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
Added by Roger Travis on November 7, 2009 at 4:13pm —
No Comments
VGHVI is pleased to publish its first proceeding, Justin Keverne's "Game within a game: freedom and control in Assassin's Creed." This article, here, is the pilot of what we hope will be a new approach to scholarly publication in the interdisciplinary discourse on video games. Readers are invited and encouraged not only to discuss the article, but also to provide the benefits that traditionally have been in the hand… Continue
In the episode, to be found here, I talk to VGHVI co-founder Jeff Howard about the meaning of magic systems, and about the game he's developing, Arcana Manor. I hope you enjoy the podcast! Continue
Added by Roger Travis on June 14, 2009 at 9:41pm —
No Comments
With help and encouragement from such great VGHVI friends as Michael Abbott, David Carlton and Randy Ma, VGHVI has a podcast, which is intended to be brief and semi-academic. I'll be chatting with a different VGHVI member or friend as close to weekly as I can manage about their latest thoughts on games and values matters.
Who better for the first edition than Michael Abbott, the Brainy Gamer?
Here's the link… Continue
I'm delighted to announce that Erik Hanson, known also variously as Wordsmythe and EMunnie, a brilliant young thinker and writer in the much-discussed "middle-circle" of game-criticism, has consented to be VGHVI's man in the gameblogosphere, and to post a regular "VGHVI Week in Review." I've been a great admirer of Erik's thinking and writing since I started lurking at Gamers with Jobs two years ago. I'm thrilled that he'll be assuming this assignment.… Continue
Added by Roger Travis on April 20, 2009 at 1:00pm —
No Comments
The senior fellows of the Video Games and Human Values Initiative are pleased to announce that we are now accepting submissions for publication as Proceedings of the Video Games and Human Values Initiative. We invite anyone working in areas that touch on the relationship between video games and human values to submit papers for non-exclusive publication in the peer-reviewed setting of our Proceedings, which will be published online here.
Submissions and inquiries may be sent in .doc, .do… Continue
The biggest news of all is that my XBox 360 returned, functional, from its sojourn to the southland. Please join me and other members of the initiative this Thursday 2/5 for the grand re-opening of VGHVI-multiplayer gaming!
I've just come from a meeting with the folks at Continuing Studies here at UConn, and we're going to schedule another go-round of the "Living Epic" course in July. I was very pleased indeed with how it went the first time, and we're hoping we can build on that initial runnin… Continue
Added by Roger Travis on January 30, 2009 at 10:40am —
No Comments
Serious Games and the Video Games and Human Values Initiative
Despite the growing use of the term “serious game,” and the related but in important ways distinct term introduced by Ian Bogost, “persuasive game,” there’s still very little consensus about what a serious game actually is. On the other hand, a very important first step has been taken at the Serious Games Initiative itself, with the posting of the draft slides Ben Sawyer’s and Peter Smith’s (… Continue
Corvus Elrod's blog is by itself already one of the lodestars of my existence. When he gets his Round Table on, though, cross-blogging magic results, wherein the gentle authority of Corvus is somehow synthesized by his contributors into the most fascinating video game discussions imaginable.
My own contribution is… Continue
Added by Roger Travis on January 12, 2009 at 11:00am —
No Comments
This Thursday, 15 January, three of the senior fellows of the VGHVI will open discussion about where the VGHVI approach and the Serious Gamesmovement's approach converge and diverge. Stephen Schafer of Digipen (field: English literature), Mike Young of UConn (field: educational psychology), and Roger Travis of UConn (field: classics), will each post a contribution here on the VGHVI blog and at the… Continue
As you may have noticed, the class discussion for the “Living Epic” course is, well, marvelous. The idea of having it here in the first place was that the blaze would touch off other interdisciplinary fireworks, and so I’m pleased to call attention to one such skyrocket, contributed by Seadog.
My XBox 360 met its red-ringed reward last week, a… Continue
Added by Roger Travis on January 6, 2009 at 3:30pm —
No Comments
This part of the conversation may have the richest material for extended analysis, since Peter seems actually to reveal a great deal about the way he thinks of his relationship with the gamer.
Part 2. Continue
Added by Roger Travis on December 31, 2008 at 3:25pm —
No Comments
We're still discussing symbol and allegory, and Jeff Howard has added his response; I'm a week later than I thought, with mine, but I hope to get it up tomorrow.
The Living Epic three-week course kicked off yesterday: discussion should be moving to the forum here very soon, so feel free to read along and see what the class is up to--I'm hoping once the sheer awesomeness of the course is fully visible, everyone will want to sign up all their friends and relations.
Also tomorrow, I'll post the s… Continue
Let's try this again. . . steep learning curve here. . .
Someday, this will all happen in VGHVI's virtual world. Maybe it's time to start thinking about what to name that Outopia. . . .
Part of 1 of the conversation.Continue
I'm working off and on to chunk the conversation with Peter Molyneux. Once I do, I'll find a way to make it available both to students of the "Living Epic" courses and, later, to members of VGHVI. Other exciting conversations are on the horizon, too! I'll update you as things develop.
The discussion topic for the next few weeks (until holiday fervor dies down) is "Games, symbols, and allegory," a topic that comes to… Continue
Added by Roger Travis on December 22, 2008 at 2:45pm —
No Comments
Peter Molyneux is amazing, and the interview went in unexpectedly homeric directions. Most interesting of all, he told me that he's highly dyslexic, and has a very hard time with written communication. I'm still kind of marvelling at the implications of that.
Also (sneak peek): an incredibly interesting discussion of the breadcrumb trail in Fable II, and a very informative, polite but firm, refusal to answer about player-made content.
So if you want to experience the whole interview, si… Continue
Added by Roger Travis on December 18, 2008 at 11:30am —
No Comments
Something I've been working on for quite a while has just come through: our very first interview for the Living Epic courses will be the amazing and sometimes controversial designer of Fable and Fable II (as well as other exciting and groundbreaking titles) Peter Molyneux!
Because, as you might expect, Peter is a busy sort of fellow, the scheduling of the interview didn't work quite as I'd hoped, and my crack at the greates… Continue
Added by Roger Travis on December 13, 2008 at 1:38pm —
No Comments
Deepest apologies for not showing up last night! My router decided to send me to the fields of punishment at approximately 10:45pm. I'm plugged directly into the cable modem presently, but I suspect I'll spend much of the rest of the day trying to get our wireless network back up. I'm going to schedule Left 4 Dead for this coming Thursday, again, and hope for the best. Continue
Added by Roger Travis on December 12, 2008 at 7:52am —
No Comments
