While I was too poor to attend this year's Digital Game Researcher Association (DiGRA) Conference I desperately wanted to go. The annual event doesn't receive as much fanfare as E3 or GDC, but as an academic working vaguely in the field of computer games research, it is one of the few meccas of knowledge in the area.
Thankfully, these games research lot are a techno-savvy bunch so there has been significant coverage of what happened. Particularly good is Ren Reynolds' round-up on Gamasutra. In it, he discusses two important emerging areas: emotional and physical reactions to video game playing and games as tools for learning.
The first, typified by the "Psychophysiology of Video Gaming: Phasic Emotional Responses to Game Events" presentation, highlighted some intriguing new findings which, as Reynolds rightly says, may turn the violence in video games debate on its head.
The data also seemed to indicate that in a first person shooter, the strongest emotional reaction is not related to killing but to one's own death - a result that might have a bearing on the whole video game violence debate.
The second issue under scrutiny, reflected in topics under the broader serious games umbrella, was what games can teach about learning and literacy (as James Paul Gee so eloquently discusses in the book of the same name).
The most interesting thing about this trend is that we have moved beyond the simple notion that learning is restricted to simulation games like Sim City providing objective lessons in city planning. Today's scholars have expanded the understanding of what games can teach, how they act as learning tools, and are gaining insights into how we learn.
For more coverasge of this event, check out these excellent round-ups from The Ludologist, Terra Nova, Ludonauts, and sindikkaeshin.
