Richard Fojkar

Graduate from the GRG3 Radetzkygymnasium with Matura. As of 10.7. 2017 Conscript. Mag. Elisabeth Krones: Teacher at the GRG3 Radetzkygymnasium and Supervisor of the Pre-scientific Paper.

GRG3 Radetzkystraße


Texas Hold’em Poker: Skill and Luck

VWA presentation, FROG main conference | Sunday, 15th October, 12:00 – 12:15

In this paper I dive into the Mechanics of Texas Hold’em Poker. I will approach the Game form a practical and not purely mathematical perspective.Although Poker is not truly based on luck it does not rely on direct Skill (like Chess) either but rather on a statistical phenomenon making the “What is a good or bad Decision?” Question al lot more complicated. I attempt to find out how skillbased Poker really is.

Monika Gorczyca

  • Name: Monika Gorczyca
  • Born: 15.11.1998
  • Languages: German, Polish, English
  • Computer skills: Unity, GIMP, Microsoft Office
  • Experience: Internship at the university of Vienna
  • Hobbies: Playing Games, Digital photography

BORG 20 – Brigittenauer Gymnasium, Karajangasse


Brain-Computer-Interface Games for ADHD children

VWA presentation, FROG main conference | Saturday, 14th October, 14:45 – 15:00

My work enlightens a novel treatment possibility for ADHD children. Normally, kids with such problems are treated with drugs combined with additional exercises  such as Yoga or martial arts. Several research studies came to the conclusion that a video game controlled by a Brain Computer Interface (BCI) could represent a good alternative  to traditional treatments avoiding the side effects of drugs. However, this approach is still at an experimental stage. To confirm the effectiveness of this method I  programmed such a computer game steered by a BCI.

Martin Zenz

Martin Zenz is a former student and currently serving his compulsory duties as an Austrian citizen doing community service. Afterwards he is planning to study sports and music as a teaching profession. His main fields of interests are sports, videogames and music. Combining the latter equals a perfectly suited topic for the prescientific paper, which is a big part of the highschool graduation-examin Austria.


Video Game Music: History and Composition

VWA presentation, FROG main conference | Sunday, 15th October, 17:15 – 17:30

The prescientific paper examines the history important techniques used in video game music. Using basic methods modern music production, the author recreates the sound of each era with a new melody. The paper focuses on how the technologic improvement changed the way music was composed and not the technology itself. Current and future games are being discussed and issues concerning the importance of music in (competetive) games are observed in connection with a survey carried out at the Gamecity Convention in 2016.

Jakob Wonisch

Jakob Wonisch is a high school graduate of SLSZ Wien West, a school for aspiring professional athletes. In his spare time, he has developed an interest in computer programming and game development. Coming fall, he will begin to study computer science at the TU Wien.

SLSZ Wien West


The Advantages of Using a Scripting Language As a Tool for Designers of Point-and-Click Adventure-Games

VWA presentation, FROG main conference | Saturday, 14th October, 09:30 – 09:45

Point-and-click adventure games are often developed using custom scripting languages to design the stages. The designers who build the game’s story and puzzles are often inexperienced in programming. What makes those languages such a great tool is the separation of technical tasks and the creative design process. In this paper, the exact advantages have been discovered through analysis of SCUMM, LucasArts’ in-house game engine. They were implemented in a point-and-click game engine with a custom scripting language designed to showcase those exact features. In addition, a short game was developed as an example.

Simon Wimmer

Simon Wimmer holds Bachelor’s degree in Cultural and Social Anthropology from the University of Vienna. In his Elective Modules “Museum and Educational Work” and “Art-Media-Narration” he took every chance to write about game related topics. He is attending “Game Studies” at Donau-Universität-Krems since 2015.


Participant Observation As a Tool to Delve Within the Magic Circle

Thesis presentation, FROG main conference | Sunday 15th October, 16:30 – 16:45

In my talk I will point out why the participant observation can be a great tool to gather qualitative data within the magic circle. I will prove my points with my theoretical bachelor thesis, which sketches how anthropology handled “game” since Johan Huizinga. In this thesis, I also refer to three anthopolical case studies. Each of these case studies used a form of participant observation as a research method. Further I will talk about my empirical bachelor thesis where I did my own participant observation.

