Centre for Games and Play

Articles

The Playful Citizen now available open-access at AUP

Amsterdam University Press has published the edited volume “The Playfule Citizen: Civic Engagement in a Mediatized Culture”. For more information, click here. In the last decade, digital media technologies and developments have given rise to exciting new forms of ludic, or playful, engagements of citizens in cultural and societal issues. From the Occupy movement to…

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Learning through Games: Moving Goal Posts in Educational Game Design

In the symposium “Games for Learning: Moving goal posts in educational game design”, scholars from a variety of disciplines as well as industry professionals met to discuss strategies for the developments and use of games in the classroom. As the educational potential of games depends on the age group targeted as well as the infrastructural…

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Magazine Game Research – Games that Change your Mind now available

The Utrecht Center for Game Research launched a magazine highlighting several research projects and researchers in the field of games. The center started in 2014 to develop an integrated approach to to scientific and social questions by linking academic excellence and fundamental research to the university’s societal mission. In the magazine the center presents an…

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Ecogames: Game Research meets Sustainability

Environmental impact of games 16 February 2017. In the symposium Ecogames: Game Research meets Sustainability, game designers and scholars from a variety of disciplines came together to discuss the impending impacts of climate change and possible ways to counter this. The main focus during this symposium was on how ecogames and their characteristics can help…

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Refugees in Utrecht explore the city through selfie-treasure hunt

On Tuesday December 1, a group of refugees from the Utrecht refugee center played a selfie-treasure hunt to playfully explore the city. This is the second time the game has been played with refugees. The selfie-treasure hunt is developed by GAP PhD candidates Stephanie de Smale and Sjors Martens, and research master students Nico Lopez…

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€150,000 Proof-of-Concept Grant Awarded for LBS Game for Higher Ed

ERC project Charting the Digital has just been awarded a €150,000 proof-of-concept (PoC) grant for making a location based game for teaching and instructing students on the intricacies of field-work, in an engaging an playful manner. The project is based in Warwick University, UK and Utrecht. The development will be carried out starting February 2016,…

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Joost Raessens travels to China to establish connections among possible partners in the field of serious gaming

Joost Raessens recently visited Beijing (China) in order to establish connections among possible partners in the domain of creative industries (universities, academies, companies), particularly in the field of serious gaming. International Collaboration The initial reason for this trip was the Chinese-Dutch Joint Scientific Thematic Research Programme (JSTP), an NWO research programme that enables bilateral collaboration…

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Persuasive Gaming GAP research project at Control Conference 2015

The Persuasive Gaming in Context project, in which GAP researchers Joost Raessens and Teresa de la Hera are involved, was one of the five projects selected to be pitched at the Research Showcase of the Control Conference 2015, Holland’s premier game development event, organised by game dev publication Control. The Research Showcase is a session…

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Game companies and researchers see potential of serious games

On 22 May, a Friday afternoon, the Nest, the cradle of entrepreneurship at the Heidelberglaan, was crowded. In a ‘Science Meets Business’ seminar researchers from the focus area Game Research (Utrecht University) and various market participants gathered to discuss game research and how they could cooperate in this field. Present were large serious game companies…

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GAP Seminar #1 – kick-off edition

Monday April 13 is the kick-off seminar organised by Center for the Study of Digital Games and Play (GAP). It is the first out of three seminars organised by GAP this academic year, the aim is to create a new regular meet-up for game scholars and excellent students to present research, to provide room for…

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