ThinkGameful! and Institute for Ludology Cooperate for Research Projects
– 2 min read
Esports experts Timo Schöber and Jens Junge are no strangers to cooperation – now their academic institutions are coming together as well. Schöber's thinktank ThinkGameful! and the Institute for Ludology at the SRH Hochschule Berlin headed by Junge are announcing their cooperation to tackle bigger research projects in gaming together.
Esports experts Timo Schöber and Jens Junge have been cooperating before – for example in their guest post for GamesMarkt regarding the situation of esports in Germany (link to the article in German). Now, their two academic institutions for the research of gaming cooperate. ThinkGameful!, the thinkthank headed by Schöber and the Institute for Ludology at the SRH University of Applied Sciences Berlin of which Junge is the Director, have announced their effort to work together.
Schöber, one of the founders of ThinkGameful! and head of esports HR agency lvlup!HR, is looking forward to the journey together: “We are living in exciting times. Digitalisation is progressing more and more. Gaming is an essential part of this enormous social change and the transformation that comes with it. We therefore see our research as far more than mere passion and curiosity, but rather as a necessity and a mammoth task. The playfulness in people will play a decisive role in digitalisation. This needs to be accompanied and framed scientifically. By working together with our colleagues from Berlin, we can take this endeavour to the next level.”
Junge, Director of the Institute of Ludology, is equally enthusiastic: ‘5000 years of board game and human history are the basis for digital games. No facet of humanity has shaped it as much as playing games. It is part of our culture, interaction and cooperation based on the division of labour. In both analogue and digital games, society is depicted in abstract and immersive ways and rethought in new ways. Gaming creates an adaptive variability that makes numerous change processes optimistic and enjoyable to experience and therefore easier to shape. There is a power in gaming and e-sports that companies and institutions can utilise to achieve their goals. The Institute for Ludology supports this process with a ‘gameful design’. Together with ThinkGameful! we want to take this process even further’.
One of the aims of the collaboration is to enable larger research projects to be realised. The cooperation is also intended to bring together different approaches to research in many different areas of the gaming complex through the diverse experience of both institutions’ employees.
Written by
Pascal Wagner is Chief of Relations of GamesMarket and Senior Editor specialised in indie studios, politics, funding and academic coverage.
