Abertay “proud to host this historic convocation”

Dr William Huber, Head of Centre for Excellence in Game Education at Abertay University, explains why this institution is hosting the first ever joint conference of DiGRA and FDG.

Abertay University, home of Europe’s first and oldest computer games programme, is the anchor of the game hub in the city of Dundee, and has been rated the best place in Europe to study game design by the Princeton Review. In addition to educating new generations of programmers, designers, producers and artists for the entire spectrum of the game and interactive entertainment industries, it hosts a robust community of scholars, researchers and artists, whose work we’ll be profiling over the next few weeks.

In 2016, Abertay is proud to be the host for a historic convocation: the collocation of the two most significant academic conferences dedicated to the study of and research about digital games. DiGRA + FDG 2016 represents the coming together of two events which have produced some of the most discussed ideas and findings in various aspects of academic game research.

DiGRA, the Digital Games Research Association, “is the premiere international association for academics and professionals who research digital games and associated phenomena.” The association produced its first international conference in Utrecht in the Netherlands in 2003. It now has several regional and national chapters. Encompassing a wide range of disciplines, it is particularly strong in the fields of the social sciences, player-oriented research, and the humanities.

FDG is the Foundation of Digital Games, an event produced by the Society for Advancement of the Science of Digital Games, created in 2006 “to promote and advance the science, technology, design, and study of digital games.” While also embracing scholars and researchers from a wide range of disciplines, FDG has historically had a strong showing from computer scientists, design researchers, and the practice-oriented aspects of the digital humanities.

Many academics and researchers are members of both organizations. While each of them has its own distinctive culture of inquiry, there has long been a belief that the two could periodically come together to create a significant event, catalysing game research across all the disciplines. We hope that 2016 will be just such an event.