Videogames 2012
5th Annual Conference in Science and Art of Videogames
Game, Play, and Society

13, 14 and 15 December, Catholic University of Portugal – Lisbon

Videogames 2012 – Annual Conference in Science and Art of Videogames will be organized by the research line “Media, Technology, Contexts” of the Research Center for Communication and Culture (CECC), at the Faculty of Human Sciences of the Catholic University of Portugal, and the Portuguese Society of Videogame Sciences (SPCV).The SPCV conferences take place annually and have come to constitute significant venues to promote research as well as debate and foster the videogames industry. The conference hosts researchers and professionals in this area, and aims at promoting the dissemination of work in the field and facilitating exchanging experience between the academic community and the industry. This 5th conference seeks to assert itself as a multidisciplinary event, looking for contributions from several scientific areas including art, game design and narrative, computational aspects, as well as videogames theoretical and critical analysis regarding practices and applications that encompass the market and the industry. Original and high quality submissions are expected, from both the academic community and the gaming industry.

New deadline (full papers, short papers and demos): 1 September 2012

Proposals are welcome on the topics listed below, amongst others:

Consumption, Usability and Culture

• Games and players culture (mods, clans, etc.)
• Developing and regulating players’ communities
• Social change and digital games
• Game experience and entertainment
• Game characters as cultural icons (for instance: Mario, Lara Croft)
• Videogames and transmedia (movies, comics, visual arts, music, literature, advertising)
• Femininity and games
• Games and mobility
• Games and political communication

Digital Games: Art, Aesthetics and Design

• Innovative play modes
• Methodologies for designing digital games
• Interface, interaction, ergonomics and usability
• Revolutionary game interfaces and new interaction modes
• Games evaluation

Digital Games, Education, and Learning

• Games and learning
• Educational uses of videogames
• Edutainment
• Games and new digital literacies
• Serious games

Narrative, Story and Characters

• Digital storytelling
• Avatars and characters
• Videogames narratives

Economy and Industry

• Digital games and cultural industries
• Economic challenges for the Portuguese videogames industry
• Business models
• Independent games (casual games, arts’ games)
• Games as social software (e.g. XBox Live, Facebook)

Computation

• Computation for videogames
• Prototyping and development of videogames
• Virtual reality, augmented reality

Further information available at the conference website:
http://sites.google.com/site/videojogos2012

All suggestions and comments are welcome. Please contact the Organizing Committee through the e-mail: videojogos2012@gmail.com.