[Air-L] CfP: Mixed Reality Games Workshop @ Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) 2012

[Elizabeth Bonsignore]

Mixed Reality Games Workshop @ Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW)
2012
(Seattle, WA, Feb 11-15, 2012 http://www.cscw2012.org/)

Call for Participation

Collaborative technologies increasingly permeate our everyday lives. Mixed
reality games use these technologies to entertain, motivate, educate, and
inspire. We understand mixed reality games as goal-directed, structured play
experiences that are not fully contained by virtual or physical worlds. They
transform existing technologies, relationships, and places into a platform
for gameplay. While the design of mixed reality games and interactive
entertainments has received increasing attention across multiple
disciplines, a focus on the collaborative potential of mixed reality
formats, such as augmented and alternate reality games, has been lacking. We
believe the CSCW community can play an essential and unique role in
examining and designing the next generation of mixed reality games and
technologies that support them. To this end, we seek to bring together
researchers, designers, and players to advance an integrated mixed reality
games’ research canon and outline key opportunities and challenges for
future research and development.

Our workshop goals are to:

 * Characterize the relationship between technology-mediated collaboration
and mixed reality games in order to improve the design and products of each.
 * Establish an interdisciplinary community that intersects existing
research groups from CSCW and Game Design/Studies that facilitates future
collaboration on mixed reality games. Promote small-group formation for
proposal writing, data sharing, and co-authoring.
 * Develop a preliminary mixed reality games research canon with a focus on
collaborative, cooperative, and/or social components of game design/play.
 * Craft a research agenda for future projects, funding, and publications.
Identify major research questions, known gaps in the literature, low-hanging
fruit, and large-impact possibilities.

Our workshop themes include, but are not limited to:

 * Design Patterns (or Meta-Game) discussions for mixed reality games
 * Collaborative tools and technologies used in game-design
 * Game mechanics and tools that support collaborative work/play
 * Empirical studies of games that require player collaboration,
multi-player task management, shared storytelling
 * Mobile and augmented reality technologies that support context-aware
games
 * Opportunities and challenges that arise from bringing mixed reality games
into everyday life
 * Application areas for mixed reality games with a social, scientific, or
educational purpose
 * Research methods for studying collaborative elements of mixed reality
games
 * Mixed reality games as a testbed for novel collaborative tools
 * Group performance assessment measures in mixed reality games

If you are interested in being a part of our efforts to develop a
preliminary mixed reality games research agenda, please submit a 2-4 page
position paper (ACM Extended Abstract format) via e-mail to mixedreality
[at] affectivegaming.info. Deadline for submissions is November 25, 2011.

Further background and details about this workshop can be found at:
http://mixedrealitygames.selfloud.net/aboutmixedreality/.

We recommend that your position papers:

 * Describe some aspect of your recent, current, upcoming, or ongoing work
in the domain of mixed reality games as broadly described/scoped in our
workshop description.
 * Pose one or more burning questions that you would like to discuss with
other workshop participants; or suggest one or more key characteristics or
design patterns you think should become part of a mixed reality games'
research canon or taxonomy.
 * Include your name(s), affiliation(s), email address(es), title(s).
 * Provide a short biography containing your background(s) and areas of
expertise. In lieu of -- or in addition to -- a short bio in your position
paper, consider making a “meet henry” style intro in video or slideshow. We
would post all of these on our workshop site as a virtual warm-up before we
all meet face to face. (Example “meet henry” slideshow at:
http://www.slideshare.net/chereemoore/meet-henry.) Note that this intro
could be uploaded any time before February 1, 2012.
 * Specify what you want to get out of the workshop. How would you like to
use the workshop as a stepping-stone? (e.g., as precursor to articles for a
Special Issue somewhere? …another follow-on workshop? …a conference-based
Alternate Reality Game? …etc.)

Not required for submission, but strongly encouraged, since we'll be asking
participants for it during the workshop itself:

 * Prepare a visual representation (sketch, diagram, concept model, photo,
screenshot) of your core idea/question, because we plan to post it on a
large shared wallpaper throughout the workshop. Multimedia pieces (videos,
audio) are a definite plus.

   If accepted, here are some items for the workshop itself:

    * Since we will be doing lightning round talks during the early part of
the workshop, please prepare a fast-deck of slides (estimate no more than
2-3 minute talk). These slides should be submitted in advance (no later than
January 31, 2011). These slides may be in addition to the visual artifact
that you bring to share your core idea, issue, or question for the workshop.
    * Please don't hesitate to bring an example of a game (or one of your
favorite games) that you think:
    * Exemplifies some design/play issue for mixed reality games, or
    * Could be transformed into a mixed reality game, or
    * Would be just plain fun to play during the post-workshop
Research-through-Play session.
    * The example you bring can be digital or physical – or BOTH!

Sincerely,
  The organizers
     Elizabeth Bonsignore, University of Maryland
     Derek L. Hansen, Brigham Young University
     Zachary O. Toups, Texas A&M University
     Lennart E. Nacke, University of Ontario Institute of Technology
     Anastasia Salter, University of Baltimore
     Wayne G. Lutters, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
     Steve Benford, University of Nottingham