1st GAMES WIS

The GAME Science Winter School

Merging Theory and Practice of Games and Gaming

Lucca, Italy - November 2 - 8 , 2019

CMON ltd - IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca - Lucca Comics & Games

GAME Science Winter School

The GAME Science Research Center and Lucca Crea S.r.L. are proud to introduce the first GAME Science Winter School (GAMES WIS) a residential workshop dedicated to game science (game design, game studies, game theory) within the frame of Lucca Comics & Games.

By recognizing in the interaction between scientific research and professional practices a highly promising area for development and innovation, the GAMES WIS offers a high-profile learning experience with a special emphasis on experimentation. The know-hows of both Game Designers and Game Theory experts will converge in a fully scheduled week of classes, activities and shared time.

Given its broad scope, GAMES WIS is a fitting choice for an expert gamer wishing to explore the theoretical and practical bases of Game Science, as much as for a researcher seeking to broaden its academic knowledge through a direct game-design experience. Moreover, the school could be much valuable for authors, journalists and editors with an established career in the games industry who are wishing to explore the theoretical grounds behind games theory and design.

GAME Science Research Center

The Game Science Research Center (GAME.SCI RE.CENTER) is an inter-university research center, with its headquarters at IMT School of Advanced Studies Lucca, which has been created in 2019 with the goal of promoting, supporting and spreading scientific research within the Game Science field.

Game Science is an emerging, yet still not entirely defined area of scientific research characterized by a strong multidisciplinary focus spanning within several science fields (human, social, life, natural). Starting from a genuinely interdisciplinary perspective, the Game Science seeks to investigate various phenomena related to “game”, intended as both model of strategical behavior and interactive decision-making, and an occurrence associated with play and other forms of related activities. Game Science comprises Game Studies but it is not limited to it encompassing Game Theory and related quantitative areas of research.

In its scientific meaning, “game” offers a general and flexible representation which describes and explains various strategic behaviours and interactive, decision-making related phenomena that fosters the understanding of such dynamics as also their outcome’s prediction.

On the other hand, “game” as a play activity organized around well defined rules embodies an important part of socially organized activities and can represents a valid tool of motivation increase, of prevention and healthcare support, of scientific data gathering, of scientific divulgation, of cultural and social change, as also artistic exploration.

The overall goal of the Center, as related to the promotion, support and spread of research within the Game Science field, consists mainly in technological transfer and activities related to the so-called “University’s third mission”. More specifically, this is detailed as follows:

To give relevance and coherence to national and international research activities in which a “game” theme is present, by gathering its protagonists and promoting ideas exchange and multidisciplinary research among the scholars involved;

To promoted and sustain “University’s third mission” related activities (economical valorization of knowledge, public engagement, citizen science) involving the “game” theme at various levels (the use of games as a divulgation tool for contents and competences, the gamification of activities related to the “third mission's”, the dissemination and valorization of game science);

Create a bridge with the productive sectors of society that use the "game" as a model of understanding, production or simply as a product with particular attention to entertainment, to the screening of human resources, to educational tools, to strategic thinking and to job satisfaction;

To develop “standard” procedures for the evaluation of systems and rules internal to divulgative or educational game related activities with the aim of forming an adequate knowledge base which can be eventually be used for the definition of dedicated quality certification protocols.