friday and attending the unconference sessions on Saturday. We even had time for a bit of gaming, too.
Check out the THATCamp Games website for details on all of the BootCamp and unconference sessions, including links to the archived Twitter feed and a shared, public Google Docs folder with collaborative notes. Many thanks again to organizers Anastasia Salter and Amanda Visconti — we had a fantastic time and were definitely happy campers.
(Photo by me: during the Sunday morning game session I started learning to play Gloom. I found the stackable transparent cards feature to be quite fetching.)
The good folks over at Prof Hacker recently posted a two-part series on using games for teaching and learning. Part 1 is a great introduction to the benefits of bringing games to the classroom, and part 2 offers tips and advice for finding ways to incorporate games into your teaching.
You may have seen our retweet not too long ago, but I also wanted to share a heads up here about an upcoming games unconference: THATCamp Games, which is happening January 20-22, 2012 at the University of Maryland. If you’ve never been to a THATCamp before, here’s what to expect:
THATCamp Games is an unconference, founded as a way to bring together Digital Humanities theorists and practitioners, educational and serious game designers, games enthusiasts and advocates, and humanities instructors and scholars interested in games and pedagogy. THATCamp Games serves as a space to bring together those on all sides of humanities games to engage in challenging and meaningful conversation in hopes of learning from one another.
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