As noted, I spent last week over in the Netherlands to attend the inaugural conference of the nascent Digital Games Research Association. Also, timing worked out nicely to stop in at one of the IGDA’s Amsterdam chapter events.

(Continue reading the summary, or jump straight to the fun pictures.)

The conference, titled "Level Up", was an extremely academic event. About 99% of the speakers were academics, presenting on topics such as "Antigone, Creon and the non-existence of woman: what we can learn about the failure of the Sims online from reading Jacques Lacan" and "The Ideology of Interactivity (or Video Games and the Taylorization of Leisure) ". Check out the program for more details on the papers/research presented. For the most part, the content was extremely interesting and thought provoking. Often, there was simply too much good stuff being presented at any one time that I ended up missing a lot of interesting topics. Yet, despite the intriguing nature of much of this work, it is hard to say how "useful" any of it might be - from a real-world production point of view…

There is no doubt (despite some industry reservation) that there is value in having academe study and research games, players, the design process, etc, etc. Some view it as a means to lend credibility to the art form of games (much like what happened to film), some view it as a means to a better educated/aware consumer base, or better game journalism and criticism, yet others as a way to find some really bright folks to hire… Ironically enough, when asked, not a single developer (of the 5) on my "In the Trenches" industry panel actually consumed/used academic research to inform their development and design process. However, it was pointed out that from a more technical perspective, developers have been delving into the very technical graphics oriented research from the SIGGRAPH community… Anyway, I think this is getting better with time and certainly there are developers with much respect for the academic work being done (eg, Warren Spector, Will Wright, etc).

On the whole, the Level Up event was well organized and enjoyable. It was especially nice to see the organizing team plan in a lot of socializing opportunities (ie, long coffee breaks, receptions, parties, etc). With such a nascent field of study, just getting to know each other and what’s being done elsewhere is of critical importance. Of special note, the conference’s "Gamefest" party was one of the best event parties I’ve ever been to. The Gamefest was loaded with game-like and playful things to do, beyond just boozing and loud music…

With all the heavy-duty academic content of the week, I was looking forward to the much more industry focused Amsterdam chapter event. I was the invited "chairperson" for the meeting, orchestrating presentations, discussions and questions with consultant Ernest Adams (who spoke on design evolution), Martin de Ronde of Guerrilla Games (who spoke about business issues) and Eric Zimmerman of GameLab (who gave an impassioned speech on the need for a strong indie game dev scene). With over 100 developers and students in attendance, it was a nice event to cap off my week in the Netherlands.

(Special thanks to Jan-Pieter van Seventer who helped guide some of us to/from the chapter meeting, and to Ferrie Bank to showed me around the wonderful city of Amsterdam on my day off :)


Finally, here are some pics I snapped during the week:


Academics milling about at the pre-conference early-registration reception.


Jeffrey Goldstein (Utrecht U.), Aphra Kerr (Dublin City U.) and Eric Zimmerman (GameLab) discuss game taxonomies during the reception.


Conference manager Marinka Copier (Utretch U.) and DiGRA president Frans Mäyrä (U. of Tampere) welcome everyone to the conference.


Legendary father of play research Brian Sutton-Smith in live video-conference conversation with Eric Zimmerman (GameLab). It was a stimulating conversation, and everyone is well advised to read both their books: Brian’s "The Ambiguity of Play" and Eric’s "Rules of Play".


Many academics consuming brain fuel after the first day.


It was nice to see games on hand! Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and Nokia all provided game stations/pods with their latest wares.


David Thomas (Buzzcut.com) does not seem convinced by Ernest Adams’ arguments…


Developers consuming brain fuel: Marcel du Long (Playlogic Games), Jeroen Van Mastrigt (HKU), Martin de Ronde (Guerrilla Games) and Jan-Pieter van Seventer (HKU) enjoy some authentic Dutch cuisine before heading to the party…


The Gamefest conference party. Fun.


Designer Drinks: Eric Zimmerman (GameLab) surrounded by Playlogic designers, serving up drinks inspired by their games.


Andrew Stern and Michael Mateas (of grandtextauto.org blog fame) show off a demo of their interactive narrative/game "Facade".


PainStation in action. Ooch!


Rune Klevjer (U. of Bergen), Helen Kennedy (U. of West England), Sue Morris (U. of Queensland) and Seth Giddings (U. of West England) in repose before the conference banquet.


Ernest’s Hat - Part 1: Gonzalo Frasca (Ludology.org), Andrew Stern (InteractiveStory.net) and Chaim Gingold (Maxis) borrow Ernest Adams’ hat.


Ernest’s Hat - Part 2: Hipster Mary Flanagan with Michael Mateas (Georgia Tech.), and Ernest’s hat.


Can’t all the ludologists and narratologits just get along ;-)


Ironically, the nasty club "guards" refused to let the crowd of post-banquet revelers in since it was for students only. Hehehe, all the teachers must have been fuming ;-)


People arriving for the "Flux" IGDA chapter event. At left Jan-Pieter van Seventer and Jeroen Van Mastrigt look on…


Martin de Ronde (Guerrilla Games) discusses the state of the games business in the Netherlands during the IGDA chapter meeting.