Birgit Swoboda

Birgit Swoboda studied English Linguistics as well as History at the University of Vienna and holds a PhD degree (thesis title: “L2P n00b – the pragmatics of positioning in MMORPGs”) in English Linguistics. She is a freelance researcher publishing and presenting on language use in media and computer-games. Her research focus is netspeak, politeness theory, positioning theory and computer game studies, especially MMORPGs.


Stay out of the fire you %&§!!!! – Negotiation of meanings by positioning in MMORPGs

Panel talk, FROG main conference | Saturday, 14th October, 11:15 – 11:45

Players and their communication are essential aspects of computer-games especially of MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Games). The inclusive gaming environment, the multiple communication-channels and cooperative gaming provide researchers an opportunity to investigate how meanings are made and positions negotiated in the ingame interaction process. These questions are dealt with by drawing upon an online-questionnaire (n=324) and a self-compiled corpus of ingame communication. How do gamers position themselves by means of linguistic tokens such as acronyms, neologisms and smileys. Why do gamers position through negative behaviors like trolling and ganking? And what does “Stay out of the fire” mean?

Bruno de Andrade

Bildergebnis für bruno amaral andradeBruno Amaral de Andrade: PhD Candidate in the Post-Graduate Program in Architecture and Urbanism (NPGAU) of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Brazil. Master in Architecture and Urbanism by the Post-Graduate Program in Architecture and Urbanism (PPGAU) of the Federal University of Espírito Santo (UFES). Master sandwich at the Università degli Studi di Firenze (UNIFI), linked to the Laboratorio di Progettazione Ecologica degli Insediamenti (LaPEI). Associate Researcher at the Heritage and Development Laboratory – Patri_Lab / UFES (2010 -). Research Associate to the “Società dei Territorialisti” – SdT (2014 -). PhD Researcher at the Geoprocessing Lab / UFMG (2015 -) on Geoprocessing in the Management of Urban and Environmental Landscape. PhD sandwich in the “Doctorate Program in Engineering of Spatial Planning Sciences”, at the Technische Universität Wien (TUWIEN) 2016/2017. Mainly works in the areas: Planning and Management of Territorial Heritage, Citizen Participation; Geoprocessing; Geogames; Game-Based Learning; Research Methodology.

Co-authors: Ana Clara Mourão Moura: Professor in Urban Planning  at the Federal University of Minas Gerais. Ítalo Sousa de Sena: Geoprocessing Lab, School of Architecture, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Federal University of Minas Gerais


Tirolcraft 2.0: The Quest for Children to Shape their Heritage Values using Geogames

Panel talk, FROG main conference | Friday, 13th October, 16:30 – 17:00

Advancing on the research of the gamification of the territorial heritage representation in which children played the role of planners in Tirol in Brazil by virtually co-designing their own heritage values at the landscape directly in Minecraft (de Andrade et al, 2016), now, the goal is to work towards concepts of geogames (Schlieder, 2014), playful civic participation (Poplin, 2012) and child-embodied interaction (de Andrade, 2017) in order to enhance the player experience amongst children to reach both game making and research. The territory of study is Tirol town, in the municipality of Santa Leopoldina, in the state of Espírito Santo, in Brazil, and the target group are children around 09 and 13 years old, from the public School of Tirol. Hence, at the same time that the pupils are working on their perception and cognition skills by shaping their territory in Sketchup and Minecraft, there’s an important game based-learning effect related to critically reflect on the values of use and existence, which supports a sense of conscious of place (Bellandi and Magnaghi, 2017; Becattini, 2015) and, moreover, a sense of spatial planning learning anchored on heritage values. In effect, the research question is how can shaping the territorial heritage in Minecraft be a value learning platform for children? And so, can this serve to shape a new generation more prepared to intervene on the territory? The next step will be to explore their heritage landscape design using a VR (Virtual Reality) Cardboard technology, to provide a new degree of spatial immersion and improve player’s’ embodiment cognition, and then to co-design self-sustainable development scenarios using the Geodesign approach (Steinitz, 2012).

Christian Kißler

Christian Kißler (*1991 in Hagen-Hohenlimburg, Germany) successfully obtained his Abitur in 2011 and accomplished his bachelor’s degree in biology and educational sciences in 2015. He is currently studying two master programmes: Educational Sciences and Education and Media: eEducation. Christian Kißler operates the biggest German YouTube channel for educational sciences. He works both at the German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases and as a tutor for diverse private and public institutions.


A Different Kind of Game: Individual Development and Socialization

Panel talk, FROG main conference | Saturday, 14th October, 18:00 – 18:30

How do I become who I am? How important are other people for the process of becoming me? Mead´s (1934, 1973) theory of Play, Game, Me, I and Self will be important to answer these questions. With easy words and brief stories many important aspects of the process of becoming oneself will be explained. The importance of other people will be shown: We become who we are by seeing the world through the eyes of the others (Wittpoth, 2009) and a person resp. subjectivity has always to be thought in relation to other persons and groups (Ricken, 1999; 2006).

Dominik Mieth

Dominik Mieth studied film, literature and philosophy in Tübingen and Mainz focusing on screenwriting, narratology and ethics. After working in game development for six years as producer and game designer he became professor for game design at the Mediadesign University of Applied Sciences in Munich in 2012. His lectures cover game design and documentation, game rules and mechanics and the history of games and game development.

