GLS

The conference is over and I gave my paper today. As a side note, the general consensus of some folks that the middle aged white men in suits were probably public school administrators because almost every question that they asked at every presentation was about how what people were doing fit in to the "standards". At the ame time, you can see from my notes, that a lot of folks were talking about teaching to the standards woth games. * sigh * I was hoping for more. This is the first year of this very expensive two day conference ($300 early registration). I might give it another chance next year to see if a broader range of folks and mainstramer commercial developers come out. Don't get me wrong, there were some great sessions that gave me some hope. I'm wondering if Education Arcade or the women in gaming (or something) might not be a better fit for me and the kind of theorizing that I am doing. More and more I am starting to wonder if my work fits anywhere at all.

Today I did a presentation on rhetorical representations of race in GTA games ( slideshow ). The talk seemed to receive mixed reactions. There were lots of questions after. People wanted to know if I thought games were really developed around stereotypes and if they were was that really a bad thing since stereotypes were based on fact, right? (What the Fuck?) Yeah, you heard me. There are folks who still want to dismiss racism in games because some games that allow you to make your own avatars let you make brown avatars of different body shapes or to cross dress. (Yep, that makes it all better). People seemed to warm to comments that I made about gender issues in gaming, but not so much about race. Don't get me wrong, this wasn't everyone. Almost all of the folks in the room that could be considered Other came up to me and thanked me for being there and for saying the things that I said. One person just looked around and said "They just don't get it" Why is it that folks are just not getting it? Are folks still so damned afraid of being labeled racist that they won't even have an intellectual discussion about it?

I passed out lots of business cards to students who are interested in working on race and game theory. To be honest I'm frustrated on a number of levels. There is a call for scholarship on race, but no one wants to deal with if it makes them feel "yucky". At the same time I feel sorry for the up and coming grad students of color who have to deal with this bullshit! After almost 15 years I'm getting used to it, but damn I was hoping by this point that things would be getting better. Are these budding scholars really going to be able to do the work that they want and NEED to do if folks in the field don't see the value? This ain't to say that all of the folks in the field are this way, but enough to frustrate me...at least today.

There are truly some days when I want to call it quits. I can't do the feel good scholarship that people seem to want because most days there just ain't shit to feel good about. Then I step back and remember why I said I was going to do this in the first place. This is work that needs to be done, but the real world is looking better and better everyday.

I present my paper this afternoon and I spent last night watching the Pistons lose to San Antonio, drinking beer, and working on my powerpoint and video trialer presentation. Here's hoping that it works out well in the end.

Playing Culture Symposium

Jesper Juul & Eric Zimmerman

Zimmerman and Juul : Game design as critical practice; what does it mean to do game design as research?

Moderately multiplayer off-line role playing game (MMORPG)

            Looking at where a game begins and ends.

(as always click on read more to see the full set of notes)

Not to self to get to the next session significantly early so that I can get a plug. After notetaking all morning and using the wireless my battery is just about dead. I may not make it through this session. (I didn't. I had to grad a pen and notebook, yep the paper kind!)

David Squire: Creating Links- RPG characterization, Identity and Learning

Elizabeth Hayes: Gendered Identities at Play

Lisa Galarneau: The Power of Perspective: Games and Simulations for Transformative Learning

Squire: Exploring aspects of gaming techniques (game design) and game theory applied to learning design. Sees learning games as different from edugames because they do not seek to fit into a set curriculum in the library like edugames do.   Looking at RPGs (features that create, RPG puzzles, exploration, and NPCs), relationship between player and avatar, character development and design, and learning game design issues.

As with the last entry, click read more to see the whole post.

Session: Managed Gaming in the College and High School Classroom: Best Practices (Workshop) : Nick deKanter, Dave McDivitt, and Bert Snow.

I am skipping the Gee session that is running at the same time because I know that it is going to be crazy full and I can always catch it later because it is going to be made available online. I always feel for the folks who are running at the same time with featured session. The funny thing is that the first thing that I saw when I walked into this room was a big ass swastika. That damn near made me turn my ass around and walk out. But I took the plunge and sat down. There are a few more women and younger folks coming in. I even saw one other African American person in the main hall (woohoo!)

(click read more to read the synopsis and observations of the morning sessions)

8:30 a.m. So the conference begins today. After spending hours exploring the city (which is much larger than I expected) I got up early this morning and headed over to check-in for the conference. Everything went smoothly. I got a name badge and the username and password for the wireless connection that I forked over 20 bucks for (so I damned well better use it!). I got fruit, coffee, and a danish (that I need like a whole in the head) and now I'm sitting here looking out over Lake Monona and blogging. The coffee is hot (if not good) and I'm wishing that I had brought my camera. So far I am astounded that most of the folks here are old white men in suits. Am I surprised that they are white and mmen? What do you think I am, stupid? Of course not, I am surprised at the fact that they are all middle age plus and wearing frigging suits. I did opt for tailored shorts and a polo shirt today (did tennis shoes so that I can walk at lunch time). So these are my initial observations. Jim Gee is supposed to do a welcome at 8:30 so we'll see how that goes. More later, now I need more hot bad coffee (there is a coffee shop not too far away) and grapes dammit.