Video Games and Human Values Initiative

A new kind of conversation about games in culture

Interdisciplinary nexus based at UConn for the study of how video games are building up society. Online courses, symposia, and fellowships.

The Senior Fellows of the VGHVI

Roger Travis (Director), Classics, University of Connecticut

Michael Abbott, Theater, Wabash College

Jeff Howard, Game Design, Dakota State University

Michael Young, Education, University of Connecticut

Kirstie Farrar, Communication Sciences, University of Connecticut

Kevin Roebuck, Sun Microsystems

Gary English, Drama, University of Connecticut

Mark Pearsall, Classics, Glastonbury High School, Glastonbury CT

Manuela Wagner, German, University of Connecticut

Sara Johnson, Classics, University of Connecticut

James Portnow, Divide by Zero Games

Stephen Schafer, English, Digipen University

Members

  • Paul Bauman
  • Adam Zajac
  • Mike
  • Jason
  • Erik Hanson
  • Jason Efland
  • Matthew A.
  • Cari T
  • Michael Abbott
  • Robert La Perla
  • CaSe
  • Matthew Teutsch
  • Clinton
  • Scott Myles
  • Justin Keverne
  • Angelo
 

Welcome to VGHVI!

The Video Games and Human Values Initiative is an interdisciplinary nexus for online courses and online scholarly activities like symposia, research fellowships, and our journal, Proceedings of the VGHVI (see tab above). All these activities are designed to advance our understanding of how video games and their culture can shape our values constructively for the enrichment of society.

This social network is the hub, but there's one spoke that's of crucial importance, our wiki. If you're here, you should be there, too. Among other things, it's got a page devoted to the logistics of getting all of us playing together. You need to request membership to take full advantage of what a wiki can do, but I promise it's painless.

And once you've done that, I urge you also to subscribe to the RSS feed for the VGHVI blog (also to be found below). It's the best way to keep up-to-date with what's going on here.

This is an open group, so please join up if you want to take part in our new interdisciplinary, interinstitutional, even ecumenical conversation about video games, and to help shape its future. The initiative is for gamers and non-gamers, academics and non-academics, students and teachers, parents and their high-school and college kids. That is, it's for you--so don't hesitate to join if you're excited--or concerned--about what video games are doing in our society.

Here's a little video UConn did about one of the Living Epic courses, CAMS 3208 (Gaming) Homer. Enjoy!

Here's a link to the site for the "Living Epic" three-week course, to be offered again at a time TBA; here's one for our multiplayer planning page.

Blog Posts

Erik Hanson

Context Clues for November 15-21, 2009

I've been ruminating out loud and with other on Twitter regarding ideas for how to make the link-aggregation of Context Clues 1) less insular to just the RSS feeds I follow and, 2) less work for me. Collaborative ideas have been proposed, and they appeal to me. As an alpha-stage test, here are some links with fewer and shorter summaries. If you want to give a summary in the comments below, I'll edit it in--all Paleolithic wiki-style. (Warning: These haven't had my usual 3+ passes to make sure al… Continue

Posted by Erik Hanson on November 24, 2009 at 12:00pm

Michael Abbott

Uncharted 2 co-op night

I'll be hosting a VGHVI get-together this Thursday on PSN for some Uncharted 2 co-op gaming goodness. U2's co-op mode is rock solid and a lot of fun - and I say this as a gamer who tends not to enjoy online shooters. The solo game has received plenty of well-deserved praise, but its multiplayer is a terrific extension of that experience, and it leverages many of those excellent assets.

If you've played U2's single-player mode, it's an easy transition to multiplayer, with the weapons, interface,… Continue

Posted by Michael Abbott on November 18, 2009 at 9:43am — 1 Comment

Erik Hanson

Context Clues for November 8-14, 2009

Hypertextual Abomination!

Big releases continue to drive the discussion this week, with Modern Warfare 2's virtual terrorism, raising questions of social responsibility in simulation, the narrative efficacy of bombast, and the role of games in society. On the other hand, Dragon Age raises questions of which genre and gameplay conventions have become the forgotten banana at the bottom of the backpack, carried forward on accident, unknowing of the mess you're causing with every… Continue

Posted by Erik Hanson on November 17, 2009 at 10:30pm — 3 Comments

Erik Hanson

Context Clues for November 1-7, 2009

Reachin' out, touchin' faith.

The internet's really outdone itself this past week. I tallied roughly double the number of interesting articles to read through come Saturday (at least 140, I believe). Although this week's edition of Context Clues highlights a large number of those posts, not all of them made it in. (Sorry!) If you'd like to dig a bit deeper into my rabbit-hole life, you can catch some these links and more, you can find the shorter list at the… Continue

Posted by Erik Hanson on November 10, 2009 at 7:00pm

Roger Travis

Announcing VGHVI guest-hosted multiplayer gaming nights!

One of the most important parts of the mission of VGHVI is to get our members playing video games together, to have something to talk about in our signature interdisciplinary way and, well, just to have a lot of fun. Over the past year or so we've done that on a pretty much weekly basis, and it's been really wonderful. We've played every kind of multiplayer game there is, from Castle Crashers to Carcassonne. Frankly, when I think of these Thursday nights, what comes instantly to mi… Continue

Posted by Roger Travis on November 7, 2009 at 4:13pm

Forum

David Carlton

James Paul Gee on games and learning 2 Replies

Started by David Carlton. Last reply by David Carlton Nov 11.

Matthew Teutsch

History and its role in the Utopian and Dystopian settings. 9 Replies

Started by Matthew Teutsch. Last reply by Matthew Teutsch Oct 1.

Latest Activity

Erik Hanson added a blog post
I've been ruminating out loud and with other on Twitter regarding ideas for how to make the link-aggregation of Context Clues 1) less insular to just the RSS feeds I follow and, 2) less work for me. Collaborative ideas have been proposed, and they...
on Tuesday
Paul Bauman and Clinton joined Video Games and Human Values Initiative
on Sunday
November 19
November 19
Greg Samders is now a member of Video Games and Human Values Initiative
November 19
I haven't played the single player before; hopefully that won't be too much of a hindrance? Looking through the manual, it looks like I should be able to jump straight into the multiplayer (unlike LBP where you have to complete a few stages first)...
November 18
Looking forward to it! My PSN handle is "TheBrainyGamer"
November 18
Michael Abbott is attending David Carlton's event
November 19, 2009 from 9:30pm to 11:30pm
The guest host for this week's VGHVI gaming session is Michael Abbott, of the blog The Brainy Gamer! (He's also one of the cofounders of the VGHVI, incidentally.) He's chosen for us to return to the PS3, this time for a round of Uncharted 2. As u...
November 18
 
 

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