Meaningful Play 2008 Conference Overview
Whether designed to entertain or for more “serious” purposes, games have the potential to impact players’ beliefs, knowledge, attitudes, emotions, cognitive abilities, and behavior.
Meaningful Play 2008 is an interdisciplinary academic conference that explores the potential of games to entertain, inform, educate, and persuade in meaningful ways. The conference includes thought-provoking keynotes from leaders in academia and industry, peer-reviewed paper presentations, panel sessions (including academic and industry discussions), innovative workshops, roundtable discussions, and exhibitions of games.
Conference News
April 21, 2008 - Meaningful Play 2008 special issue of the International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations (IJGCMS) announced. See call for submissions for details.
March 26, 2008 - Call for games for Meaningful Play 2008 is now available.
March 14, 2008 - Call for submissions for Meaningful Play 2008 is now available.
March 12, 2008 - Michigan State University is excited to announce the upcoming Meaningful Play conference to take place October 9-11, 2008 on the campus of Michigan State University.
Important Dates
| July 1, 2008 | Presentation Submission Deadline | |
| August 15, 2008 | Game Submission Deadline | |
| September 8, 2008 | Early Registration Closes | |
| October 9, 2008 | Conference Begins | |
| October 11, 2008 | Conference Concludes |
Conference Topics
While any topic related to games for entertainment and learning is appropriate to submit to Meaningful Play 2008, topics of particular interest include:
- Exploring meaningful applications of games
- Games to change attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors including social impact games and personal health games
- Games to stimulate creativity or innovation
- Games to build social skills
- Games to advertise (advergames) and persuade
- Games to exercise specific cognitive functions
- Games to explore personal beliefs and help make decisions
- Games to build knowledge and skills (games for learning)
- Serious games for history and cultural heritage learning
- Games to change attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors including social impact games and personal health games
- Issues in designing meaningful play
- Game design for specific audience segments
- Player types and play styles
- Story and storytelling in games
- Competitve and cooperative play (single player, multiplayer and massively multiplayer)
- Balancing entertainment and serious goals
- Repurposing entertainment games for serious purposes
- Unintended and unexpected effects of games
- Using psychology and neuroscience to design and understand games
- Evaluation and assessment of game impacts
- Barriers to the adoption of serious game
- Game design for specific audience segments