Call for Papers: Surveillance, Games, and Play http://library.queensu.ca/ojs/index.php/surveillance-and-society/announcement/view/72
Theme Issue of Surveillance & Society Call for Papers: Surveillance, Games, and Play edited by: Jennifer R. Whitson and Bart Simon Introduction The games we play on our computers, iPads, and video game consoles are watching us. They track our every online move and send data on who we are, how we play, and whom we play with back to game and virtual world publishers such as Sony and Microsoft. Two events in the summer of 2011 exemplify the need to study surveillance in games: a hacker attack against Sony's Playstation Network compromised over 77 million user accounts including credit card numbers, while iPhone users discovered hidden code in their devices that tracked their movements and secretly sent this data back to Apple. This form of consumer surveillance that targets players has eluded critical appraisal in both the games studies and surveillance literature. The games we play are not only watching us, but are leveraging surveillance to mold us into better students, workers, and consumers, as evidenced by the growth of gamification applications that combine playful design and feedback mechanisms from games with users' social profiles (e.g. Facebook, twitter, and LinkedIn) in non-game applications explicitly geared to drive behavioural change. Accordingly, traditional surveillance activities are transformed through their combination with playful frames of reference and game-like elements. Yet, as argued by Anders Albrechtslund and Lynsey Dubbeld in volume 3(2/3) of this journal, surveillance is fun. It is an essential component of many games and virtual worlds. It enables family to find each other and play together online, such as when adult children who live thousands of miles away challenge their parents to a Words with Friends scrabble match over Facebook. Surveillance allows game companies to match strangers with similar skill sets and play-styles together in multiplayer games, thus increasing the flow of the game and players' mutual enjoyment. Surveillance facilitates coordinated teamwork and sophisticated game economies, exemplified by informational tools such as the damage mods and kill-point monitors created by players for massively-multiplayer online games. Surveillance also makes online games and virtual worlds safe for children and young adults, restricting both the use of inappropriate language and content, as well as prohibiting the entry of potentially dangerous adults. Moreover, surveillance is pleasurable. As game company Valve found when they forayed into biometrics (i.e. measuring galvanic skin response and arousal levels), players are more engaged when they can see how they affect their opponents' own physiological responses. We, as players, like to watch our opponents, anticipating what they will do next. We also use surveillance to improve our prowess and extend our moments of victory by using recording software and game replay functions This theme issue is dedicated to balancing two very different sides of surveillance: surveillance as a technology of corporate governance and surveillance as a technology of pleasure and play. -- ---> A living - breathing - thriving networked neighbourhood - proud of free culture - claiming it with others ;) Other reviews,articles,interviews http://www.furtherfield.org/reviews.php Furtherfield – online arts community, platforms for creating, viewing, discussing and learning about experimental practices at the intersections of art, technology and social change. http://www.furtherfield.org Furtherfield Gallery – Finsbury Park (London). http://www.furtherfield.org/gallery Netbehaviour - Networked Artists List Community. http://www.netbehaviour.org http://identi.ca/furtherfield http://twitter.com/furtherfield _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
