Gameology: Commentary and Resources for the Game Studies Community

Does anyone know of any good articles on videogame design principles? I'm teaching a multimedia authoring course this semester, and the final project asks students to design a prototype of a videogame. Since the whole course isn't about game design, I don't want to bombard my students with a ton of reading on the subject; instead, I'd like to give them one or two articles that'll provide a basic working vocabulary. If anyone has such an article in mind, I'd love to hear about it.

In checking recent posts, I ended up on my account page on Gameology and found "Member for 2 years 50 weeks" and Zach's shows "2 years 51 weeks". That means we're coming up on a three year anniversary for Gameology! Since Gameology took over the earlier and smaller Academic-Gamers blog it's actually been even longer than three years. Three years for Gameology alone is an impressive tenure especially given videogame studies' general youth as a whole. It's still a bit early, but it's nice to see this anniversary right before the new academic year starts and brings another year of activity for Gameology.

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From Henry JenkinLowood's blog, the How They Got Game project will be starting up a new journal, Historical Studies of Digital Entertainment Media edited by Matteo Bittanti and Henry Lowood. Historical Studies of Digital Entertainment Media's theme for the first issue will be "Digital Games: Historical and Preservation Studies," and the journal will be openly online, published using the Open Journal System of the Public Knowledge Project. It's always great to see new journals in the field, especially new open access online journals because accessible research can have the most immediate, widest, and greatest impact and use.

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The organizers of the 2008 Meaningful Play Conference want to remind you that the deadline for submissions is soon:

So if you like waiting until the last minute to submit things, this is it!

The Refractory journal's Issue 13: Games and Metamateriality, is online. It includes an article by Gameology's own Zach Whalen.

I remember making a short film with some friends after one of them had bought an early digital video camera, and being somewhat surprised that the whole process didn't consist of lining up actors in front of the lens, having them say their lines in order and then calling it a day. There was makeup, props, continuity, sound and lighting to worry about, and scenes were shot in haphazard order. Then it was all editing, editing, editing.

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Two postdoctoral positions in the digital humanities and two fellowship positions in digital art are now available at HUMlab, Umeå University, Sweden from August 1, 2008 (the actual start date may be later).

The postdoctoral fellowships are one-year positions, with a possible extension of one year. The digital art fellowships are one-year positions. For the postdoc positions, applicants will be expected to have a Ph.D. in a humanities discipline (from a non-Swedish university) and a specialty in any of the following five research areas: participatory media, digital cultural heritage, digital art/architecture, electronic literature, and critical perspectives. For the digital art fellowships, applicants will be expected to have an M.F.A or the equivalent (from a non-Swedish institute/school). In exceptional cases, other areas and backgrounds can be of interest as well.

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I've started reading The Innovator's Dilemma after seeing it recommended as a business-based perspective on technological change. Early on, the book has an example of how disruptive innovations are problematic for businesses because they change the business model--costing a great deal to develop and not being saleable to the same market, so they're neglected until it's too late and the old model starts to fail (the historical emergence of personal computers with mainframes vs. personal computers in the early days when some needs could be met by both). While I haven't finished the book (or the follow-up book), I started thinking of game-related innovations that could fit the same model and it seems like the multi-touch-sensitivity of the MacBook Air and the iPhone as well as the other types of user interfaces (Nintendo DS with sound, air and Nintendo Wii with movement) are the best current examples of what's to come (or at least the best examples related to my interests since narrative, complexity, personalization, procedurality, and many other areas are also developing rapidly).

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Visiting Assistant Professor in Professional Writing Position, U of Central Florida, Department of English, PO Box 161346 Orlando FL 32816

The Department of English at the University of Central Florida seeks a Visiting Assistant Professor specializing in Professional Writing to be employed at our Southern region campus. The non-tenure track position requires a PhD in English, Rhetoric/Composition, or a related field with specialization in technical and/or professional communication from an accredited institution and the ability to teach undergraduate and graduate courses. Position begins August 2008. Teaching load is 4/4. Possible assignments will include courses in our online Graduate Certificate in Professional Writing and our online M.A. in Technical Communication as well as our undergraduate professional writing and technical communication courses. Face-to-face courses and office hours will be primarily on UCF's Southern region campus in Cocoa. Must have expertise in developing and teaching web-based courses or be willing to teach online after receiving training on campus.

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