Second International Conference of Video Game Studies (SVI)

Intro

Exactly fifty years ago, in 1972, Magnavox came out with the first home gaming console, designed by Ralph Baer. That same year, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney founded Atari, the first game development company. Atari achieved immense success with Pong, a game that inspired many to try their luck at the game development business, first in the US, then in Japan and Europe, and finally across the globe. These events mark the birth of the largest media industry in existence today. In honour of this anniversary, the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, in cooperation with the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Philology, and the Serbian Games Association (SGA), are organising the second international conference dedicated to the study of video games in Serbia, Video Games as a Challenge to Academia: 50 Years of the Gaming Industry.

As the product of computer science, video games have been tied to the academic world since the 1950s, when scientists began to create computerized versions of games like chess, checkers, and tic-tac-toe to explore the capacities of artificial intelligence and solve various technical problems. The first commercial games were created by computer scientists, electrical and television engineers; as microprocessors developed and the manufacturing of games evolved, designers, artists, and programmers were gradually included in the process. Today, video games have evolved into something more than mere playthings: they have become a medium in their own right, capable of integrating various existing media and communicating complex messages and meanings. It comes as no surprise then that, over the last few decades, video game production has increasingly required new, practical and artistic skill-sets (programming, illustration, animation, modelling, sound design) and has become the object of a whole range of disciplines (from IT and organizational sciences, narratology and semiology, media and film theory, cultural studies and anthropology, to psychology, sociology, and pedagogy). This convergence points to the necessity of founding the study of video games as a new and interdisciplinary academic field.

Focusing on the scholarship and production of video games, the conference Video Games as a Challenge to Academia: 50 Years of the Gaming Industry examines various aspects and links between them. It was conceived as an opportunity for re-examining and furthering the conclusions reached at last years’ SVI conference, where, for the first time in Serbia, Game Studies were promoted as a new academic field. The previous conference tried to broadly map research areas dedicated to video games in all their variety and managed to bring together researchers from the US, Russia, Germany, China, Great Britain, the Czech Republic and Finland. Unlike its predecessor, SVI 2 strives to examine how academia and the video game industry converge and map out the points where video games and scholarship meet and part ways. It aims to open a dialogue between the gaming industry and academia and foster an understanding of their sometimes diverging goals and interests. Such a dialogue revolves around several key questions: What can scholarship, without giving up on critical thinking, offer the industry, and vice versa? Can the industry survive its crises alone, and should scholarship lend a hand? Can academia remain separate from the industry? Finally, is the market changing gaming, or is gaming conquering the marketplace?

Committee

Organizing Committee

• Manojlo Maravić – Academy of Arts / University of Novi Sad, Serbia
• Dušica Dragin – Academy of Arts / University of Novi Sad, Serbia
• Stefan Alidini – Faculty of Philology / University of Belgrade, Serbia
• Relja Bobić – Serbian Games Association (SGA)
• Biljana Ristić – Faculty of Philology / University of Belgrade, Serbia
• Danica Stanković – Academy of Arts / University of Novi Sad, Serbia
• Krinka Baković – The Institute of Ethnography SASA, Serbia
• Vesna Trifunović – The Institute of Ethnography SASA, Serbia
• Tatjana Ristić – SGA, Faculty of Philology / University of Belgrade, Serbia

Programme Committee

• Manojlo Maravić – Academy of Arts / University of Novi Sad, Serbia
• Dunja Dušanić – Faculty of Philology / University of Belgrade, Serbia
• Stefan Alidini – Faculty of Philology / University of Belgrade, Serbia
• Relja Bobić – Serbian Games Association (SGA)
• Žolt Lazar – Faculty of Philosophy / University of Novi Sad, Serbia
• Dušan Ristić – Faculty of Philosophy / University of Novi Sad, Serbia
• Mila Bujić – Tampere University, Finland
• Dragan Đorđević – Independent researcher
• Ljiljana Gavrilović – Full professor in retirement
• Marko Suvajdžić – Digital Worlds Institute / University of Florida, USA
• Biljana Mitrović – Faculty of Dramatic Arts / University of Arts in Belgrade, Serbia
• Miloš Jocić – Faculty of Philosophy / University of Novi Sad, Serbia
• Mladen Čudanov – Faculty of Organisational Sciences / University of Belgrade, Serbia
• Gorana Rakić-Bajić – Faculty of Medical Sciences / University of Kragujevac, Serbia
• Jasmina Arsenijević – Preschool Teacher Training College of Applied Studies, Kikinda, Serbia
• Zlatko Bukač – Department of English / University of Zadar, Croatia
• Dobrinka Kuzmanović – Faculty of Philology / University of Belgrade, Serbia
• Ivana Pandžić – Faculty of Philosophy / University of Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Tijana Milošević – Anti-Bullying Centre and ADAPT SFI / Dublin City University, Ireland
• Krinka Baković – The Institute of Ethnography SASA, Serbia
• Vesna Trifunović – The Institute of Ethnography SASA, Serbia
• Tatjana Ristić – SGA, Faculty of Philology / University of Belgrade, Serbia