Digital Games Research Association

Last updated
Digital Games Research Association
Formation2003
TypeNon profit
Headquarters Finland
President
Hanna Wirman
Website www.digra.org

Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) is a nonprofit international learned society whose work focuses on game studies and associated activities. DiGRA was formally established in 2003 in Finland. [1] It is a leading academic organization in the field of digital games. [1]

Contents

Frans Mäyrä was the founding president from 2003 to 2006. [2] DiGRA aims to coordinate activities related to academic research of games in different disciplines and in different parts of the world. For this purpose, several local chapters and special interest groups (SIGs) have been set up within DiGRA. Together with local organisers, DiGRA has so far produced eight conferences. DiGRA has also supported smaller regional conferences and, starting in 2014, DiGRA's conference is run annually. The published papers from these conferences are collected and made available online in the DiGRA digital library. Starting in 2013, DiGRA began publishing, in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University's ETC Press, an open access refereed journal called Transactions of the Digital Games Research Association (ToDiGRA).

Main activities

DiGRA conferences

One of DiGRA's primary activities is the organization of its yearly conference. The conference is not conceived as a significant revenue stream for the organization, but rather as a mechanism for encouraging and disseminating interest and scholarship in game studies. While the organization's board determines where the conference will be held each year, it is the result of a process that begins with an open "Call for Hosts". The final decision on who the conference host will be is based on a combination of factors. The primary ones include: how well-known, respected, and trusted the local organizers are; how much support the local team can count on; where the last conference was held (ideally it should move around different continents to allow a broader diversity of attendees); ease of access to the venue/location; and the expected expense of the conference to attendees. [3] To date, DiGRA has hosted, in collaboration with local organizers, the following conferences:

The conference in 2016 was held jointly with the Foundations of Digital Games (FDG) [4] series, an annual conference event organised by the Society for the Advancement of the Science of Digital Games (SASDG). This emerged in 2009 from the Microsoft Academic Days on Game Development in Computer Science Education (GDCSE) which had been running from 2006.

Publications

Digital Library

DiGRA archives and disseminates the proceedings of the various DiGRA conferences via its digital library. The DiGRA Digital Library is the full-text collection of all articles published in its conference proceedings as well as white papers. DiGRA uses an Open Access (OA) publishing model and authors retain copyright of their publications. DiGRA is granted non-exclusive publishing rights.

Transactions of Digital Games Research Association

In 2013 DiGRA launched the journal Transactions of Digital Games Research Association (ToDiGRA). The journal is refereed, open access, and dedicated to furthering the aims of the organization by disseminating "the wide variety of research within the game studies community combining, for example, humane science with sociology, technology with design, and empirics with theory". [5] The journal does not accept unsolicited submissions, rather it publishes special issues that are usually dedicated, or drawn from DiGRA conferences. Selected papers form the conference are usually invited to the journal where they can be further elaborated on, and they undergo a round of peer review.

The Editor in Chief of the Journal is Professor José P. Zagal who is faculty at the University of Utah in USA. Dr. Zagal replaced the Journals first editor, Dr. Annika Waern from Uppsala University in Sweden.

Gamergate

In 2014, during the Gamergate controversy, DiGRA became the subject of a conspiracy theory promoted by YouTuber Carl Benjamin, who claimed that it was being co-opted by feminists. [6] Mia Consalvo, president of DiGRA at that time, said that the effort to discredit its members' research demonstrated "hostility to feminism" and a failure to understand academic research in humanities. [6]

People

Mia Consalvo held the post of president of the Digital Games Research Association from 2012 to 2016.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Live action role-playing game</span> Form of role-playing game where participants act out the roles

A live action role-playing game (LARP) is a form of role-playing game where the participants physically portray their characters. The players pursue goals within a fictional setting represented by real-world environments while interacting with each other in character. The outcome of player actions may be mediated by game rules or determined by consensus among players. Event arrangers called gamemasters decide the setting and rules to be used and facilitate play.

