December 2013
Scott Nicholson: “Meaningful Gamification”
Meaningful Gamification: Motivating through Play instead of Manipulating through Rewards
Gamification is the use of game design concepts to create a layer on a real world setting. Typical gamification focuses on the use of rewards like points and badges to change the behavior of users, which can cause long-term damage to intrinsic motivation. Meaningful gamification is the use of design concepts from games and play to help people find personal connections to a real-world setting. Attendees will learn about the basics of gamification, the ways that reward-based gamification can do harm, and Nicholson's RECIPE for meaningful gamification.
Find out more »January 2014
Push Button: “What is so special about the Arcade?”
MIT Game Lab researcher Todd Harper talks about the performative aspects of the arcade. How is playing games in public different than on home computers and consoles? What were the cultural aspects of the arcade and how did this affect the design and play of arcade video games? What parts of the arcade have followed us home now that consoles are the norm? Afterwards, MIT Game Lab staff will lead a workshop on the design of arcade games in the …
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Find out more »Push Button: Translating the Arcade for the Home
Nick Montfort, Director of MIT Trope Tank, will lecture on what happens when games originally designed for the arcade are ported to home consoles. This follows on his work in platform studies, which looks at the base hardware and software systems that are the foundation of computational expression and examines how the these elements intersect with the creative production of new media. Afterwards, MIT Game Lab staff will lead a workshop on the design of games outside of established game …
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Find out more »Push Button: From Crazy Otto to Ms. Pac-Man
Ms. Pac-Man was released in early 1982, so she turned thirty last year. Steve Golson, one of the original developers of Ms. Pac-Man at General Computer, will recount little-known stories about the creation of the game. How and why did it transform from Crazy Otto to Ms. Pac-Man? Using source code and graphics ROMs extracted from his 30-year-old 8" floppy archives, Steve will show the evolution of game play and character design. Part of the Push Button: Examining the Culture, …
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Find out more »Push Button: Co-Op Game Design & Arcade Aesthetics
MIT Game Lab Research Scientist Mikael Jakobsson talks with us about Co-Op Game Design. Designing for collaborative co-located gaming experiences offers many interesting possibilities but also challenges. What are the different ways of playing collaboratively and how can we think about design when the experience outcome is shared between two or more players? This talk will invite the participants to think through what the unique properties of local co-op gaming are and how we can mine these in our game …
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Find out more »February 2014
CMS Colloquium: Miguel Sicart: “Play in the Age of Computing Machinery”
Miguel Sicart will look at the culture, aesthetics, and technological implications of play in the age of computers. He will propose a theory of play that includes the materiality of computation in its definition of the activity, and will suggest that our forms of playing with machines are both forms of surrendering to the pleasures of computation, and forms of creative resistance to the reduction of our worlds to computable events.
Find out more »March 2014
Boston Indies Meeting – “Acoustic Storytelling”
The MIT Game Lab is happy to host the Boston Indies group this March for their monthly meeting. This month features a postmortem from local developer, Jonathon Myers. Announcements are at 7pm with the talk at about 7:30pm.
Find out more »Creating Culture in Virtual Worlds
Part of the MIT Museum Talk Back 360 programs:
Join a conversation with MIT Professor D. Fox Harrell and MIT Researcher Todd Harper as they discuss the ways in which cultural values are both created and represented in digital media. Explore how online communities and computer code both give rise to shared values - through the interactions between people online, as well as the underlying computational structure of video games, websites, and other online communities.
Find out more »April 2014
How Research at Riot Games Informs Player-Focused Decisions
At Riot Games, we view research as a pathway to collaborate with players and make player-focused, data-informed decisions. Specifically, this talk will delve into: our research philosophy, how we distinguish between “data-informed” and “data-driven” decision making, and examples of research that have impacted the design of recent additions to the game.
Find out more »Boston Indies Meeting – “Working with Composers”
Working with Composers: Li Xiao’an presents a primer for developers regarding process, communication and common problems/solutions in working with composers. He will detail the steps involved in creating a soundtrack, and reveal industry figures and practices relating to music production for video games.
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