Veronica Zammitto

I’m really glad to say that I participated in the 1^st World Mind Sports Games, held in Beijing, China. The event lasted from October 3^rd to October 18^th. The venue was the Beijing Convention Center, located in the Olympic Villa which also has a complex of hotels where we, the mental athletes, stayed.

There were 5 mind sport games: Go, Chess, Draughts, Xiangqi, and Bridge. I play go, and was representing Argentina in the Women’s Individual, and Women’s Team. It was such a great time! There were people from all over the world, and different strength in playing level. For instance, something that was significant was that there were professional go players playing in the tournament. That was a huge thrill for the amateurs! Lucky me, I played with professional go player, Cai Bihan, from China. See the photo!

From World Mind Sports Games – October 2008

It was an excellent opportunity for sharing, and shaping playing skills. It was also great chance to put this ‘mental sports’ on the big billboard.

Hope the organization makes the effort to keep this event alive.

Looking forward to playing in the 2^nd WMSG in London 2012!!!

During September 19-21 2008, the Canadian Game Studies Association (CGSA) held an Invitational Workshop, fund for it came from a grant of the Canadian agency Social Science and Humanities Research (SSHRC). The format was quite singular and awesome. There were about 35 researchers, and they were divided into smaller groups according their research interest, also general research discussions, keynotes’ presentation, and planning how to continue game research in Canada.

Every single person who was invited to the workshop had to present his/her ongoing research to the small group that responded with comments, questions, suggestions, that is a great atmosphere for discussion. I was lucky to be in a group with Bernard Perron (University of Montreal – Canada), Guillaume Roux-Girard (University of Montreal – Canada), and Magy Seif El-Nasr (Simon Fraser University – Canada). There were two international key speakers: Helen Kennedy (University of the West of England – UK) and Espen Aarseth (Center for Computer Games Research @ IT University of Copenhagen – Denmark) who, besides presenting a lecture, help to coordinate the general discussions.

As part of the Workshop, we (as CATGames) held a lab-tour, gaming session, and a dinner reception at the School of Interactive Art and Technology (SIAT), displaying among other things our ongoing projects: Gesture and Tangible Prototyping Tool, Intelligent Interactive Virtual Characters, and Narrativised and Embodied Interface. We were really happy for the whole event, and for the great feedback we got for the projects.

I want to specially thank Jennifer Jenson and Suzanne de Castell for their work towards the game research community in Canada.

Bart Simon, Bernard Perron, and Guillaume Roux-Girard

Bernard Perron, Espen Aarseth, Guillaume Roux-Girard, Jim Bizzocchi, and Bart Simon,