Game studies, also known as ludology, is the study of games, the act of playing them, and the players and cultures surrounding them. It is a field of cultural studies that deals with all types of games throughout history. This field of research utilizes the tactics of, at least, folkloristics and cultural heritage, sociology and psychology, while examining aspects of the design of the game, the players in the game, and the role the game plays in its society or culture. Game studies is oftentimes confused with the study of video games, but this is only one area of focus; in reality game studies encompasses all types of gaming, including sports, board games, etc.

Internet studies is an interdisciplinary field studying the social, psychological, political, technical, cultural and other dimensions of the Internet and associated information and communication technologies. The human aspects of the Internet are a subject of focus in this field. While that may be facilitated by the underlying technology of the Internet, the focus of study is often less on the technology itself than on the social circumstances that technology creates or influences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electronic literature</span> Literary genre created for digital devices

Electronic literature or digital literature is a genre of literature encompassing works created exclusively on and for digital devices, such as computers, tablets, and mobile phones. A work of electronic literature can be defined as "a construction whose literary aesthetics emerge from computation", "work that could only exist in the space for which it was developed/written/coded—the digital space". This means that these writings cannot be easily printed, or cannot be printed at all, because elements crucial to the text are unable to be carried over onto a printed version.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women and video games</span> Women as makers and consumers of video games

The relationship between women and video games has received extensive academic and media attention. Since the 1990s, female gamers have commonly been regarded as a minority. However, industry surveys have shown that over time, the gender ratio has become closer to equal. Beginning mainly in the 2010s, women have been found to make up around half of all gamers. The gender ratio differs significantly between game genres, and women are highly underrepresented in genres such as first-person shooters and grand strategy games. Sexism in video gaming, including sexual harassment, as well as underrepresentation of women as characters in games, is an increasing topic of discussion in video game culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lindsay Grace</span> American artist, game designer, and professor

Lindsay Grace is an American academic, artist, and video game designer. He currently serves as the Knight Chair of Interactive Media and is also an Associate Professor at the School of Communication, University of Miami.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition</span> Collection of research libraries promoting open access

The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) is an international alliance of academic and research libraries developed by the Association of Research Libraries in 1998 which promotes open access to scholarship. The coalition currently includes some 800 institutions in North America, Europe, Japan, China and Australia.

Video game controversies refers to a wide range of debates on the social effects of video games on players and broader society, as well as debates within the video game industry. Since the early 2000s, advocates of video games have emphasized their use as an expressive medium, arguing for their protection under the laws governing freedom of speech and also as an educational tool. Detractors argue that video games are harmful and therefore should be subject to legislative oversight and restrictions. The positive and negative characteristics and effects of video games are the subject of scientific study. Academic research has examined the links between video games and addiction, aggression, violence, social development, and a variety of stereotyping and sexual morality issues.

<i>Designing Virtual Worlds</i>

Designing Virtual Worlds is a book about the practice of virtual world development by Richard Bartle. It has been noted as an authoritative source regarding the history of world-based online games. College courses have been taught using it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations</span>

The Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO) is a digital humanities umbrella organization formed in 2005 to coordinate the activities of several regional DH organizations, referred to as constituent organizations. ADHO's constituent organizations are the European Association for Digital Humanities (EADH), the Association for Computers and the Humanities (ACH), the Canadian Society for Digital Humanities (CSDH/SCHN), centerNet, the Australasian Association for Digital Humanities (aaDH), the Japanese Association for Digital Humanities (JADH), Humanistica, the french-speaking association for Digital Humanities, and the Taiwanese Association for Digital Humanities (TADH), Digital Humanities Alliance for research and teaching innovations (DHARTI)from india etc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rivka Oxman</span> Israeli architect

Rivka Oxman is an Israeli architect, researcher, and professor at the Technion Institute in Haifa. Her research interests are related to design and computation, including digital architecture and methods, and exploring their contribution to the emergence of new paradigms of architectural design and practice.

The European Educational Research Association (EERA) is association of national and regional associations representing educational researchers in Europe. EERA aims to encourage collaboration amongst educational researchers in Europe, promote communication between educational researchers and international governmental organisations and disseminate and highlight state-of-the-art findings of educational research, primarily through the annual European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) and its associated journal, the European Educational Research Journal (EERJ), the EERA Blog and the EERA Book Series - Transdisciplinary Perspectives in Educational Research.

