Classified: How I got funding for my research (the interview)

As an honest exercise in transparency, as well as a part of the project's history, I will write about the presentation I made during the interview to obtain funding for my research. In this kind of application processes, the jury barely give you five minutes to show them why your research is important and why they should recommend your project to be funded. Thus, you must be convincing and compelling in a very concise way. I organised my presentation...

Videogames and Sociology: Twitter's pic of the day summary (1-5)

I've been posting screenshots of videogames on Twitter under the motto Pic of the day in #videogames and #sociology. They all include a sentence extracted from the game as well. I really don't know why I've been doing this. I guess I thought it could be fun and help me to spread the word about the sociological potentiality inside video games. Video games as powerful tools to unleash our sociological imagination.  I'd like to clarify...

Competitive gaming from Pac-Man to League of Legends: What happened in the middle?

Can someone explain to me how competitive gaming got from here... ...to here? I've already written about pro gaming in other entries, but it still amazes me the heights that competitive gaming has reached. From the quiet emptiness of the Milwaukee County Stadium, only disturbed by the monotonous echo of Pac-Man's tune, to the roaring masses gathered to watch League of Legends' Season 3 World Finals at the Staples Center in LA.  It makes...

The magic rectangle of Twitch and the rear windows to what goes beyond the act of gaming

In the last post I launched an hypothesis on the magic circle theory, an important issue within games studies. I basically said that what makes possible the magic circle as a bounded experience is the same thing that traverses it and, up to certain extent, breaks it. This entry will approach that subject using an emerging phenomenon: Twitch.  If you happen not to know anything about Twitch, just visit the site and wander around...

The magic circle: a hypothesis

The magic circle is a subject which I will keep coming back to several times in this blog. Its definition is well known among game studies companions and I won't dig deep in the matter. However, the magic circle being a key notion in game studies main debates, I will briefly summarise what I think are its most important features (take this as a very simple outline of the theory, almost a caricature): The act of play sets boundaries to every...

I was the typical parent or how video gaming is becoming a serious thing

No, I don't have children. So I cannot be the typical parent, neither now nor in the past. Not even an atypical one. I'm not going to write about 'serious games' either. The very label 'serious games' is an interesting and controversial one in game studies. Maybe I'll have the chance to drop some lines on that subject some day (about serious games, not parenthood... well who knows). I would like to draw your attention to how serious video gaming...