Game on! But why?
What is it about video games that make them fun? What draws so many of us to our computer screens and keeps us glued there for hours? This year's Missing Link Symposium will delve into this very question. (English / SG-Certificate*)
Time: 14:45 - 16:45 hrs.
Admission is free, no registration required, but be in time: limited number of seats available.
All around us
Video games are everywhere these days. Console games, mobile games, online games, and even educational games are part of our lives. It would be a miracle for someone to go through their life without playing any of them. What explains this phenomenon? The answer is simple: games are seductive. There's even a term for turning mundane tasks into games to make them more enjoyable: "gamification."
Fun
But what is it about games that make them fun? Our speakers, Joyce Stikkelmann, Nele van de Mosselaer, and Gideon de Pan, will dive into these questions. Joyce Stikkelmann will share her experience from the gaming industry, such as creating entertaining games for different age groups and how to market a game so people start playing them. Nele van de Mosselaer and Gideon de Pan will look at this from an academic perspective. Nele will introduce us to the philosophical nature of humour and humour in games, and Gideon will speak about cozy games.
Speakers
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Joyce Stikkelman
Product Development manager at GamePointJoyce Stikkelman is Product Development manager at GamePoint. She was ‘raised on flight sims, graduated while playing MOBAs and now making quick work of mobile games’. GamePoint is one of the world's leading social game developers, based in the Netherlands. They create cross-platform games. They have continued success with GamePoint Bingo, Royaldice, Cardparty, and Wordtornado to name a few.
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Nele van de Mosselaer
Assistant professor at the Department of Philosophy at Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital SciencesDr. Nele van de Mosselaer is assistant professor at the Department of Philosophy at Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences. In her research, she explores the relation between imagination, emotions, actions, and desires in the context of (interactive) fiction experiences. Her fields of interest are the philosophy of fiction, game studies, and narratology. She is especially interested in how the boundaries between reality and fiction can be blurred within virtual environments.
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Gideon de Pan
Cultural ResearcherGideon de Pan is a graduate from Tilburg University. His research can be found mainly within the field of narratology of games. His Master thesis "If all is cozy, what isn’t? - Some conceptual problems regarding cozy games", focused on the discrepancy of narrative and gameplay within cozy games and he published further articles on similar gaming-related topics. Next to research on gaming, he is also an experienced player himself.
Missing Link
The Missing Link aims to link the worlds of academia and video games. Join us at this 8th annual symposium to learn the answers to these questions and more!
More information
This symposium is organized by Studium Generale in cooperation with study association TSEA Link.
Contact: Annelieke Koster (Studium Generale).
* For students, this lecture may count towards the SG-Certificate. Check the SG-Certificate website for all the terms and conditions.
