CFP

Call for Papers: Games and Innovation Research Seminar

May 5^th-6^th, 2011, University of Tampere, FINLAND

The games industry carries the image of innovation and creativity, but still we know relatively little about the innovation processes that take place within the industry. To date, games and innovation have been studied in several disparate fields, including cultural studies, design research and industrial economics and management. Perhaps due to such a fragmented nature of academic work on the subject, the bulk of the influential work on games and innovation is found in practically oriented guidebooks authored by experienced games industry experts.

The present seminar aims at bringing together scholars of games and innovation from diverse fields and stimulating dialogue between them. Moreover, the goal of the seminar is to encourage the further development of rigorous academic research on the topic while keeping the work accessible to game professionals.

The seminar is welcoming submissions on the praxis of game development, the characteristics of innovation in game context, supply and demand for innovation in games, creativity and games, and the relationship of game innovation and legal practices. It has been argued that the growing level of concentration of the games industry has rendered innovation virtually non-existent in game development. The submissions are encouraged to comment on this claim. What is innovation in games? How does it manifest? Can you measure it? How has it changed since digital games were first introduced? Is creativity in games domain-specific? What is the status of innovation praxis within games industry?

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

• Game production processes, design processes and design tools
• Game industry dynamics and game development
• Roles of different individuals and different types of firms in game innovation
• Classifications of innovation in games
• Historical and local perspectives on games and innovation
• Emerging trends in game innovation
• Game ideation and creativity
• Vision communication
• Prototyping and testing practices
• Player driven and data driven game innovation
• Open innovation, co-innovation, participatory design
• Indie development
• Game competitions, game jams
• The role of legislation in innovation, intellectual property and patents
• Interaction of hardware and software innovation

We also encourage researchers of non-digital games to submit on related topics.

The seminar is the seventh in the annual series of game studies working paper seminars organised by Game Research Lab at University of Tampere. Due to the work-in-progress emphasis, we strongly encourage submitting late breaking results, working papers and/or submissions from graduate students. Early considerations from projects currently in progress are most welcome, as the purpose of the seminar is to have peer-to-peer discussions and thereby provide support in refining and improving research work in this area. Tentative plans have been made on a book publication of selected papers.

The papers to be presented will be chosen based on extended abstract review. Full papers are distributed prior the event to all participants, in order to facilitate discussion.

The two-day event consists of themed sessions that aim to introduce current research projects and discuss ongoing work in studies of games industry, innovation and design processes. The seminar will be chaired by Professor Frans Mäyrä (Department of Information Studies and Interactive Media, University of Tampere). Invited paper commentators include Dr. Mirva Peltoniemi, Postdoctoral Researcher at Institute of Strategy, Aalto University School of Science, Jason Della Rocca from game industry consultancy firm Perimeter Partners (also the former executive director of IGDA) and Associate Professor Ted F. Tschang from Singapore Management University, Lee Kong Chian School of Business.

The seminar will be held in Tampere, Finland and will be free of charge; the number of participants will be restricted.

Important Dates

* Abstract Deadline: February 7, 2011 (deadline extended to 21.2.)

* Notification of Acceptance: February 21, 2011 (postponed to 28.2.)

* Full Paper deadline: April 7, 2011

* Seminar dates: May 5-6, 2011

Submission Guidelines

The extended abstract submissions should be between 500-1000 words (excluding references). Abstracts should be sent to <gamesandinnovationseminar {at} gmail.com> as plain text only (no attachments). Guidelines for submitting a full seminar paper will be provided with the notification of acceptance.

Our aim is that everyone participating has been able to read materials submitted to the seminar. Therefore, the maximum length for a full paper is set to 6000 words (excluding references). Note also that the presentations held at the seminar should encourage discussion, instead of only repeating the information presented in the papers. Tentatively, every paper will be presented for 10 minutes and discussed for 20 minutes.

Seminar web site: https://gamesandinnovationseminar.wordpress.com/

Organised by: http://gamelab.uta.fi

University of Tampere / INFIM / Game Research Lab