Gamergate or GamerGate (GG) was a loosely organized misogynistic online harassment campaign and a right-wing backlash against feminism, diversity, and progressivism in video game culture. It was conducted using the hashtag "#Gamergate" primarily in 2014 and 2015. Beginning in August 2014, Gamergate targeted women in the video game industry, most notably feminist media critic Anita Sarkeesian and video game developers Zoë Quinn and Brianna Wu, among others. The harassment campaign included doxing, rape threats, and death threats.

<i>The Marriage</i> (video game) 2006 video game

The Marriage is an experimental art game created by Rod Humble and released for Microsoft Windows in March 2007. Humble set out to explore the forms of artistic expression unique to video games, leading him to express his feelings associated with marriage by relying primarily on game mechanics rather than on traditional storytelling, audio, or video elements. The game uses only simple colored shapes that the player interacts with using a mouse. The player's actions cause pink and blue squares to increase or decrease in both size and opacity, representing the balance of personal needs in a relationship.

The Fembot Collective is an international collective of feminist media activists, artists, producers, and scholars that publishes the academic journal Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology. Fembot has been a catalyst for multiple large scale feminist digital projects, providing the digital and social infrastructure for FemTechNet, publishing the podcast series Books Aren't Dead, and hosting collaborative hack-a-thons and Wikipedia edit-a-thons with Ms. magazine. Although having been funded and supported by multiple institutions including School of Journalism and Communication and the Center for the Study of Women in Society at the University of Oregon., Fembot is concentrated in the University of Maryland currently.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob De Schutter</span>

Bob De Schutter is a Belgian video game designer and researcher, who is the C. Michael Armstrong professor of Applied Game Design at Miami University. He is best known for his work on the design of video games for players in middle through late adulthood. He has advocated the importance of play in later life and has spoken out against the stereotyping of older video game players in marketing and game design. He has also published on the design of experimental classrooms for gameful instruction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carl Benjamin</span> British YouTuber and political candidate

Carl Benjamin, also known by his online pseudonym Sargon of Akkad, is a British right-wing, anti-feminist YouTuber and political commentator. A former member of the Eurosceptic UK Independence Party (UKIP), he was one of its unsuccessful candidates for the South West England constituency in the 2019 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom.

Policy Studies Organization (PSO) is an academic organization whose purpose is to advance the study of policy analysis by publishing academic journals, books, sponsoring conferences and producing programs, curriculum, and videos.

Mia Consalvo is an American professor of Communication Studies presently at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada and holds the post of Canada Research Chair in Game Studies and Design, Communication Studies. Consalvo has authored a number of scholarly books and publications on the topic of video games in contemporary society and the culture of gameplay.

Adrienne Shaw is an American game studies scholar and Associate Professor at Temple University in the Klein College of Media and Communication. She is known for her work on queer theory and LGBTQ representation in video games. She is the author of Gaming at the Edge: Sexuality and Gender at the Margins of Gamer Culture, the co-editor of Queer Game Studies, and the founder of the LGBTQ Video Games Archive.

References

  1. 1 2 Crawford, Garry (2011-08-04). Video Gamers. Routledge. pp. 3–. ISBN   9781135178871 . Retrieved 17 November 2014.
  2. ↑ Günzel, Stephan (2011). Digarec Keynote-Lectures 2009/10. Universitätsverlag Potsdam. pp. 14–. ISBN   9783869561158 . Retrieved 17 November 2014.
  3. ↑ Zagal, J. (2016) "On Chairing a Games Research Conference", Transactions of the Digital Games Research Association, Vol.2 No. 2 pp.5-20, http://todigra.org/index.php/todigra/article/view/46/90
  4. ↑ FDG homepage, http://www.foundationsofdigitalgames.org/
  5. ↑ ToDiGRA: Focus and Scope, http://todigra.org/index.php/todigra/about/editorialPolicies#focusAndScope
  6. 1 2 Straumsheim, Carl (November 11, 2014). "#Gamergate supporters attack Digital Games Research Association". Inside Higher Ed . Retrieved 17 November 2014.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.