PANELS,
DEMOS,
KEYNOTES,
PANELS, DEMOS, KEYNOTES,
DAY 1
Friday, November 4
Watch Day 1 sessions below.
>>> View full screen with panel session bookmarks here.
9:00-9:10am
OPENING REMARKS
Location: Chan Shun Concert Hall
Welcome, conference introduction and land acknowledgement given by Dr. Janice Stewart (Dean pro tem, UBC Faculty of Arts and Associate Dean of Faculty).
9:10am-10:25am
TECHNOLOGIES OF CONTROL & LIBERATION
This panel will open the conference by exploring the various ways that games fit within a wider ecosystem of new and emerging media, from social medias and platforms like tik tok and YouTube to digital forms of state and corporate surveillance. How have buzzwords like “gamification” and “connectivity” normalized the algorithmic authority of new medias and social medias? How have new media cultures created game-like ways of socializing and professionalizing? Given the anonymity and playful anarchy of many games, this panel asks how games both participate in and resist technologies of control, as well as how games reveal the forms of control that are embedded within algorithms and information technology writ large.
Location: Chan Shun Concert Hall
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Jentery Sayers
Associate Professor, English (U Victoria)
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Jess Wind
PhD Candidate, UBC Education
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Carina Kom
Game Director, MixMob
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Danielle Wong (Moderator)
Assistant Professor, UBC English
10:25-10:55am
COFFEE BREAK
Location: Chan Centre Lobby
10:55am-12:10pm
RACE, GENDER, SEX & OTHER DESIGNED DIFFERENCES IN VIDEO GAMES
This panel considers how games have functioned as cultural and social texts whose fraught representations of minorities, women, and “Others” have been in major need of rectification. At the same time, this panel will consider how recent calls for more inclusive and diverse forms of representation have tended to focus on the visual and narrative representations of marginalized people, rather than a game’s mechanics and processes—meaning, how a game is played and what the player is actually doing within it. How have games expressed racial, gendered and other difference in ways that exceed representation? How do our acts of play express our identities differently, and what potentials exist for new and socially-conscious forms of interactive art?
Location: Chan Shun Concert Hall
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Nathalie de los Santos / Nathalie Green
Author and Digital Designer, Vancouver
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Kimberly Bain
Assistant Professor, UBC English
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Sarah-Nelle Jackson
UBC Public Scholar and PhD Candidate, English
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Catherine Winters (Moderator)
UBC Emerging Media Lab Supervisor
12:15pm-2:15pm
LUNCH & POP-UP ARCADE
Meet your arcade hosts and see what games are available to play.
The Pop-Up Arcade will be open only for conference participants during this time. A list of lunch spots on campus will be provided closer to the date.
Location: Telus Studio
2:15pm-3:15pm
INDIGENOUS FUTURES IN GAMES (VIRTUAL PANEL)
This panel will discuss the emerging directions in Indigenous game making that challenge dominant stereotypes and monocultural depictions of Indigenous peoples, as well as the processes and procedures of colonial settlement and violence that games are able to simulate on a large scale. While games have problematic and deeply violent representations of Indigenous peoples (from Custer’s Revenge to Turok: Dinosaur Hunter and the Civilization series), Indigenous game makers have been present in game making from the beginning, both as assembly laborers (as microchip processor workers) and as game designers responsible for some of the most popular innovations in gaming, like the first person shooter (partially attributed to the Indigenous game designer, John Romero, who is also part of the conference). This panel will explore how Indigenous game makers today build upon these histories to re-imagine our present inequalities and colonial presences, and work toward futures that centre Indigenous movements, peoples and lands.
Location: Chan Shun Concert Hall
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Santo Aveiro-Ojeda (Guarani)
Game Designer & Co-Director, Dames Making Games
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Christian Miller (Native Hawaiian)
Writer, Artist & Game developer, Silver Spook Games
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Meagan Byrne (Apihtawikosisân/Métis of Ontario)
New Media Artist, Game Designer, Writer, Philosopher and Founder of Achimostawinan Games (AchimoGames)
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Miranda Due (Pawnee/Cherokee)
Game developer, Artist, Senior Partner Relations Manager at Unity
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David Gaertner (Moderator)
Assistant Professor, UBC Institute of Critical Indigenous Studies
3:35pm-4:50pm
KEYNOTE 1: BEING WRONG BETTER / CRAFTING (LUDO)ANCESTRY
The fear of being wrong can easily become paralyzing. How can we free ourselves to dive deeper into the complexity of the human experience, and what are the benefits and risks of doing so? 19th century mathematician Mary Everest Boole’s fascinating book The Philosophy and Fun of Algebra will serve as a lens. Further, how can we position ourselves within an ‘ancestry of games/media' - not solely defined by Top 10 Lists, recommendation engines, and homogenizing marketing forces? Some of Kenzaburo Oe's lesser-known novels, Somersault and Dōjidai Gemu (Game of Contemporaneity), and overlooked "Japanese Fairy-Tale Fantasy" works such as Sakura Momoko's manga Coji-Coji, or Nintendo's game Uki-Uki Carnival, will serve as points of discussion. In this two-for-one talk, Marina Kittaka and Melos Han-Tani, the co-founders of the small independent game company Analgesic Productions, will share insights gleaned from historical research both within games and without. Together, they will explore how new orientations toward history can affect both personal identity and game development practices.
