Games Culture Circle / Urania / 30.09.2011, 19:00 - 23:00
Games Culture Circle meets Coded Culture Festival
Live in Vienna
30. September 2011
www.facebook.com/parasew/posts/203543233047363
Thema:
Fuck the Magic Circle – We need Game Ethics!?
Talk:
Since 2009, “A MAZE.” presents the talk show “Games Culture Circle” (GCC) in cooperation with the Computer Games Museum in Berlin. Moderated by Uke Bosse, it offers a forum and meeting place for artists, game designers, musicians, directors and players from the media and cultural landscape and discusses interdisciplinary topics of digital game culture in front of an open-minded audience. It is not our aim to produce academic jibber-jabber, but to create an authentic exchange of experiences, opinions and visions. The interplay between computer games and society is more important than previously assumed: games influence works of contemporary fine arts, cinema and music, and more over the behaviour of many people in everyday life.
Moderation: Uke Bosse
Uke Bosse is hooked on computer games since he played titles like "Leather Godesses of Phobos" and "Bubble Bobble". He studied media, communication, acting and comedy and worked as a game tester and standup comedian. He spent his last three years as chief editor of MTV GameOne, before he found his mission as host of the satellite TV show RedBull Play!
Guests: Margarete Jahrmann
Gaming is a special situation with its own specific laws and rules. The “magic” allows a behaviour that would not be welcome outside the game. Today we play (virtual) games everywhere, with strangers, and at different locations. However, a game world with common rules exists anyway. Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman still use the term “magic circle” for Rules of Play but add, that often meta communication has become necessary, to describe, define and negotiate the borders of the “game world”. For Gregory Bateson they were “messages of the frame-setting type” (when playing cops and robbers and taking a side - robber or cop - the rules of the world change as well). Inside the “magic circle” other rules apply: it is a shelter and shields the avatar from the “real” outside.
Through digitalisation it is not only possible to play asynchronously together (e.g. massive multi player online games; not everyone needs to be online at the same time) - but even more, with mobile devices it is possible to play anywhere and at any time. This phenomenon manifests itself in “analogue” art forms such as theatre, which is not bound to a specific venue anymore, but can take place on the telephone, in different flats or around the city. We are talking about emersion, new experiences. Picture yourself sitting in the subway train, playing a game on your phone while receiving points for the interaction with other passengers. When are you then inside the “magic circle“, and when are you outside? How does this differ from a world, where everyone knows that reality is constructed and negotiable, and that the chat with your virtual guild-member from World of Warcraft in South Africa is a more enriching experience than talking to the garden gnome collecting neighbour in real life, who is not separated by even a kilometre but worlds apart?
Assuming the games we play today have already lost the “protection” of the “magic circle” – the borders between “inside the game” and “real life” are fluid. Knowledge creates responsibility. Do we need new ethic standards for both, those who create the games and those who play them?
This is not a game. It’s life.
www.amaze-festival.de
www.gamesculturecircle.de
Talk location:
Urania Eingang Turmstiege, Uraniastrasse 1, 1010 Wien
View Larger Map
Live in Vienna
30. September 2011
www.facebook.com/parasew/posts/203543233047363
Thema:
Fuck the Magic Circle – We need Game Ethics!?
Talk:
Since 2009, “A MAZE.” presents the talk show “Games Culture Circle” (GCC) in cooperation with the Computer Games Museum in Berlin. Moderated by Uke Bosse, it offers a forum and meeting place for artists, game designers, musicians, directors and players from the media and cultural landscape and discusses interdisciplinary topics of digital game culture in front of an open-minded audience. It is not our aim to produce academic jibber-jabber, but to create an authentic exchange of experiences, opinions and visions. The interplay between computer games and society is more important than previously assumed: games influence works of contemporary fine arts, cinema and music, and more over the behaviour of many people in everyday life.
Moderation: Uke Bosse
Uke Bosse is hooked on computer games since he played titles like "Leather Godesses of Phobos" and "Bubble Bobble". He studied media, communication, acting and comedy and worked as a game tester and standup comedian. He spent his last three years as chief editor of MTV GameOne, before he found his mission as host of the satellite TV show RedBull Play!
Guests: Margarete Jahrmann
Gaming is a special situation with its own specific laws and rules. The “magic” allows a behaviour that would not be welcome outside the game. Today we play (virtual) games everywhere, with strangers, and at different locations. However, a game world with common rules exists anyway. Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman still use the term “magic circle” for Rules of Play but add, that often meta communication has become necessary, to describe, define and negotiate the borders of the “game world”. For Gregory Bateson they were “messages of the frame-setting type” (when playing cops and robbers and taking a side - robber or cop - the rules of the world change as well). Inside the “magic circle” other rules apply: it is a shelter and shields the avatar from the “real” outside.
Through digitalisation it is not only possible to play asynchronously together (e.g. massive multi player online games; not everyone needs to be online at the same time) - but even more, with mobile devices it is possible to play anywhere and at any time. This phenomenon manifests itself in “analogue” art forms such as theatre, which is not bound to a specific venue anymore, but can take place on the telephone, in different flats or around the city. We are talking about emersion, new experiences. Picture yourself sitting in the subway train, playing a game on your phone while receiving points for the interaction with other passengers. When are you then inside the “magic circle“, and when are you outside? How does this differ from a world, where everyone knows that reality is constructed and negotiable, and that the chat with your virtual guild-member from World of Warcraft in South Africa is a more enriching experience than talking to the garden gnome collecting neighbour in real life, who is not separated by even a kilometre but worlds apart?
Assuming the games we play today have already lost the “protection” of the “magic circle” – the borders between “inside the game” and “real life” are fluid. Knowledge creates responsibility. Do we need new ethic standards for both, those who create the games and those who play them?
This is not a game. It’s life.
www.amaze-festival.de
www.gamesculturecircle.de
Talk location:
Urania Eingang Turmstiege, Uraniastrasse 1, 1010 Wien
View Larger Map
Uke Bosse
Uke Bosse is hooked on computer games since he played titles like "Leather Godesses of Phobos" and "Bubble Bobble". He studied media, communication, acting and comedy and worked as game tester and standup comedian. His last three years he was spending as chief editor by MTV GameOne. Actually he found his mission as host of the satellite TV show RedBull Play!
Felix Bohatsch
When studying computer science (media informatics), Felix Bohatsch realized that computer games were his true passion. After his BSc. from TU Vienna, he graduated MA in game design at künstlerische Hochschule Utrecht. Being the project leader at the awarded indie-game “And Yet It Moves”, he then co-founded the Viennese game company “Broken Rules” in 2009, where he is currently active as CEO.
Thorsten Wiedemann
Thorsten S. Wiedemann is CEO and art director of “A MAZE.” Berlin. Since 2008 he celebrates the convergence of computer games and art, combining the two in presentation-modules in a skillful way: the Games Culture Circle, an interdisciplinary talk show, as well as the internationally booked “A MAZE. Jump’n Run.”. His interest lies in playful concepts, that bridge the gap between punk, art and technology.
Today 30.9.2011: 19h
Urania Wien
GAMES CULTURE CIRCLE
Urania Wien
GAMES CULTURE CIRCLE
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