 Trans-Ludic Practices in Play Communities Dr. Pearce will present remotely via the virtual world There.com here ongoing research with the Uru Diaspora. This play community became refugees when its massively multiplayer game Uru: Ages Beyond Myst, closed down in early 2004. Subsequently hundreds and possibly thousands of players migrated into other games and virtual worlds extablishing a trans-ludic diaspora. In this presentation, Dr. Pearce's avatar, Artemesia, will give a real-time tour of Uru-themed areas in There.com, touching on some of the themes of her work with this community, including: defining and studying "emergent behavior," defining charcteristics and styles of play communities, inter-game immigration and practices that cross multiple games and virtualw orlds, "productive play," and other related topics.  Biography Celia Pearce is a game designer, author, researcher, teacher, curator and artist, specializing in multiplayer gaming and virtual worlds, independent, art, and alternative game genres, as well as games and gender. She began designing interactive attractions and exhibitions in 1983, and has held academic appointments since 1998. She received her Ph.D. in 2006 from SMARTLab Centre, then at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, University of the Arts London. She currently is Assistant Professor of Digital Media in the School of Literature, Communication and Culture at Georgia Tech, where she also directs the Experimental Game Lab and the Emergent Game Group. Her game designs include the award-winning virtual reality attraction Virtual Adventures (for Iwerks and Evans & Sutherland) and the Purple Moon Friendship Adventure Cards for Girls. She is the author or co-author of numerous papers and book chapters, as well as The Interactive Book (Macmillan 1997), and the forthcoming Communities of Play: Emergent Cultures in Multiplayer Games and Virtual Worlds (MIT 2009). She has also curated new media, virtual reality, and game exhibitions and is currently Festival Chair for IndieCade, an international independent games festival and showcase series. She is a co-founder of the Ludica women’s game collective. http://egl.gatech.edu http://cpandfriends.com |
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Celia Pearce |