Location: Chan Shun Concert Hall
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Marina Kittaka
Multidisciplinary Artist and Independent Video Game Developer
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Melos Han-Tani
Game Designer and Composer
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Halimat Alabi (Moderator)
Interactive Visualization Designer & Lecturer, UBC Education
4:50pm
END OF DAY 1
DAY 2
Saturday, November 5
Watch Day 2 sessions below.
>>> View full screen with panel session bookmarks here.
9:00am-10:15am
STORYTELLING & THE ROLE OF GAMES IN OUR SOCIETY
Of all the issues concerning video games, mental health, and social impact have perhaps been the most researched and the least understood. Historically, attitudes towards games and health have been overwhelmingly negative. From stereotypical views of gamers as maladjusted, and prone to violence, to concerns of long periods of isolation and sedentariness, to suspicions of video games as perverse and dangerous forms of media (which resulted in the ESRB rating system). However, throughout the years, these stereotypical views of games have been disproven and dismissed by many game scholars. In fact, games have established themselves as cultural artifacts capable of utilizing their mechanics and genres to share diverse themes, emotions, and messages. From heartfelt tales about the value of family to struggles against depression to tense survival tales about war, the video game medium is a goldmine of creative expression. Join scholars and developers as they discuss the role of video games in these exciting new times!
Location: Chan Shun Concert Hall
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Matthew Seiji-Burns
Game Designer, Writer, and Creator of Eliza, Seattle
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Arthur Protasio
Emmy-nominated Multiplatform Writer-Director/Senior Narrative Designer at Archiact VR
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Claris Cyarron
Co-Founder & Creative Director, Silverstring Media
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Janice Stewart (Moderator)
Dean pro tem for the UBC Faculty of Arts and Associate Dean of Faculty
10:15-10:45am
COFFEE BREAK
Location: Chan Centre Lobby
10:45am-12:00pm
GAME DEMO & KEYNOTE 2: GAME MAKING THROUGH INDIGENOUS STORYTELLING
Location: Chan Shun Concert Hall
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Maize Longboat
Digital Media Educator, Video Game Developer and Producer, Montreal
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Josh Nilson
Co-founder and General Manager of East Side Games
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Josh McKenna (Moderator)
UBC Media Studies & First Nations and Indigenous Studies
12:00pm-2:30pm
LUNCH & POP-UP ARCADE
Meet your arcade hosts and see what games are available to play.
The Pop-Up Arcade will be open only for conference participants during this time. A list of lunch spots on campus will be provided closer to the date.
Location: Telus Studio
2:30pm-3:15pm
FIRESIDE CHAT WITH JOHN ROMERO (VIRTUAL)
Location: Chan Shun Concert Hall
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John Romero
Award-Winning Game Designer, Level Designer and Programmer
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Leonard J. Paul
Composer, Educator, Director/Founder of School of Video Game Audio
3:20pm-4:35pm
GAMES & THE INDUSTRY
This panel will focus on the local independent and alternative game scene in Vancouver and elsewhere in British Columbia. As the hub of one of the largest game companies in the world (Electronic Arts), British Columbia has an extensive and dynamic game scene, yet this is overwhelmingly shadowed by game corporations who are primarily motivated to shape game projects as entertainment commodities. Considering that the language of grants and the arts continues to exclude video games as a valuable and impactful art form, this panel asks how game makers and cultures have continued to make impactful games in Vancouver/British Columbia, and the potentials for change that need to happen to have a truly artful, impactful and socially-conscious culture of game making.
Location: Chan Shun Concert Hall
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Victoria Tran
Community Director, Innersloth and Writer/Speaker
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Lucas J.W. Johnson
Founder, CEO and Studio Director, Silverstring Media
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Carolina Mastretta
Game Developer, Founder and Studio Lead, Original Fire Games
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daffodil
Multimedia Artist, Vancouver
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Leanne (Lan) Roed (Moderator)
Game Designer and Artist, Heart Projector
4:35pm
CLOSING REMARKS
Location: Chan Shun Concert Hall
Conference reflections and closing remarks given by Dr. David Gaertner (Assistant Professor, UBC Critical Indigenous Studies).