January 2023 – DiGRA Australia

DiGRAA 2023 will take place at the Australian Hearing Hub (AHH)
16 University Ave, Macquarie University (map)

Paid parking is available on campus in the South 2 and West 3 parking zones (map).

To attend online, use this Zoom link (password: 742273)

Monday February 6th

8:45am	Pre-conference meetup Perfect Brew, AHH Ground Floor
9:00am	Registration AHH Level 1 Foyer
9:30am	Welcome to DiGRAA AHH Level 1 Lecture Theatre	Malcolm Ryan Brendan Keogh
10am	Session 1 – Gaming Cultures AHH Level 1 Lecture Theatre	Chair: Malcolm Ryan
	Videogame Activism: Contemporary examples and their effectivity	Hugh Davies
	Yelling at clouds: Battlefield 2042 players’ encounters with the climate crisis	Lawrence May and Ben Hall
	Beyond Subcultures. To study gaming communities through Bourdieu’s cultural capital	Giulio Pitroso
	The role of community in the work of alternative Australian gamemakers	Erika Verkaaik
	Q&A (20 min)
11am	Morning tea AHH Level 1 Foyer
11:30am	Session 2 – Museums & Events AHH Level 1 Lecture Theatre	Chair: Mahli-Ann Butt
	Gaming After Dark: How Contemporary Institutions Can Support Gaming Industries and Communities	Chloe Appleby
	Gods and Greeks: a study of an immersive RPG in a museum setting	Nellie Seale
	Transience of Place: Knowing, Forgetting, Playing	Lee Cope
	Capturing Cosplay: Analysing Steamkittens and the Digitisation of Cosplay Photography at Gaming Conventions	Madeleine Antonellos
	Q&A (20 min)
12:30pm	Session 3 – Narrative 1 AHH Level 1 Lecture Theatre	Chair: Cameron Edmond
	Not Choices Matter, But I Matter! Multiple Endings as Quantified Self	Antranig Sarian
	Vampires, Drama, and Romance: Examining the in-game interactive fiction tools in Episode and Dorian	Stephanie Harkin
	Worldbuilding and Capitalism in Disco Elysium	Finn Dawson
	Conlangs as Speech Actions: Studying the pragmatics of Constructed Languages in Video Games	Gargi Kowli
	Q&A (20 min)
1:30pm	Lunch
2:30pm	Session 4 – Industry & Education AHH Level 1 Lecture Theatre	Chair: Abbie Hartman
	Creative, Technical, Entrepreneurial: Locating Videogame Development in Australian Higher Education	Brendan Keogh and Taylor Hardwick
	Marketing as black magic: perspectives from Victorian studios	Jacqueline Burgess, Alexander Muscat, Anthony Grace and Christian Jones
	A Necessary Evil: Creative and Commercial Tensions in Australian Game Development	Alexander Muscat, Jacqueline Burgess, Anthony Grace and Christian Jones
	Poetry Games as Tools for Inclusive Writing Classrooms	Cameron Edmond
	Q&A (20 min)
3:30pm	Afternoon tea AHH Level 1 Foyer
4pm	Session 5 – Platform Studies AHH Level 1 Lecture Theatre	Chair: Kayson Whitehouse
	How do we talk about embodiment in VR?	Kate Clark
	Taking Motion Controls to the Next Level: Interactions in the Metaverse	Mitchell McEwan
	Gotta Catch ‘Em All?: Pokémon GO and the Spatiality of Risk	Rowan Tulloch and Nicole Matthews
	How Mobile Data Plans Shape Mobile Gaming Experiences	Kyle Moore
	Q&A (20 min)
5pm	Social Event @ UBar 1 Central Courtyard

Tuesday February 7th

10am	Announcements AHH Level 1 Lecture Theatre	Malcolm Ryan
10:15am	Keynote AHH Level 1 Lecture Theatre	Chair: Malcolm Ryan
	THE RULES WE BREAK – how to play with game design	Eric Zimmerman
11am	Morning tea AHH Level 1 Foyer
11:30am	Session 6 – Gaming Identities AHH Level 1 Lecture Theatre	Chair: Brendan Keogh
	Motives behind trash talk in esports: A consumer perspective through self-determination theory	Sidney Irwin, Anjum Naweed and Michele Lastella
	‘Sculling Shoeys’ at eSports: Nationalism, Masculinity, and Performative Assemblies	Mahli-Ann Butt
	Understanding Avatar Customization Affordance in Gender Expression	Yisong Han and Xavier Ho
	Gender-Identity-Play in Young Trans* and Gender Diverse Players	Kayson Whitehouse, Michael Hitchens and Nicole Matthews
	Q&A (20 min)
12:30pm	Session 7 – Podcasting / Streaming AHH Level 1 Lecture Theatre	Chair: Cameron Edmod
	Career, Hustle or Hobby? The Lives of Gaming Podcast Creators	Ryan Stanton
	Building the Ultimate Battlestation: Producing and Consuming Gaming Setup Videos on YouTube	Dahlia Jovic
	Streaming Persona as a Toolkit for the Analysis of Performance in Videogame Livestreaming	Nathan J Jackson
	Time and Temporality in Game Streaming on Twitch	Mark R Johnson
	Q&A (20 min)
1:30pm	Lunch
2:30pm	Session 8 – Design & Player Experience AHH Level 1 Lecture Theatre	Chair: Vedant Sansare
	Escaping the Laboratorium of Dr Moustache: Learning About Distanced Play Through Game Design	Melissa Rogerson
	Press Play and Record: Poinpy, juice ‘em ups, and frame b y frame analysis	James Manning
	Th e missing Link: Demonstrating videogame formalism throug h an analysis of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.	Jasper Van Vught and Alex Mitchell
	Coping, Achieving, Repeating: The Pleasures of Videogame Grinding	Andrea Andiloro
	Q&A (20 min)
3:30pm	Afternoon Tea AHH Level 1 Foyer
4:00pm	Session 9 – Narrative 2 AHH Level 1 Lecture Theatre	Chair: Mitchell McEwan
	The Transgressive Technology of Horror Videogames: A Literary Undertaking of Monsters and Machines	Chelsea Russell
	The Great Fire: Experiments in Moral Decision-Making	Malcolm Ryan
	Ethical Decision-making Through Systems-based Gameplay	Vedant Sansare
	All Players Are Equal: Playing With The Rules In An Animal Farm D&D Adaptation	Premeet Sidhu
	Q&A (20 min)
5pm	Close

The DiGRA Australia 2023 National Conference will take place at Macquarie University in Sydney on 6-7 February. The conference will also be able to be attended virtually. We would love to see you there!

The conference is entirely free but registration is required. Please use this Trybooking link to register for conference attendance. Registration is important so we know numbers and dietary requirements for in-person attendance, as well as which speakers will be presenting remotely. If your mode of attendance changes in the future, please update your registration accordingly (by cancelling and re-registering) so we know what numbers to expect.

Please note too that DiGRA Australia has now implemented a formal membership system, with details available here. Membership is free for students and casual academics, and $50 for full-time academics. There is also a $500 institutional membership that covers an unlimited number of individuals connected to a paying institution (e.g., a school or a research lab). If you think your employer might be willing to support our association, perhaps ask them! I’m happy to answer any questions about that process you might have.

Note that membership is not required to simply attend the conference, but is required for presenters. It is also required to attend the AGM, vote in our elections, or to stand for a position on that board.

We look forward to seeing you at the conference in February!

Monthly Archives: January 2023

DiGRAA 2023 Conference Program

DiGRAA 2023 Registration