January 15, 2007
The EGG is rolling
I attended the first ever meeting of the new Enlightened Games Group (EGG) at Indiana University Bloomington. The speaker was Ted
Castronova and it would seem that the topic was relatively straight-forward: "why have a Ph.D. program in game research and design at IU?" Given that it was MLK Jr. day, however, Castronova wove an intelligent discussion about race and gaming. The conversation touched on topics from cross-race and cross-gender play to the potential stereotypes embedded in some characters in popular games today. There were not many answers at this talk but the point was to raise questions worthy of Ph.D. research.
This meeting was the culmination of the work of more than two dozen faculty who are currently working independently on game-related research. There is now a move to formalize a program on campus and appears to have top-down support from the Dean, etc. It is still very early but it was good to make connections with what promises to be an interesting group.
(Note: website is not up yet and they were seeking volunteers)
Posted by Rovy at January 15, 2007 6:22 PM
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