Game research in Puerto Rico

In May 2015, the International Communication Association (ICA) held its annual conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Ruud Jacobs, Julia Kneer and Jeroen Jansz represented the PGIC team. Our research fell in fertile ground. Ruud’s paper on The Reception and Influence Persuasive Games was part of a panel that also included research on other ‘games for change’. Additionally, Ruud shared his ideas and the empirical procedures in the Game Booth in the large exhibition hall (see photo). It turned out to be an excellent opportunity for exchanging the do’s and don’ts of game research. Jeroen was invited for the special, international panel on the future of game research. His talk drew on our own PGIC research concentrating on opportunities for fruitful collaboration between industry and academia. The ICA 2015 conference had a silver lining, because the ICA Special Interest Group Game Studies was promoted to a Division. For Jeroen this was particularly special as he was one the founders and the first Secretary of the SIG Game Studies, back in 2005.