Gaming Moms – Time, Play and Everyday Life

Yet another fun and interesting lecture and lab in the HEX seminar series Digital Cultures and Games was just held at the Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences. The lecture by Patrick Williams from Singapore Nanyang Technological University entitled “What people do in Fantasy Gameworlds and How They Do It: How the User Interface Brings People Together in Massively-multiplayer Online Games” took place on January 31 at Biskopsgatan 7, first in the lecture room and then in the mac-lab.
The lecture focused on the many interfaces engaged by players in an MMO like WoW and the multifaceted ways players convey and obtain information in order to play the game.

We had a record number of pre-registered participants and the lab was full. In the lab we all got to “get our hands on” handling and interacting with characters in World of Warcraft. (NB The mac – mice did not make this easier and had even seasoned WOW-players frustrated for a while!)

Thank you Patrick Williams, and thank you Erik Hannerz at the Sociology department Lund/Uppsala, whom I have collaborated with in inviting Patrick, and to the interested audience, which consisted of people from many different departments apart from our own including mathematics and HCI and students from the MACA – program.

The evening was concluded with an informal dinner where discussions could continue.
The next seminars in the series are planned for March 24, Annette Markham will speak about doing multi-site ethnography, and April 7 – Dan Pinchbeck, whose previous lecture was cancelled due to volcano ashes.

Administration och undervisning tar mycket tid för oss båda och ibland känns det som om vi knappt hinner med projektet. Men det går framåt! Förra veckan var jag (Lotta) på LinCS (The Linnaeus Centre for Research on Learning, Interaction and Mediated Communication in Contemporary Society) vid Göteborgs universitet och  pratade om projektet och om spelforskning ur ett etnologiskt perspektiv. Veckan innan dess presenterade vi projektet för studenter vid Etnologiska avdelningen på vår institution.  Ytterligare några informanter har fyllt i speldagböcker och vi har lagt upp en plan för hur vi ska jobba med de olika artiklar vi har på gång.  Spelandet för min del handlar just nu mest om Betapet samt Sims2 som jag snöar in på med jämna mellanrum (däremot inte Sims3). Där är jag nu framme på generation 19 av samma familj.