Media and Culture Studies
Game studies has been part of the field of Media and Culture Studies at Utrecht University since around 2000 in both research and education. From this disciplinary perspective, games, gameplay, and game culture are studied as cultural phenomena with ever-changing form and meaning which give shape not just to game culture but our media culture at large.
In the news: About the pleasures of blood and violence in games.
Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant has published a longread article investigating the pleasures of blood and violence in games. In it, two Utrecht researchers reflect on the way violence has become part of the gameplay experience, and how it may also affect them.
Shape2Gether: Experiencing the Malta summer school
Hello again! We are five student from Utrecht University who for the past few months have been participating in the Erasmus+ Project Shape2Gether, an initiative to teach students how to communicate complex information relating to climate change using new media technologies. This piece is a retrospective of the second ‘summer school’ on the islands of Malta.
Game Research @Dutch DiGRA 2024 Symposium
On November 21, game scholars from all over The Netherlands and well beyond gathered at Erasmus University for the Dutch DiGRA 2024 Symposium. Many researchers from Utrecht presented their projects.
Perceptions on an Identity of UU Game Research – Part 3
Through discussing themes of Dutchness, Applied versus Theoretical, and Digital versus Analogue, we get an image of whether or not there is such a thing as a Dutch game research identity, as well as an insight into how the field might continue to grow, change, and adapt in the future. These themes together each form components of understanding the ways in which game research is engaged with academically in the Netherlands. In the interviews these thematic commonalities emerged, and highlighting both the similarities and differences offers an insight into the ways in which the research identity has been self-constructed at the UU. (Article 3 of 3)
What is (Dutch) Game Research? – Part 2
Discussing the themes and patterns presented by game researchers from a variety of backgrounds at the UU helps offer an insight, offers an insight into possible expressions of the field of game research as a whole. This second part of the series explains the reasoning behind the interviews conducted.
What is (Dutch) Game Research? – Part 1
Is there a specific Dutch identity to the game research conducted in the Netherland? Or at the UU? Part 1 of a series of articles exploring this key question.
Meet the Makers: Roos Groothuizen
The Transmission in Motion research group is organizing another Meet the Maker event, this time focusing on media artist Roos Groothuizen who works primarily with playful media.
Shape2Gether: Experiencing the Trondheim Summer School
In May of 2024 five UU students went for a week to Trondheim, Norway, to participate in the first of three summer schools as part of the Erasmus+ project Shape2Gether. This is their report of the summer school.
Game Research @ DiGRA 2024
The yearly international confernce of the Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) was held in Guadalajara, Mexico from 1-5 July, and members from the Utrecht Center for Game Research were present to present their current work.
“Hacking Board Games” Workshop at RMeS 2024 Summer School
Concluding the RMeS Summer School 2024: Environmental Media, Laura op de Beke and Stefan Werning of the Utrecht Game Lab organised a workshop for RMA students to facilitate ecological thinking by redesigning (or: ‘hacking’) board games.