UTM hosts this year’s Serious Play Conference
More than 300 play scholars gathered to discuss topics in game development and the use of games in education.
From August 12 to 14, over 300 game studies scholars from around the world gathered at the 18th annual Serious Play Conference, which was hosted and sponsored by the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM), to explore the diverse and growing world of video games.
The event’s success was supported by the participation of leading scholars in the field of gaming studies, many of whom teach at the University of Toronto (U of T), including lecturer Paul Darvasi of the university’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education on games and learning.
The conference revolved around the study of video games concerning six distinct programs, including game development, K12 topics, higher education, healthcare, culture and society, corporate, government and nongovernment, and workshops. The conferences held over 80 sessions that provided insights on how games, gamification and play impact learning and professional skills in numerous different industries.
This year’s event featured two keynote speakers including Dr. Kris Alexander, an associate professor in Media Production at Toronto Metropolitan University and Dr. Rachel Kowert, a research psychologist and leader in global policy and product development.
Hosting the Serious Play Conference serves to further UTM’s march into the world of game studies, a discipline which has already achieved numerous significant milestones.
In 2020, the campus acquired the Syd Bolton collection, one of the largest known assortments of gaming paraphernalia, including video games, consoles, and game periodicals, in the world. The collection is the largest known in Canada and is named after Syd Bolton, an avid computer and video game collector of over two decades. It features nearly 14,000 video games—twice the number of pieces possessed by the US Library of Congress which boasts only 7,000 games.
Darvasi and business partner Elisa Navaro hosted the conference late last year before deciding to bring it to Mississauga to leverage UTM’s new game studies program.
To Darvasi, games have nothing to do with “their economic impact or the popularity of video games” rather, they are “arguably the art form of the 21st century,” he told UTM News Room.
Video games are more than just games as they involve copious art forms, including painting, sculpture, film, theatre, writing, and photography. This, according to Darvasi, makes them the “grand opera of human endeavour.”
UTM’s successful hosting of this year’s Serious Play Conference highlights the campus’ potential and increases scholars’ interest in making more impacts on the field of gaming studies.
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