Join Michael Young for "Liquid Narrative: The Importance of Story," an afternoon discussion of how a narrative approach can be instrumental when developing games for learning. Narrative is one of the fundamental means by which we organize, explain, and understand our own experiences. Aspects of narrative play a central role in our learning, our communication, our social interaction, our arts, and our recreation. Michael Young and the Liquid Narrative research group at NCSU's computer science department work in the area of procedural content generation -- the creation of content for interactive games and other virtual environments -- that uses models of narrative to build stories and tell them automatically. Their work is motivated by fundamental ideas from narrative theory and looks to provide computational models of interaction that are useful across a wide range of applications, including education and training.

When: 2:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m., Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Where: Pleasants Family Assembly Room, Wilson Library

To register go to https://www.abcsignup.com/reg/event_page.asp?ek=0052-0006-E3F19274892945DDA596A59CAD15C409.

Games4Learning is an initiative to explore the use of computer games in the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill curriculum. All faculty, staff, and students are invited to join the conversation as we imagine new ways to engage our students in the teaching and learning process. For more about the Games4Learning initiative, see http://learnit.unc.edu/games4learning/.

The fourth annual Carolina Games Summit wrapped up at 9 pm Saturday, Feb 7, with a full crowd experiencing the closing cinematic of the awards ceremony while Entertainment System played a classic gaming score from Castlevania 2. The band's lead guitarist Chris Baines stated, "We have performed at over thirty events and this is one of the most organized we have seen, with attendees representing a friendly and engaged gaming community." Over 1400 attendees, special guests, and exhibitors made up the largest gaming event in the Carolinas. For twelve hours Wayne Community College in Goldsboro, NC, was transformed into a mecca for the video game community. A bus left early Saturday morning from Virginia Beach, VA, full of excited ITT Technical Institute students, while professional MLG gamers and members of the PMS and H2O clans flew in from across the country a day before the event.

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