Category: Guest Lectures

This lecture is part of the Serious Games for Human Rights. It is open to the public!

Discussions on international law, human rights and digital games are often held along the lines that certain games, especially some FPS games, violates these rules in the game play and that there is a risk that individuals/gamers may be affected and carry out these violations in real life. While the second part of this argument is controversial and yet to be backed up by convincing research, also the first part is not fully convincing, since unlike humans in real life, the pixels on the screen does not have rights and obligations. It is after all only a game. But in real life, also in a conflict zone, legal matters plays a very important role in how people and organizations decides to act, what they do and don’t do. Introducing aspects of human rights and laws of war into the game could be one way of creating a more realistic, thoughtful and challenging gaming experience and to take it to a new level.

Daniel Nord joined the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) as it’s Deputy Director in 2005. He previously worked in the Secretariat for the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission (WMDC), an international commission headed by Dr Hans Blixt. He has also worked as a Legal Adviser to the Swedish Red Cross.

Time: Friday, Oktober 14th, 13:00
Location: E22

The rest of the programme:
13.00 Lecture by Daniel Nord
“Why international law matters in creating more challenging games”
14.30 Lecture by Jonas Thente
“Can Gaming Increase the Awareness of Human Rights?”
16.00 Panel debate with the speakers, Anne Duse from Gotland University GAME and game designer Ernest Adams.

Ambassador Krister Bringéus

Afghanistan through the eyes of a Swedish diplomat – not through an American soldier’s gunsight. A look at the life in Afghanistan, where Taliban influence is rapidly spreading; at the role of women in a culture that, in the 10th century, gave the world Rabia Balkhi, the first woman known to compose poetry in both Arabic and Persian; at the heavy opium addiction, where children are introduced to the drug by their parents.

So how do international agreements and the rules of law play out in such a complicated situation.

This talk is part of the Human Rights in Serious Games course for 2011. It’s free and open to the public!

Time: Friday, September 30th, 14:00-15:00
Location: E22

Professor Richard Bartle is coming back for a new lecture, September 14th!

This marks the first of a series of public lectures hosted by GAME this autumn in our course Human Rights and Diversity in Serious Games 2010. Like last year we’ll invite speakers from the industry, arts, academia, press, government and more, to discuss human rights and diversity in the context of modern interactive technology. All lectures are free and open to the public!

Bartle is a professor and game researcher at the University of Essex. He’s most famous for having created MUD (multi-user dungeon) – the first of what would later evolve to become massively multiplayer online role-playing games. He’s one of the regular writers over at the popular science blog Terra Nova, with a focus on the study of virtual worlds and he was the examiner for our own doctor Mirjam Eladhari’s dissertation. 🙂

He will be talking about human rights in virtual worlds and his work with the European Council to create an HR-manifest for games.

Time: Wednesday, September 14th, 10:00-12:00
Location: E22

Keep questions and discussions in the student forums please.