Toronto Mensa INQUIRING MINDS: The Language of Game Mechanics

You are warmly invited to the upcoming Toronto Mensa INQUIRING MINDS online Zoom session on Saturday, March 14, starting at 2 p.m. EDT. Our fellow Mensan, Igor Sokolov, who is known to many of you, will be giving us a talk on "The Language of Game Mechanics."

DESCRIPTION:

Unlike traditional media, like books and movies, video games have a unique feature — they have YOU inside the game. Instead of a more passive 3rd person "baked" experience, they make the player the co-creator of their own unique experience in the game.

This produces many interesting effects — from producing more personal experiences, to exploring the role of agency in meaning-making.

Although games utilize many conventional methods, like written narrative, they also have a unique quality of virtual embodiment and performativity — pushing the buttons and getting feedback from the world.

This talk focuses on the role of game mechanics in creating meaningful experiences in video games, relying on some masterpieces as well as Igor Sokolov's own games.

SPEAKER BIO:

Igor Sokolov is an Anthropology PhD student at the University of Toronto and a leader of indie game studio UnPlayTheGame. As a scholar, he is interested in exploring and utilizing the capacity of video games in knowledge production. For his PhD thesis, he is working on an ethnography-based deckbuilder video game, "The Gaijin Card," about immigrant experiences in Japan.

As a studio, UnPlayTheGame is focused on using meta-narrative methods to play with meanings and on innovative and unique game mechanics. Their current game — "Imagine Sisyphus Happy" — was recently featured on IGN and went viral. The game is a light-hearted, ironic tribute to Albert Camus.

The trailer for game "Imagine Sisyphus Happy" can be found on YouTube here.

This is a free event, but you must RSVP to Kathleen Smith at Kathleen.walton.smith@gmail.com. 

For more information, contact Kathleen Smith at Kathleen.walton.smith@gmail.com.

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Also: Save the date! We have speakers lined up for April, May and June. 

You are warmly invited to the following future Toronto Mensa zoom webinars online:

• Sunday, April 12 at 8 p.m. EDT: Professor Ze (Kevin) Hong will be speaking to us from Macau. His talk will be either on persuasion and rhetoric or on the cultural evolution of games of chance, focusing on pre-modern China.
• Sunday, May 3 at 2 p.m. EDT: Professor Paul Doerr, diplomatic and military historian, will be speaking to us from Nova Scotia about a top-secret military maneuver during World War II involving billions of dollars in gold and securities.
• Sunday, June 7 at 12:30 p.m. EDT: Neurologist Dr. Alejandra Guerrero will talk to us from Dubai on maintaining a healthy brain.

Details to follow.