http://www.gameswithoutfrontiers.net A Resource for Game Studies & Game Design Sat, 10 May 2008 16:20:23 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I am in the process of directing my energy into other sites and projects. First of all, I started an ad hoc project about Grand Theft Auto IV. My aim is to blog through the experience of playing the game, which would then produce one type of detailed reading of ... http://www.gameswithoutfrontiers.net/g2/2008/05/10/gta-iv-project/ As promised earlier, here is the opening speech from my defense: ’All Rules Lead to Players’ by Aki Järvinen Lectio Praecursoriae, University of Tampere, Finland March 8th, 2008 Dear custodian, dear opponent, ladies and gentlemen. It is my task to open this event by speaking to you about my work, to be defended here today. I ... http://www.gameswithoutfrontiers.net/g2/2008/03/25/all-rules-lead-to-players-defense-speech/ It's me, my Professor Mikko Lehtonen, and my esteemed opponent Jesper Juul, giving his closing remarks of my 'hugely ambitious work, which puts a stake in the ground for game studies' :) I have levelled up!! I will post my opening speech, 'lectio', from the defense in the coming days. Then ... http://www.gameswithoutfrontiers.net/g2/2008/03/12/defense-over/ After close to 10 years of post-graduate studies, on and off, my thesis has been published in the electronic series of the University of Tampere. A link and an abstract can be found here: Games without Frontiers: Theories and Methods for Game Studies and Design This means that I will remove ... http://www.gameswithoutfrontiers.net/g2/2008/02/22/thesis-published/ I'm happy to say that my work on emotions and games reached seventh at the list of 'top ten research findings from academic game studies from the previous calendar year', presented by fellow scholars at GDC. Meanwhile, my final thesis version will appear as an electronic publication at the University ... http://www.gameswithoutfrontiers.net/g2/2008/02/21/7-at-the-game-studies-download-30/ During the coming weekend, I hope to correct the errata and maybe do a couple of structural changes before I'll send the package to my opponent. After that, I will try to find time for writing two book proposals based on the manuscript. Meanwhile, I try to gather forces and ... http://www.gameswithoutfrontiers.net/g2/2007/12/03/finalizing-the-phd/ I'll be heading to the north of Sweden, to Skellefteå, this week to give a mix of lectures, analysis exercises, and Gamegame during a spell of two days. It's part of a game design course in Luleå University of Technology. From there, I'll head for the Royal Institute of Technology ... http://www.gameswithoutfrontiers.net/g2/2007/11/19/lecturing-mini-tour-2nd-leg/ I'm happy to announce that my Ph.D. evaluations have both come in and they are positive, yippee! After some scheduling negotiations, it now seems pretty certain that my defense will be on March 8th next year. http://www.gameswithoutfrontiers.net/g2/2007/10/30/there-will-be-a-defense/ I'll be lecturing next week in Malmö and Copenhagen: First, on Monday the 29th, I'll be giving a couple of talks in Malmö University, and on the following a day I'll have a visiting spot in the Advanced Game Theory course at ITU. Looking forward to this! I'll ... http://www.gameswithoutfrontiers.net/g2/2007/10/22/lecturing-mini-tour/ In the wake of the DiGRA conference and due to the on-going wait with the evaluation, I've decided to publish the manuscript for download. It's quite a heavy set, some 400 pages, and there is obviously a host of crunch-time errata which I will deal with later - but what ... http://www.gameswithoutfrontiers.net/g2/2007/09/30/thesis-manuscript-v09-available/