We are excited to announce several special events to take place at Meaningful Play 2012 (http://meaningfulplay.msu.edu/ ), taking place October 18-20, 2012 in East Lansing, MI.

Special events include:

* Special Presentation, Wednesday, Oct. 17 – Pre-conference Quello Center Lecture Series presentation by Dr. Constance Steinkuehler, faculty member in the Games, Learning and Society program at University of Wisconsin, who is currently serving as Senior Policy Analyst at the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the U.S. President. Her speech will take place Wednesday evening before the first day of Meaningful Play and is open to all conference attendees.

* Conference Party, Thursday, Oct. 18 – Chance to mix and mingle with conference goers at the Opening Reception, view late breaking research at the Poster Session, and play “meaningful” games at the Game Exhibition (appetizers and drinks provided).

* Popcorn and a Movie, Friday, Oct. 19 – Get a snapshot into the trials and tribulations of an indie game developer in the screening of the Sundance Award Winning documentary, “Indie Game: the Movie”. A Q&A session with the directors of the movie will follow the screening.

* Conference Wrap Up, Saturday, Oct. 20 – Enjoy the provided lunch during the closing keynote with Michael John, General Manager of the “GLASS Lab,” an unprecedented cooperative effort between the Gates Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and EA to create educational games.

* Game Room, Throughout – Build meaningful connections with your fellow conference goers while playing a digital or board game in the Meaningful Play Game Room.

Serious games, including games for learning, are among the core strands of Meaningful Play 2012, a conference about theory, research, and game design innovations, principles and practices. Meaningful Play brings scholars and industry professionals together to understand and improve upon games to entertain, inform, educate, and persuade in meaningful ways.

The conference will include thought-provoking keynotes from leaders in academia and industry, peer-reviewed paper presentations, panel sessions (including academic and industry panels), innovative workshops, roundtable discussions, and exhibitions of games and prototypes.

Presentation AND game submissions are due July 29, 2012. Complete details on the conference are available at:http://meaningfulplay.msu.edu/

Details on the conference, including the call for submissions, are available at: http://meaningfulplay.msu.edu/

And please visit http://seriousgames.msu.edu/ for information on our fully online serious games graduate certificate, undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral degree programs in games and meaningful play.

MSU M.I.S. PhD students Yu-Hao Lee and Donghee Yvette Wohn presented two meaningful-play-related talks at the recent ICA (International Communication Association) annual conference in Phoenix.

Does Culture Affect How We Play? Examining the Effect of Culture Orientations on Expected Outcomes and Usage Patterns of Social Network Games
Yu-Hao Lee, Donghee Yvette Wohn

Social network game (SNG) embedded in social network sites are one of the driving forces behind the expansion of digital gamer populations. Previous studies have observed difference in usage patterns between people in different ethnic groups and countries, suggesting that culture orientations may affect how people play and interact through social network games. This study included measures of vertical and horizontal individualism-collectivism to examine how people’s culture orientations affect usage patterns. The findings indicate that culture does not directly affect usage. Instead, culture orientations affect people’s motivations (expected outcomes) of playing social network games, which then result in different usage patterns.

Social Contributors and Consequences of Compulsive Game Play
Donghee yvette Wohn, Yu-Hao Lee

This study examines the relationship between social motivations, pro-social outcomes, and two different types of online game use—habitual and compulsive—in the context of simulation games on Facebook. Results showed that social motivations can be a double-edged sword: social motivations predicted compulsive use, but not habitual use, and also increased the likelihood of increased positive interpersonal relationships. Frequency of play, not time, was associated with compulsive use. The number of Facebook friends showed a U-shaped curvilinear relationship to compulsive use. Compulsive use was a positive predictor of pro-social outcomes, but this was mainly due to social motivations driving compulsive use.