Mirjam Eladhari: Computer Games as Cultural Property

Games such as Senet (3500 BC) and Chess (1000 AD) reflect societal structures and values from human history. What can current games teach us about ourselves, our culture and the society we are part of?

Construction of rule systems for games can be used to illustrate and better understand complex processes. At a societal level it can be about war and peace, on group level about processes such as stigmatisation and bullying, while an individual level it can be about issues of identity. When using games as a form of culture we can temporarily step out of our every day roles and study the processes we are part of by abstracting them to systems. As we step back into our roles we can do so with increased understanding for ourselves and others – we have seen how the structures we live in affect how we act, and how others act towards us.

Join in for a journey that starts in Egypt five thousand years ago, leading to the latest research in games.

This talk is open to the public!

Time: Thursday, November 25th, 19:00
Location: E22

Gamex 2010

Gamex is an entirely new game trade show – Swedens first – and took place for the first time last weekend in Stockholm. The show is somewhat smaller than the world-record holding GamesCom 😛 but still managed to pack some 28 000 visitors and 54 exhibitors during the three days.

One of Gamex greatest strength obviously, is allowing us to meet a Swedish audience just in time for next years study applications. It was a perfect match for us not only due to the obvious geographic benefits and common interests but also due to the huge audience diversity. It was very cool the way Gamex went out of their way to address a wider audience than these events usually attract. We saw a heavy emphasis on family-, party- and casual titles – allowing us to reach females, families and casual gamers. Just the type of material we need to build the talents of a modern gaming industry.

So even though it was a smaller event and lacked a business-to-business area we didn’t pull any punches.

We built a huge booth and brought along student projects matching the diverse audience: from the online children-friendly Fumbies, to the regular console title Pawns, the party friendly Vertigo and Abzolium, super casual Walkabout and the more “hardcore” Dwarfs, Cause of War and Gods of Steel. All of them represented by the student developers, of course.

Layers.se on Walkabout at Gamex

Det andra jag spelade, och dessutom spelade om och om igen, var ett underbart litet pussel-spel från ett gäng elever på Högskolan i Gotland. […]

Efter att jag spelat det ett par gånger så började jag prata med eleverna som var ansvariga för det här projektet och fick veta att de vunnit ”Pwnage”.-priset på Gotland Game Awards 2009. […] Arkadmaskinen med det fantastiska spelet har fått turnera runt ute i Europa och har visats upp på olika mässor och det förstår jag. […]

Estetiken i spelet är helt enligt min egen smak. Det är lite burtonesque med en smak av steampunk (omnomnom säger jag) och musiken var otroligt stämningsfull. Det finns planer på att släppa spelet till iPhone och Android i framtiden och jag tror att det kommer att bli en enorm hit.

Gamex – Dag 2