Deadline extended: 10th November 2008 

Final Call for Participation

1st IEEE International Conference in Games and Virtual Worlds for 
Serious Applications 2009

VS-GAMES'09

March 23 - 24, Coventry, UK



(http://www.vs-games.org.uk/)



Context



The emergence of serious or non-leisure uses of games technologies and 
virtual world applications has been swift and dramatic over the last 
five years. As a result, there has been little time to develop the 
theoretical and academic rigour in the emerging field. This problem has 
been exacerbated by the largely technological drive of the 
technologies, with often little time to consider more user-centred 
approaches to design and use of serious applications of games and 
virtual world technologies. Another factor affecting the field has been 
the general aspects of convergence between new technologies, for 
example AI applications, augmented reality, mobile technologies, GPS 
technologies, sensor technologies and social software. 



Together this has presented potential for developing new technologies 
based upon immersive and interactive interfaces and has in parallel 
produced many unanswered questions in terms of the usage of the 
formats. As a result there is a clear need to consider new frameworks, 
theories, methods and design strategies for making serious applications 
of games and virtual world technologies more effective and useful as 
part of education, health and training.



Scope



The first IEEE International Conference in Games and Virtual Worlds for 
Serious Applications 2009 aims to meet the significant challenges of 
the cross-disciplinary community that work around these serious 
application areas by bringing the community together to share case 
studies of practice, to present new frameworks, methodologies and 
theories and to begin the process of developing shared cross-
disciplinary outputs. In order to achieve this main aim the conference 
will pioneer new methods for bringing together and supporting 
communities of practice emerging in themed areas beyond the duration of 
the conference. Using the conference as an ignition to support a wider 
aspiration to form and sustain a community of practice around the 
field. To achieve this, the team at the SGI will use innovative 
software called Intronetworks, which allows conference participants to 
create their own profile allowing them to identify like-minded and 
complementary skilled colleagues.



The term 'Serious Games' covers a broad range of applications from 
flash-based animations to totally immersive and code driven 3D 
environments where users interface with large volumes of data through 
sophisticated and interactive digital interfaces. This shift towards 
immersive world applications being used to support education, health 
and training activities marks the beginning of new challenges that 
offer real scope for collaborative and multi-disciplinary research 
solutions, and real opportunities for innovative development. We invite 
researchers, developers, practitioners and decision-makers working with 
or applying serious games in their communities to present papers in the 
following two main streams of the conference: games and virtual world 
applications for serious applications. The conference will explore 
games and virtual worlds in relation to: 



Applications (e.g. case studies, exemplars, practice examples) 
Methodologies, theories and frameworks (e.g. participatory design 
methods, mixed methodologies for data collection and analysis, cross-
disciplinary methods) 
Evaluation approaches and studies 


Aims



The conference aims to ask:



In what ways are games and virtual world applications effective tools? 
What cross-disciplinary approaches are emerging to support design, 
development and implementation of the technologies? 
What role does convergence with related technologies mean for the 
field? 
What founding theories and approaches are emerging to support the 
field? 
How and in what ways is the participant becoming the producer of 
content? 
What are the technologies (e.g. applications, platforms, engines) that 
are most effective in which areas of practice? 


Topics of Interest



We are seeking contributions that advance the state of the art in the 
technologies available to support sustainability of serious games. The 
following topics in the areas of environment, cultural heritage, 
health, smart buildings, v-commerce and education are particularly 
encouraged:



Game design 
AI applications for serious games 
Serious games methodologies 
User-modelling in serious games 
Pervasive gaming 
Interactivity issues 
Game modelling 
Alternate reality games 
Virtual environments 
Augmented reality 
Visualisation techniques 
Human-computer interaction 
Mobile games 
Education and learning 
Case studies in serious games and virtual worlds 


Keynote Speakers:



Steve Benford, UK


Adrian David Cheok, Singapore


Alan Chalmer, UK







Program Chairs



Sara de Freitas (Serious Games Institute)

Kurt Squire (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

Edward Castronova (Indiana University)



Publication Chairs



Genaro Rebolledo-Mendez (Serious Games Institute)

Fotis Liarokapis (Coventry University)



For any enquiries, please forward to the Program Committee: vs-
games09@cad.coventry.ac.uk





Guidelines:



The participants of the conference will be invited to submit papers 
into the Proceedings using the EasyChair system. Authors must follow 
IEEE standards to format the papers accordingly. With the camera ready 
paper submission for publication, you agree to pay registration fee (or 
reduced registration fee if your registration form is received on or 
before the early registration date) and published papers must be 
presented by at least one of the authors. All accepted paper will 
appear in the IEEE digital library. In addition the best papers will be 
selected for a planned special issue of the ‘British Journal of 
Educational Technology’. 



Paper submission:



Authors should register to the Easy Chair system before submitting 
their papers (http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=cgvwsa09).



Important Dates



Paper submission for full papers 10th November 2008

Paper submission for short papers and posters 15th November 2008

Notification for refereeing feedback 1st December 2008

Camera-ready full papers and tutorials to printer 20th January 2008

Early registration January 2009