Digital Entertainment Conference 2022 (in Kyoto, Japan)

Our Prof. Stefano Gualeni has been invited to be a visiting researcher for Center for Game Studies at the Ritsumeikan University of Kyoto, Japan. His appointment there will involve both remote activities and live events such as guest lectures and research stays (which were postponed to 2023 due to the ongoing pandemic restrictions).

As part of the remote collaborations with our colleagues in Kyoto, Stefano was invited as a guest speaker for the upcoming Digital Entertainment Conference 2022 (March 5th and 6th, 2022). In that event, he will participate in a panel discussionconcerning one of his research interests: games referencing and games archiving. The latter is of particular interest to the Ritsumeikan Centre for Game Studies. Other scholars in the games referencing research group of which Stefano is part will also contribute to the discussion: Paul Martin (The University of Nottingham Ningbo, China), Eric Kaltman (California State University Channel Islands), and Martin Roth (Ritsumeikan University of Kyoto, Japan).

ABOUT THE CONFERENCE: During the pandemic, digital games played a pivotal role in the mediated socialization of people forced to stay at home. While the importance of digital games is now in the spotlight for the general public, activities to preserve them as cultural assets, and scrutinize them from various academic disciplines has gained in popularity globally over several decades. Ritsumeikan University has been involved in game preservation activities and academic game research since 1998. Having a rich background of academic research in digital games, they decided to hold a two-day online conference that will showcase the results of our research with various partners from Japan and abroad.

TO ATTEND THE TALKS ON MARCH THE 5th and 6th 2022: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_vNRMUao_QSSpn57hqFcUwA

Period: March 5, 2022 (8:30am – 12:30pm JST) March 6 (9:30am-12:30pm JST)

Conference Schedule

DAY ONE (March 5th)

• 8:30 – 9:30 Panel Discussion: Game Citation - Why Digital Game Citation Matters
  • Stefano Gualeni,Paul Martin, Eric Kaltman, Martin Roth, Kazufumi Fukuda
• 9:30 – 10:10 Keynote 1 Digital Game Preservation and its Development During Covid-19
  • Henry Lowood
• 10:15 – 10:55 Keynote 2 Preserving Game Development Artifacts and Its implication during post-Covid-19
  • Jin Ha Lee, Akito Inoue
• 11:00 – 12:30 Panel Discussion: What role can KYOTO play in the preservation of digital games post Covid-19 -Future Perspective on possible collaborative work on Transmedia assets on pop-culture (Game and Manga)
  • Kazuma Yoshimura, Henry Lowood, Jin He Lee, Koichi Hosoi,
  • Akinori Nakamura (Moderator)

DAY TWO: (March 6th)

• 9:30 – 10:10 “Playing Disney: Experience and Expression in the Land of Curation
  • T.L. Taylor
• 10:15 – 10:55 The Theme Park Experience in Japan: A Progress Report on Semi-Structured Interviews
  • Yasuo Kawasaki
• 11:00 – 12:30 Panel Discussion: Uncharted territory: Play culture and its prospects explored in theme parks
  • T.L. Taylor, Yasuo Kawasaki, Masaharu Miyawaki, Martin Roth,
  • Akinori Nakamura (Moderator)