Digital Games Malta (DGM) recently held a talk at the University of Malta, for which about 60 academics, students and enthusiasts were present.
Daniel Vella, a Communications graduate who is currently reading MA in English at the University of Malta, presented a paper entitled 'Ideological Systematisations: Models of History in Civilization II'.
Mr Vella has a keen interest in the aesthetics and semiotics of digital games; in his paper he took Civilization II's representation of history as an example and examined the capacity of digital games to function as ideologically-marked simulations of social arrangements and practices.
A question-and-answer session followed.
Next came the screening of an informative clip by Gordon Calleja, head of the Centre for Computer Games Research, IT University, Copenhagen. Dr Calleja's current research interests are player involvement and immersion, computer games and narrative.
In the clip, he described the opportunities available for taking up studies related to computer games at the IT University in Denmark.
There was also an intervention by Pauline Catania, coordinator of the Malta Government Scholarship Scheme (MGSS), who gave information on the upcoming MGSS call, and answered questions from the audience related to the scheme.
The event came to a close with the audience engaging in active networking and informal discussion on the subject of digital games and the creation of the digital games industry in Malta.
This was the first of an upcoming series of talks aimed at those interested in digital games theory, issues of postmodernism/posthumanism and representations of history, together with those interested in pursuing their studies in areas related to digital games at MSc or PhD level.
Attendance to these talks is free, and the next talk will be announced in the coming weeks on the Digital Games Malta Facebook page.
DGM is a multi-disciplinary team working towards the creation of a Digital Games industry in Malta.
Its mission is to stimulate the growth of this industry through new teaching, research initiatives, collaboration with the business sector and the organisation of various awareness-raising initiatives.