Meaningful Play 2018 Conference Overview

Whether designed to entertain or to achieve more "serious" purposes, games, virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality have the potential to impact players' beliefs, knowledge, attitudes, emotions, cognitive abilities, physical and mental health, and behavior.

Meaningful Play 2018 is a conference about theory, research, and game design innovations, principles and practices. Meaningful Play brings scholars and industry professionals together to understand and improve upon games to entertain, inform, educate, and persuade in meaningful ways.

The conference will include 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 and prototypes.

Conference Audience and Themes

The conference is primarily for:

• industry and academic game researchers
• industry and academic game designers and developers
• game educators
• students
• government and NGOs interested in games

The three primary themes of the conference are:

• exploring meaningful applications of games
• issues in designing meaningful play
• learning, education & games

The first theme includes an examination of games (of all types) from primarily an academic research perspective.

The second theme focuses on much more practical knowledge from the front-line of actual design, development, and use of games, virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality experiences for meaningful purposes.

The third theme is developed in partnership with the IGDA Learning, Education & Games Special Interest Group.

Conference News

October 16, 2019 - The Proceedings of Meaningful Play 2018 are now available through ETC Press.

October 13, 2018 - Meaningful Play 2018 was a big success! We had 250 attendees from 12 countries and 30 U.S. States! Check out #mplay on twitter to check out twitter posts throughout the event and check out flickr to see photos from the event. The conference proceedings will be available online next month.

October 13, 2018 - At the conference closing, the Game Competition Awards were announced, including:

Category	Winner
Best Non-Digital Game	Lost & Found by Owen Gottlieb, Ian Schreiber, and Kelly Murdoch-Kitt Honorable Mention: Rosenstrasse by Moyra Turkington and Jessica Hammer
Best Digital Game	ABCmouse Mastering Math by Age of Learning, Inc Honorable Mentions: Brukel by Bob De Schutter and Forgotton Anne by Alfred Nguyen, Valdemar Schultz Andreasen, Morten Brunbjerg
Best VR Experience	HoloLAB Champions by Schell Games Honorable Mention: VESTA Virtual Vineyard by Brian Winn, William Jeffery, Thomas Smith, Ryan Chuang, Anya Kolesnichenko, Travis Nichols, Scott Holzknecht, Olivia Nalon, Kenny Wherry, Jasmine Burks, Trever Daniels, Andrew Bonczyk, Jamie Winters, Mingshun Zhu, Colleen Little, Ryan Magliola, and Austin Widmyer
Best Student Game	Miner Madness, Dig into Code Theory by EPIC + KCAD + OST Honorable Mention: discomfort zone by Alex Tomkow
People's Choice Award	Fellowship of Fools by Casey O'Donnell and Hermione Banger

The top papers were also recognized, including:

• How We Create and Embody the Other: Implications for Diversity in Character-Centric Games and Media by Anna Kasunic and Geoff Kaufman
• Playing Incremental Games at Work As Relief? Maybe Not by Yu-Hao Lee
• Hemonauts: Initial Implementation of Digital Games to Increase STEM Learning Among Chronically Ill Children by Sarah Schoemann, Cheryl Cheong, Wilbur Lam, Elaissa Hardy and Elizabeth DiSalvo

October 11, 2018 - Meaningful Play 2018 Kicks-Off Today!

October 4, 2018 - We are one week away from the launch of Meaningful Play 2018!

September 18, 2018 - The complete schedule for Meaningful Play 2018 is now available.

September 12, 2018 - If you are arriving early, make sure to attend the pre-conference special presentation, feature Noah Falstein, titled "The Surprising Synergy of Medicine, Games, and VR," and pick up your conference credentials early.

August 15, 2018 - The preliminary schedule for Meaningful Play 2018 is now available.

August 10, 2018 - Bei Yang, Eric Zimmerman, and John Sharp announced as the final set of keynote presenters at Meaningful Play 2018.

July 25, 2018 - Acceptances for submissions were sent out. Check your inboxes and spam filters or email us if you have a question about your submission.

June 25, 2018 - The on-time deadline for submissions has past. We will continue to accept late submissions of games and sessions until July 18, 2018.

June 15, 2018 - Tracy Fullerton and Diana Hughes announced as keynote presenters at Meaningful Play 2018. More keynoters to be announced soon.

May 23, 2018 - Be part of the Meaningful Play 2018 agenda! The submission deadline has been extended to June 24, 2018. Submit your papers, posters, panel sessions, roundtable discussions, presentations, and games today!

April 12, 2018 - Katherine Isbister and Alec Holowka announced as keynote presenters at Meaningful Play 2018. More keynoters to be announced soon.

November 27, 2017 - We are partnering with the ETC Press for a published peer-reviewed conference proceedings of Meaningful Play 2018.

November 26, 2017 - The Call for Submissions is now available, including a special track in partnership with the IGDA Learning, Education & Games Special Interest Group.

November 20, 2017 - We are excited to announce the upcoming Meaningful Play 2018 to take place October 11-13, 2018 on the campus of Michigan State University!

Previous Meaningful Plays

View details on previous Meaningful Play conferences.

Meaningful Play 2008 Meaningful Play 2010 Meaningful Play 2012 Meaningful Play 2014 Meaningful Play 2016