The Hunger Games and the Instrumentalization of Play
Francesco Crocco
Thursday, September 13, 4:15pm
Room 8301
Can play be involuntary? Can it contribute to alienation? Can it be the basis for dystopia? Join Francesco Crocco (Assistant Professor of English at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY) to discuss Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games and other dystopian films and texts in which play is used as a form of social control. This seminar will explore how these examples challenge existing theories about the nature of play and its relation to utopia. Though fictional, these examples point to similar uses of play today with the gamification of everyday life, a process in which game mechanics are exploited to condition certain desired behaviors (better test scores, more consumerism, greater workplace productivity, etc.). We will explore how these examples of fictional and real play complicate the theory of play put forward by Johan Huizinga et al and challenge Bernard Suits theory that play is the basis for utopia.
Free and open to the public. All events take place at The Graduate Center, CUNY, 365 Fifth Ave btwn 34th & 35th. The building and the venues are fully accessible. For more information please visit http://centerforthehumanities.org/ or call 212.817.2005 or e-mail [email protected]
The Hunger Games and the Instrumentalization of Play
Francesco Crocco
Thursday, September 13, 4:15pm
Room 8301
Can play be involuntary? Can it contribute to alienation? Can it be the basis for dystopia? Join Francesco Crocco (Assistant Professor of English at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY) to discuss Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games and other dystopian films and texts in which play is used as a form of social control. This seminar will explore how these examples challenge existing theories about the nature of play and its relation to utopia. Though fictional, these examples point to similar uses of play today with the gamification of everyday life, a process in which game mechanics are exploited to condition certain desired behaviors (better test scores, more consumerism, greater workplace productivity, etc.). We will explore how these examples of fictional and real play complicate the theory of play put forward by Johan Huizinga et al and challenge Bernard Suits theory that play is the basis for utopia.
Free and open to the public. All events take place at The Graduate Center, CUNY, 365 Fifth Ave btwn 34th & 35th. The building and the venues are fully accessible. For more information please visit http://centerforthehumanities.org/ or call 212.817.2005 or e-mail [email protected]
What percentage of the Maltese population plays digital and video games? What type of games are the most popular within the Maltese community? What do the Maltese people really think about the use of digital and video games? How is the younger generation dealing with digital and video games? Is there a gap between generations when it comes to who plays games and how frequently?
These are some of the questions that academic members of staff from the Faculty of Education and the Faculty of ICT at the University want to answer, in a study on the impact of digital and video games on the Maltese community.
The research group which they have set up, known as ‘gamED’, aims to investigate the effects that digital and video games can have on learning that goes beyond classroom-based teaching.
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