Proposal Title
Serious Play: A Games Studies Livestream
Streaming Media
Submission Type
Virtual Engagement Session
Start Date
17-7-2020 4:00 PM
End Date
17-7-2020 5:00 PM
Abstract
Serious Play is an interdisciplinary collaborative of graduate students and faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee interested in the study of games and play and dedicated to reaching beyond the walls of the university to engage with a wider audience. Live-streaming our gameplay and discussions via Twitch.tv has been instrumental to that goal and allows us to share with an interested audience our research and ideas about the games we all play. This session will be an exhibition of a typical stream presented live for the ELO audience in which Ryan House, a PhD student in English at UWM, will play Villa Gorilla’s Yoku’s Island Express (2018) while discussing with Serious Play members and others in chat elements of its design, narrative, and gameplay experience through the dual lenses of Chess’ Ready Play Two (2017) and Ruberg’s Videogames Have Always Been Queer (2019). In addition, we hope this practice inspires thought and discussion about ways to confront the problem of accessibility in traditional avenues of academic publishing through alternative academic research and dissemination practices.
You can catch this ELO-edition livestream on our Twitch channel: twitch.tv/serious_play on 7/17 @ 4pm(ET)
Serious Play: A Games Studies Livestream
Serious Play is an interdisciplinary collaborative of graduate students and faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee interested in the study of games and play and dedicated to reaching beyond the walls of the university to engage with a wider audience. Live-streaming our gameplay and discussions via Twitch.tv has been instrumental to that goal and allows us to share with an interested audience our research and ideas about the games we all play. This session will be an exhibition of a typical stream presented live for the ELO audience in which Ryan House, a PhD student in English at UWM, will play Villa Gorilla’s Yoku’s Island Express (2018) while discussing with Serious Play members and others in chat elements of its design, narrative, and gameplay experience through the dual lenses of Chess’ Ready Play Two (2017) and Ruberg’s Videogames Have Always Been Queer (2019). In addition, we hope this practice inspires thought and discussion about ways to confront the problem of accessibility in traditional avenues of academic publishing through alternative academic research and dissemination practices.
You can catch this ELO-edition livestream on our Twitch channel: twitch.tv/serious_play on 7/17 @ 4pm(ET)
Bio
Ryan House is a PhD student in Media, Cinema, and Digital Studies in the English department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His research interests include co-sit/co-op play, virtual place making, and games as FYW curriculum.
David Kocik is a first year PhD student in the Media, Cinema and Digital Studies plan in the English department at UWM. His research focuses mainly on the political and discursive power of videogame fan cultures, particularly queer fandoms and fan games.