Blog of Abstracts

My name is Ina Stacher, I did my masters degree in Psychology at the University of Vienna, with a focus on Developmental, Clinical and Health Psychology. Currently, I am working at the Research Group D.O.T. (Die offene Tür) and I am doing a PhD at the University of Vienna, Department of Applied Psychology: Health, Development, Enhancement and Intervention. My research interests lie in the field of health promotion, social relations and stress, youth engagement and social connectedness.

During my career, I gained clinical experience at the AKH Vienna and at a nursing home. I supported autistic children and collaborated with special educational needs teachers at a nursery school. I have many years of experience in the guidance and realisation of recreational activities with children and adolescents.
My core tasks in the D.O.T. project are the coordination, co-development and implementation of interactive workshops focussing on social connectedness and scientific analyses based on qualitative and quantitative research.

LINA – a digital learning game using mixed reality to discover interpersonal relations in the classroom and foster social connectedness

Young Academic Presentation, Friday, 18^th October, 15:30 – 15:45

Discrimination and social exclusion due to any kind of otherness is a burning issue in school classrooms. Rejection and social exclusion provokes stress and can lead to negative outcomes such as depression, loneliness or low self-esteem. An important protective factor in the negative circle of exclusion, stress and mental health problems is good and supportive social relationships. Today’s youth use smartphones to establish and maintain relations with peers making online contact as relevant as direct contact.

Thus, the aim of the academic research group D.O.T. (Die offene Tür) is to develop a digital intervention game for early adolescents using mixed reality to discover interpersonal relations in the classroom and foster social connectedness.

The game, LINA, is conceived as a mystery-style game played simultaneously by an entire class of students aged 10-12, alongside their teacher. Players use smartphones to explore both their classroom and their relationship with each other in new ways. The game uses augmented reality and shared collaborative experiences to uncover the story of Lina, a fictional pupil who has suddenly and mysteriously left school in the middle of the term.

By stimulating positive contact via successful aspects of contact-based research (e.g. promoting shared interests/emotions, cooperative tasks) in both, an analogue and a digital setting, the game will create a unique mixed reality experience for youth. The co-development process strongly involves the target in order to adequately address their needs, challenges and preferences.

Daniela Bruns works as a University Assistant at the Department of Media and Communications at the Alpen-Adria-University Klagenfurt (AAU) in Austria. She holds a diploma in Media Theory and Cultural Studies and a bachelor in Economics from the University of Klagenfurt. She is the organizer of the annual Game Pics Event at the AAU which is an art project that experiments with reflections on in-game imagery. Her main research interests include cultural studies, popular culture, serious gaming, and video games between escapism and activism.

When the future becomes the present – Detroit: Become Human as a resource for social criticism

Lecture, Friday, 18^th October, 15:30 – 15:30

Stories about artificially created humans, robots, androids and cyborgs have been captivating humanity for several centuries. After their entry into literature, art, film and television, the subject also found its way into video games. Frequently framed by a dystopian scenery and noir elements, it takes us into a gloomy vision of the future that deals with the fears and worries of the present. The question of what constitutes humanity and how people relate to their environment is more relevant (and more urgent) today than ever and has been inscribed in the central issues of, for example, Posthumanism and New Materialism.

The 2018 published video game Detroit: Become Human also deals with this issue but deviates from a dystopian framing. The fictional world in which we are immersed in this game is very similar to our current one. Technological progress does not generate disbelief but is based on technologies that we already encounter in our everyday lives. Familiar images allow us to look back at recent history instead of indulging in futuristic exaggerations. Therefore, the video game does not offer its players to focus their attention on a possible distant future but to deal with current events and problems. This presentation will exemplarily deal with some aspects of the game and link them to their context of production and reception, in order to illustrate the potential for meaning. It should not only be shown that popular video games can be a resource for social criticism, but also which circumstances are required for its successful realization.

Sonja Gabriel is professor for media literacy at teacher university college KPH Vienna/Krems. She teaches use and effects of digital media to pre-service and in-services teachers. Her research focuses on digital media for teaching and learning, putting an extra focus on digital game-based learning as well as teaching values in and with digital games. Sonja Gabriel studied German and English at the university of Vienna. She wrote her PhD thesis about knowledge management at secondary commercial colleges. In two master degree courses (Educational Media at University Duisburg/Essen and Applied Game Studies at Danube University Krems) she specialized on digital media and videogames.

The case of „Pokémon Go“ – how an augmented reality game influences society

Lecture, Friday, 18^th October, 14:30 – 15:00

When being released in summer 2016, Pokémon Go made it to the headlines of all kind of media all over the world. However, it was not the game itself and its then innovative AR-technology which was in the center of interest but articles which either supported the hype around the game (gamers taking more exercise and getting to know their home towns better) or which condemned the game strongly for example because of being the reason for accidents or because of having placed Poké-Stops and Gyms in unsuitable places like memorial sites of concentration camps. When it comes to religion, there are also different opinions: Some churches, for example in Great Britain, tried to lure more people to church by organizing Pokémon Go parties. Other religions banned the game – in Saudi Arabia the fatwa on Pokémon was renewed as the game is said to support theory of evolution. Some gamers even believe the game to be a religion of its own by citing techno-animism.

Studies show that Pokémon Go can motivate people to get more exercise outside and that it can support finding new friends or getting closer contact to other people. Even persons suffering from social anxiety disorder like to play the game. Insurance companies, however, regard games like Pokémon Go as posing additional risk on gamers as they are distracted by the game resulting in more accidents and thus more insurance cases. Thus, insurance experts are thinking about ideas how to minimize these risks.

These are only some examples how the game has already influenced society and which concern – in contrast to most other games – also non-gamers. The presentation is going to discuss some of these cases, thus showing how strong games are interconnected with our every-day-lives.