Stanford University
Feb. 6, 2004

An all-day conference, open to the public, will be held at Stanford on Friday, Feb. 6, in conjunction with the current Cantor Center exhibition, "Fictional Worlds, Virtual Experiences."  Speakers include Will Wright, Haden Blackman, Sheldon Pacotti, Kevin O'Hara, Katherine Isbister, Henry Lowood, Scott Bukatman, Casey Alt, Jane McGonigal.

For information on this exhibit and conference: http://ccva.stanford.edu//fictionalworlds.html

Friday, February 6
9 am to 5:30 pm
Free and open to the public. No reservations, open seating
Fairchild Auditorium, 291 Campus Drive, at the Stanford Medical Center.

Program:

9am. Introduction and Master of Ceremonies.  Tim Lenoir

9:15-10:30am  Keeping It Real: Performance and Realism
Henry Lowood, Stanford University.  Historytelling: Realism and Playability in Historical Simulations.
Jane McGonigal, UC Berkeley.  From her work on gameplay in everyday spaces.

10:45am-noon  Embodiment: What's It Like to be in a Digital Narrative?
Scott Bukatman, Stanford University. TBA.
Casey Alt, Stanford University.  There and Back Again: Situating the Digital Narrative.

Lunch  Break

1:15-2:30pm   Communities and Characters.
Kevin O'Hara, Sony Online Entertainment.  How player communities shape and contribute to the story worlds of online games.
Katherine Isbister, Stanford University.  From her work on character development in computer and video games.

Coffee Break

3:15-5:15pm  The Big Picture: Do Games Need Stories?
Haden Blackman, LucasArts
Sheldon Pacotti, Ion Storm
Will Wright, Maxis/EA