Multiplatform 2022: Full Programme

Multiplatform 2022 banner

A conference on bodies and embodiment in games. Supported by Game in lab and the Centre for Creative Writing, English, Languages and Linguistics at Manchester Metropolitan University.

22-23 June 2022  
Online (Zoom)

22 JUNE – ANALOGUE PLAY:

10:30                          Welcome 

10:45                          Keynote Address 

·         Michael Heron (Chalmers University of Technology and Meeple Like Us) ‘The Inaccessibility of Fun’  

11:00                                Break 

11:30                                   Panel 1: LARP Design 

·         Melissa Chatterton: ‘The Performance of Gender at LARP’ 

·         Christopher Lamb, Laura Mitchell and Lorraine McKee: ‘LARP design at the End of the World’ 

·         Hazel Dixon: ‘Embodied Games for Sex Education’ 

1:00                                     Lunch Break 

2:00                                     Round Table: Romance across the Tabletop 

·         Kiley Dunbar (author of The Borrow a Bookshop Holiday) 

·         Emily Care Boss (designer of The Romance Trilogy RPG Collection) 

·         Jacob Jaskov (designer of Fog of Love) 

·         Chaired by Chloé Germaine. 

3:15                                     Finish 

23 JUNE DIGITAL PLAY:  

9:30                                     Keynote Address 

·         Irene Fubara-Manuel (University of Sussex) and Zoyander Street  (Lancaster University) in conversation 

10:45                                   Panel 1: Interfaces and Industry

·         John Henry: ‘Using Pulserate as Player Input’ 

·         Adam Cain: ‘The Interconnected Worlds of Fashion and Gaming’ 

·         Alex Brooke: ‘Towards Enhancing Game Telemetry with Facial Expression Recognition for Personalised Gameplay Experiences’ 

12:00                                   Panel 2: Bodily Representations in Games 

·         Hugh Hammond: ‘We Do Not Know How A Body Can Play: Constructing Moving Bodies in Mainstream Videogames’ 

·         Christopher McMahon: ‘Naked Snakes: The dissonance of sex and sexuality in the narrative and play of the Metal Gear Solid series’ 

·         Steph Farnsworth: Corpo Creations: How Cyberpunk 2077 Explores Manufactured Mutants, and the Difficulties of Disability in an Inaccessible Posthuman Society’ 

13:15                                   Lunch break 

 14:15                                  Panel 3: Intersections of Gaming, Esports, and Online Sex Work  

·         Thomas Apperley will examine how bodies are monetized on Twitch focusing on ‘hot tub’ streaming. 

·         Mayara Araujo Caetano will focus on the overlaps between streaming sex and/or pornographic games with online sex work, focusing on 3DXChat (SexGame Devil, 2012), an online multiplayer gaming environment. 

·         Maria Ruotsalainen will discuss the way esport players’ bodies are commodified and monetized. 

15:30                                   Keynote Address 

·         Susanna Paasonen (University of Turku)