Philipp Söchtig

Philipp Söchtig (M.A.) holds a Bachelor’s degree in Japanese Studies and Philosophy as well as a Master’s degree in Literary and Media Studies. As part of his studies he has been at the Waseda University in Tokyo for two semesters. Philipp Söchtig has been a PhD candidate and lecturer at the Otto-Friedrich-University of Bamberg since 2017. His main fields of research include Game Studies, Intermediality, Gamification and Virtual Reality.

Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg


Video games as art – How players create their own worlds

Thesis presentation, FROG main conference | Friday, 13th October, 16:15 – 16:30

The aim of my Master’s thesis was to look at how players create their own meanings and worlds in and out of context of games and how they can be seen as artists in doing that. Umberto Ecos concept of open works of art, John Fiskes theory of productive consumers and Johan Huizingas and Roger Caillois notions of play served as a theoretical base. To illustrate the many ways players use to engage with digital games, the main part of the thesis was divided into four sub-categories of with regard to the field of creativity: narration, mechanics, technology and communication.

Lyubov Stafyeyeva

Lyuba Stafyeyeva works as a Social education worker in Caritas St. Pölten. She received her Bachelor of Education from Gorlovka University of Applied Science in Ukraine and obtains a Master Degree in Applied Knowledge Management at FH Burgenland. Her current research interests include Integration of Digital Games in Learning and E-learning Environments in school and enterprises.

FH Burgenland


Game-based learning in schools: Is it for everyone?

Thesis presentation, FROG main conference | Sunday, 15th October, 09:30 – 09:45

Danai E. Gavranidou

Danai E. Gavranidou received her Undergraduate degree at Theatre Studies Studies at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich and obtained a master’s degree in Theatre Studies at Freie Universität Berlin in 2017. During her studies she focused on the role of the audience, posthumanism and Game Studies. This resulted in a master thesis on children as videogame players.


Getting Lost in the Game World? – Approaches on Children as  Video Game Players

Thesis presentation, FROG main conference | Friday, 13th October, 15:30 – 15:45

To this day video games have often been attacked for their supposed negative impact on their audience. These attacks become especially fierce when the consumers are children, as this specific group is both valued and generally perceived as not being able to protect themselves against possible threats. This talk seeks to display research from the field of Game Studies that places the game in the everyday life (of children) and focuses on the contexts, situations, and socio-political relations of gaming. Thus, the emphasis no longer lays on the immersive, virtual experience that is perceived as threatening to young recipients.

Alesja Serada

Alesja Serada has BA in Oriental Philology from Belarussian State University (Minsk, 2006) and BA in Media & Communication from European Humanities University (Vilnius, 2017). She turned to game studies in 2016 after gaining several years of working experience in game marketing. Currently she is a student of MA programme in Sociology (specialization: Visual and Cultural Studies) at European Humanities University in Vilnius, Lithuania.

European Humanities University


The phenomenon of playbor: Relations between labour and leisure in casual farming games (the case of “royal story”)

Thesis presentation, FROG main conference | Sunday, 15th October, 11:15 – 11:30

This paper explores specific forms of playbor that can be found in a typical free-to-play game Royal Story. The research objective is to reveal game design patterns when play becomes work, and vice versa, and explain them from the economic perspective. To achieve it, we conceptualize playbor within context of game studies and apply our updated definition of it to our observations of 60 highly dedicated players of the game. Thus, we verify existence of playbor in Royal Story in a number of sometimes unexpected forms, such as, communicating with other members of the gaming community or purchasing luxury goods.

Sebastian Felzmann

Sebastian Felzmann, M.A., studied German Literature at the KIT. Together with Adam Rafinski and Jens M. Stober he initiated the HfG GameLab. Sebastian has written a book and several scientific papers about media nostalgia and retro gaming and even held various lectures about that subject. As a book producer he supported Steffen P. Walz and Sebastian Deterding in the publication of “The Gameful World”, a 690-pages-thick handbook about Gamification.

Cologne Game Lab // TH Köln


Aptum, Agency & Aggressions – Player Reactions to „That Dragon Cancer“

Panel talk, FROG main conference | Saturday, 14th October, 16:30 – 17:00

„That’s a GAME?“ – „That is NO game!“ Core gamers are criticizing mainly the gameplay and the narrative mediation of „That Dragon Cancer“ – with harsh words and barely hold back aggression. My talk will have a closer look  into the narrative structure of „That Dragon Cancer“, the gameplay mechanics, its abuse of agency and its interconnection with the player experiences gained in prior games. For examining those I’ll use to concept of “scripts” as structured objects representing standardized generalized episodes as a tool to explain the profound unease that the players experienced.