Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) and Simon Fraser University, Canada, hereby announce that the agreement for the organisation of the 2005 Digital Games Research Conference ("DiGRA 2005") has been signed. The conference will take place from June 17 to June 20, 2005 in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The event will bring together the digital games research communities from around the world as well as keynote speakers from Europe, America and Asia and looks set to be the largest academic digital games research conference ever held in North America.
The 2005 conference is the second in the series of world conferences, designed to facilitate dissemination of information from the increasing multidisciplinary research, both theoretical and practical, on digital games, game playing and players, game design, user communities, cultures and contexts.
"Scientific and scholarly advances in games research are currently rapid, and conferences like DiGRA 2005 are important for the discussion, critique, and community formation", says Frans Mäyrä, President of DiGRA. "To further these aims, particular attention will be paid to the review process and publication of the conference papers, to further contribute to the growing standards of this new field."
Of the 2005 conference, titled 'Changing Views: Worlds in Play', the Conference Chair, Professor Suzanne de Castell, says, "The goal of this conference is to facilitate a richer and more comprehensive grasp of the present and future capabilities and applications of digital games by inviting and supporting work which demonstrates the values, means and ends of 'changing views'in and on digital games and games research. This work necessarily embraces interdisciplinarity and internationalism, and is, in sum, work which bridges between and across worlds in play. To that end, a wide range of approaches and formats are encouraged, including paper presentations, symposia, poster presentations, author sessions, workshops, senior scholar roundtables, and, especially, innovative formats which bring together games researchers and developers and emerging user communities."
"Vancouver is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. A high tech city, it is home to companies such as Electronic Arts and Creo, cutting edge learning institutions such as SFU Surrey, and innovative technical research institutions. Simon Fraser University offers all the crucial elements necessary to host an event of this calibre; the location, the facilities, the support, the desire, and the determination to host a significant, successful and memorable DiGRA conference.
More information and a call for papers will appear soon at www.digra.org, www.gamesconference.org, and in the mailing lists (digra-announce@uta.fi, Gamesnetwork@uta.fi).
Suzanne de Castell Frans Mäyrä
Professor President
Simon Fraser University Digital Games Research Association
decaste@sfu.ca
frans.mayra@uta.fi
Simon Fraser University opened in September 1965. In less than 40 years SFU has gained an international reputation for its strengths in the liberal arts and sciences, as well as for its innovative interdisciplinary and professional programs. It has been rated as Canada's best comprehensive university five times (1993, '96, '97, '98, and '00) in the annual rankings of Maclean's magazine and has consistently placed at, or near, the top of the publication's national evaluations.
Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) is a non-profit international academic association, established in 2003. The main aims of DiGRA are to encourage high-level digital games relevant research, and to promote international collaboration and dissemination of work by its members through research, development, commercial, practitioner and policy communities, networks and organisations.