Mediadesign Hochschule


“Please look to your right.” – Lessons learned from three Virtual Reality projects

Panel talk, FROG main conference | Saturday, 14th October, 11:45 – 12:15

The presentation discusses three projects completed by Game Design students at the Mediadesign Hochschule München. It presents lessons learned from implementing gameplay for VR. Key findings cover interaction and interface design, virtual presence and immersion. How did the students use VR to create a novel experience? How did the students expect players to (re)act? How did players with little or no previous VR-experience react? What can this teach us for future VR games?

Federico Alvarez Igarzábal

Federico Alvarez Igarzábal studied Audiovisual Communications and Visual Arts in Córdoba, Argentina. He has worked as a researcher and teacher at different institutions, including the University of Cologne and the TH Köln (Germany), where he is currently employed. Since 2013 he is working on his PhD thesis on the topic of temporal structures in video games and time perception under the working title of “Time and Space in Video Games.”

University of Cologne / TH Köln – University of Applied Sciences


Marshmallows and Bullets

Panel talk, FROG main conference | Sunday, 15th October, 12:15 – 12:45

This talk examines the Resident Evil HD Remaster of 2015 with the psychological notions of delayed gratification, temporal discounting, and time perspective. These concepts describe how players interact with video games in general, but are especially adequate for the analysis of survival horror games. The player’s mental construction of time is connected to decision-making processes related to resource management. Survival horror is characterized by the management of scarce resources in unsettling environments. Psychological studies concerned with the aforementioned notions, i.e. Mischel’s famed “Marshmallow Test”, shed light on mental processes that affect interaction with this genre and Resident Evil in particular.

Gernot Hausar

Gernot Hausar is a Historian based in Vienna, Austria. Interests & research include information exchange & transfer, digital humanities, hackers, net-policy, eLearning, OCR, games & data mining.

University of Vienna / University of Applied Sciences FH Campus


Being mean in Space – The Player Ecosystem of EVE Online (Suggested track: players gaining power)

Panel talk, FROG main conference | Sunday, 15th October, 14:15 – 14:45

EVE Online from icelandic CCP-Games has a lot of innovative approaches for including players in the game development process. Through this and their very permissive in-game rule system for play, a lot of player initiatives have developed as an addition to the official channels between players and developers. This results in a lot of innovative play styles and tactics and a thriving eco-system in-and out of game with a faithful player-base.In this talk I give an overview and evaluation of the different channels between developers and players and how this fits into “playing” the game.

Harald Koberg

Harald Koberg manages the department for digital games at Ludovico, an NGO in Styria/Austria focusing on gaming culture and game education. He conducts educational programs dealing with digital games in the social context, works as an expert for the BuPP and runs a study on differing perceptions of gaming and their social significance as part of his PhD-studies at the Institute for European Ethnology at the Karl-Franzens-University in Graz.

Ludovico; Institut für Volkskunde und Kulturanthropologie der Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz


We are still weirdos. Challenging the notion of gaming culture at the “center of society”

Panel talk, FROG main conference | Friday, 13th October, 15:00 – 15:30

Based on ongoing qualitative research, Harald Koberg argues that gaming as a cultural practice is far from the broad social acceptance it has repeatedly been diagnosed with by scientific and journalistic commentators. Referring to sociological theories of deviant behavior and stigmatization he demonstrates, how and why players might still feel the need to defend themselves against accusations and stereotypes – fostering the formation of strong gaming communities on the go. Attempting to uncover the underlying structures of social powers and protected norms, he draws attention to scarcely researched questions about the significance of gaming in the bigger social context.

Ilaria Mariani

PhD in Design, Ilaria is Research fellow at Design Department and Adjunct Professor at School of Design, Politecnico di Milano. She designs, investigates and lectures in games for social change as systems for communication and social innovation. Her research – theoretical and practical – mainly addresses (1) the meaningful negative experiences certain games create to activate reflection and change, and (2) interactive narratives, between ethics and aesthetics. The focus is on games and narratives able to meaningfully challenge players to explore civic, social, political, moral or ethical issues, encouraging an alteration of entrenched attitudes and sometimes even behaviours.

Politecnico di Milano


Game Designers as Play(er) Experience Divers

Panel talk, FROG main conference | Saturday, 14th October, 12:15 – 12:45

A part from measuring the artefact usability/playability and its ability to successfully entertain the player, who designs games for social change aims should attempt to verify their communicative effectiveness. Are messages conveyed? How players receive them? To what extent are they understood? Good questions… often neglected.Indeed, as central are players, as it is play(er) understanding.This contribution tells the backgrounds and outcomes of a player-centred framework for designers willing to understand players and its application, and sometime misapplication to about 100 games.

Ivan Davidov

I studied game studies and philosophy on the graduate level in Austria, currently still affiliated to the University of Vienna. My research interests focus on play and game studies in general, play therapy, cognitive theory of play, joint action in games, eSports, aesthetics of digital games and digital kitsch.

Universität Wien


The Gambler’s and Explorer’s Shared Mental State

Panel talk, FROG main conference | Saturday, 14th October, 09:00 – 09:30

There is a sharp divide between game and gambling studies. The wager component justifies this separation, although the mediality and content of a gambling game do not preclude negotiable consequences. A player experience based ontology can incorporate betting games into the field of game studies. The gap disappears if shown that the experience of wagering overlaps with an established player type. Gaming players’ mental states resemble the experiences of exploring ones. This hypothesis will be instantiated by a comparison between exploration in Minecraft and 4X games with slot machines and roulette, respectively.