KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Rui Caveirinha

Rui Craveirinha is Games User Researcher at Player Research, getting all manner of insight on how players play their videogames. He has a PhD in Information Sciences and Technology (specialized in Human-Computer Interaction) and a great passion for videogame design, research and development. His past research covers, mostly, game design studies and development of new tools for video game development.

“The Art of Play”

What are video games? Why do we play them? What makes them feel so special to play? Is it – as everyone so fervently believes – that they’re art? What even is art, anyway? Legend has it that I was born with a famicom controller… father tells me the cable served as the umbilical cord. It’s thus no surprise that I spent most of my waking life feverishly musing on these deep questions, whether I was criticizing games for IGN or teaching Game Design at the University. In this talk I will take you on a journey of the personal and the universal, retelling three distinct Histories: the History of (Video) Games, from Chess to The Last of Us Part II; the History of Aesthetics, from Plato to Dickie; and my own personal history, from playing famicom to analysing players experience at Player Research. Together, these stories will intertwine in a way that might just answer all those questions. My answers can surprise, provoke, and on the rarest of occasions, may even provide true insight. By the end, I hope to have at least convinced you of why video games are a wondrous medium which state of the art theories and tools often downplay in terms of their sheer complexity, novelty… and beauty.

Oscar García Pañella

Oscar García Pañella directs the Videogame Degree at ENTI-UB Barcelona, the online Gamification & Transmedia Storytelling Master Program for the IEB School and co-directs the Serious Games for Health & Sport initiative (ENTI-UB and the Harvard Medical School). In addition to that, Oscar García Pañella works as a senior Gamification consultant for Cookie Box, as a way to bring the fields of Transmedia and Dramanagement to the Human Resources Departments.

“Seeking presence through virtuality – applying gamification to support the memorable experiences we deserve”

We are still confined. Both physically and mentally, one or another or both depending on our specific context. And we are human beings and thus with the need of social interaction, fantasy experimentation, true storytelling and memorable challenges. We people love to explore, socialise, communicate, share, help, achieve… and we need to feel engaged while doing so. Even more if using virtual devices for the majority of our communications. And because we are the users, we should be at the centre of any design. Therefore, is there a science that can help us all to achieve the correct creation of valuable remote and/or hybrid experiences? Can we learn to design in a way that extracts the best opportunities from our current situation by allowing us to keep our networking alive while maintaining rigor and guaranteeing fun (and seriousness)? How can we expect to adapt ourselves to the “new” transmedia means available if not designing from both the experiential and memorable views? Welcome to the playing realms of motivational design and gamification!