GAMEWORK 1: Researching the Game Industry.
University of Bergen, February 20-21, 2017
NB! New venue: Litteraturhuset i Bergen, room: Alver.
The seminar is free and open for all interested. Drop-ins welcome!
These days the global videogame industry is often seen as the vanguard of cultural expressions for the 21st century. Arguably, with global revenues of over $90 billion, it is the fastest-growing creative industry of all times. At the same time, research on the game industry remains in its infancy and considerable gaps remain. As the focus of existing research has often been on the Anglo-American industries, and to a certain degrees Japanese companies, smaller regional industries have mostly remained in the shadows, and so has a focus on the work practices and cultures of production. It is, however, clear that games are not treated in a vaccuum. Instead, they are shaped by networks of human and non-human actors that are dependent on historical, local and cultural context. In this two-day seminar, invited experts discuss the characteristics and challenges for studying glocal game industries that are increasingly defined by the interplay between global flows of ideas and labour and regional, national and local game development scenes.
Program Monday February 20, 2017 – Public Seminar – open for all
Update: Location: Litteraturhuset i Bergen, room: Alver.
| 09.00-09.30 | Kristine Jørgensen, Associate Professor, University of Bergen: Introduction: What can the Norwegian Game Industry Teach us about Game Production? [slides] |
| 09.30-10.15 | Aphra Kerr, Senior Lecturer, Maynooth University: Researching the Digital Games Industry – Going Global through the Local [slides] |
| 10.15-11.00 | Casey O’Donnell, Associate Professor, Michigan State University: Game Production Studies: Studio Studies Theory, Method and Practice |
| 11.00-11.30 | Break |
| 11.30-12.00 | Heikki Tyni, PhD candidate, University of Tampere: Examining the cultural by-products of game crowdfunding [slides] |
| 12.00-12.30 | Hrafnhildur Jonasdottir, PhD candidate, Westerdals Oslo ACT: Innovation process in the game industry [slides] |
| 12.30-14.00 | Lunch |
| 14.00-14.45 | Jaroslav Svelch, Lecturer and Researcher, Charles University of Prague: Shedding Light on the Shadow Economy: What 1980s Czechoslovak Sneakernet Can Teach Us About Game Distribution |
| 14.45-15.30 | David Nieborg, Assistant Professor, University of Toronto: One does not simply… make money in the app economy [slides] |
| 15.00-15.30 | Break |
| 15.30-16.00 | Olli Sotamaa, Associate Professor, University of Tampere: Understanding the Glocality of Game Development Cultures: Case of Finland |
| 16.00-16.30 | Ulf Sandqvist, Coordinator, PhD, Umeå University: The Swedish Perspective: the Game Industry, the Developers and the Swedish Model |
| 16.30-17.00 | Summary and discussion, by Olli Sotamaa |
| 19.30 | Dinner for speakers |
Full abstracts of all presentations can be found here.
Program Tuesday February 21, 2017 – Closed workshop on collaborative activities
Venue: Room 514, 5th floor, Faculty of Social Sciences (Lauritz Meltzers hus), Fosswinckels gt 6: https://goo.gl/maps/AP6cYWQfbu52
| 10:00-10:30 | Introduction and aims of today’s workshop |
| 10:30-12:00 | Anthology: possible perspectives |
| 12:00-13:00 | Lunch |
| 13:00-14:00 | Research proposals: possible topics for collaborative research |
| 14:00-15:00 | Next steps: where do we go from here? |