Computer and Video Games Come of Age Conference

The computer and video game industry has now completed its first quarter century and has become a strong and vibrant force within the American entertainment industry. There is no question that interactive games are a medium which can already celebrate significant accomplishments and social and cultural contributions. The most exciting developments are surely yet to come.

The time has come to take an inventory of today’s game industry and envision tomorrow’s technological innovations and creative implications, not only from industrial and professional perspectives but from research being explored by cultural and media scholars. In much the same way industry leaders and academics worked together to establish a serious national conversation about the aesthetic and cultural importance of cinema in the 20th century, we believe that academic and industry exchanges can promote the art of digital entertainment media for the 21st century.

As a first step, the Program in Comparative Media Studies and the Communications Forum at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in cooperation with the Interactive Digital Software Association, invite you to a national conference to be held in Cambridge, Massachusetts on Thursday, 10 February and Friday, 11 February 2000. Industry insiders and academic researchers will contribute to conversations designed to:

• Assess the state of the computer and video game industry;
• Evaluate how the industry has made use of the potentials of digital media;
• Discuss how it is responding to more diverse consumer tastes and interests;
• Speculate where games may go as a genre in the next decade.