Well Played Annotated Timeline
Drew Davidson
Well Played Retrospective: The Past, Pandemic and Future of Games, Value and Meaning.
Eds. Drew Davidson, Ira Fay, Clara Fernandez-Vara, Jane Pinckard, John Sharp. Pittsburgh, PA: Play Story Press, 2024.
2003
International Conference on Entertainment Computing
At ICEC (hosted at CMU), I gave a presentation that inspired the idea of Well Played. I wanted to explore the gameplay experience of Ico on the PlayStation 2 console. And I thought it would be more effective to play the game live for the audience, to better highlight and illustrate the points I was trying to make about the gameplay experience (plus it was local, so the tech setup was fairly easy). As part of an academic conference, I also wrote a paper that was included in the proceedings that was the basis for thinking about gameplay solely through text.
2005
Media in Transition
I enjoyed the format of presenting a game while also playing it live, so I did a similar presentation (and paper) at Media in Transition (at MIT), that focused on Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.
2007
Games+Learning+Society (GLS)
I gave an even more in-depth presentation and playthrough on Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time at GLS (at UUW-Madison). This was the first time I explicitly defined the concept of Well Played.
2008
GLS
I ended up doing another Well Played presentation at GLS that focused on Portal. And at this point, I started getting invited to give Well Played presenta- tions at other events. Having written up several Well Played papers as well, I thought a book full of essays from a variety of contributors would be an inter- esting expansion on the Well Played idea. So, I started inviting potential contributors, ranging from game developers, professional journalists, passionate bloggers and academics studying games to make a book together.
Meaningful Play Conference
I gave a presentation on World of Goo at the first Meaningful Play Conference (and it was one month before the public release of the game). Kyle Gabler, an ETC alumnus, was the designer on World of Goo, and I was able to talk with him along with Ron Carmel, the developer, about the game. I also participated in beta testing of the game, which allowed me to also include in-depth infor- mation on the design and development process.
2009
Well Played 1.0
We published the first Well Played book, and it included 22 essays on a nice mix of games. There was such a positive response to the initial invitation, that we were already planning a second and third book.
GLS
I gave a Well Played presentation at GLS that focused on Prince of Persia. Having the interesting experience of including a designer in the process with World of Goo, I wanted to try this live. I was lucky that Francois Emery, the Ubisoft lead level designer, and James Paul Gee, who served as discussant, both agreed to join me. I think this presentation opened up new insights as the gameplay experience analysis now included discussion on how the game was created and how design decisions were made.
2010
Well Played 2.0
The second Well Played book is published with another collection of 22 essays. And the third book was already in the works.
GLS
I gave a similar joint Well Played presentation on Uncharted 2: Among Thieves at GLS 6.0 with Richard Lemarchand, Naughty Dog Co-Lead Game Designer, and James Paul Gee returning as discussant. Once again, it was interesting to have a discussion around the gameplay experience in relation to the design and development process. Plus, it was fun to have different interpretations from Rich on what certain moments in the game meant.
Meaningful Play
I gave another Well Played presentation at Meaningful Play, this time discussing Invasion!!, a transformational game created by an ETC graduate student team for the Chicago Field Museum to raise awareness of invasive species. I was joined by Andy Korzik, and ETC graduate student who was one of the programmers/designers on the team, and we had a good discussion around the gameplay experience and the development process.
2011
There started to be a growing interest in the concept of Well Played, which led to discussions with more academic and industry events about hosting Well Played sessions and presentations. This seemed like a good opportunity to open it up to more people.
Well Played 3.0
The third Well Played book is published with 23 essays. And the presentation sessions at these three different events (along with the three books) helped to expand the concept of Well Played as people had different takes and methods to how they explored and explained the experience of playing games. It was fun to see conference presentations inspire thoughtful discussions, and at IndieCade the developers of the game were in attendance as well.
Well Played Journal
Well Played V1 N1: Games, Value and Meaning. Drew Davidson et al.
The continued interest expressed in participating in Well Played, led to the idea of starting the Well Played Journal, and we published the first issue this year. The journal is peer reviewed with an editorial advisory board, and it accepts submissions in relation to announced calls around thematic and topical issues, often guest edited by experts in the field. We’ve averaged 1-4 issues per year (and the 10th volume was an inspiration for a retrospective look at Well Played).
GLS
GLS hosted sessions this year.
I gave a talk on Sword & Sworcery EP. While he wasn’t able to attend, I had some great talks with Craig Adams (superbrothers), the game’s creator, that informed the talk.
Sandbox Summit
I gave a presentation on MineCraft at the Sandbox Summit.
Digital Games and Research Association (DiGRA)
DiGRA hosted sessions.
IndieCade Festival
IndieCade Festival hosted sessions.
2012
Well Played V1 N2: Games, Value and Meaning. Drew Davidson et al.
Well Played V1 N3: Games, Value and Meaning. Drew Davidson et al.
Well Played V1 N4: Romance in Games. Jane Pinckard et al.
Well Played V2 N1: Games, Value and Meaning. Drew Davidson et al.
GLS
Hosted sessions.
2013
Well Played V2 N2: Theories of Well Played. John Sharp et al.
IndieCade East
Hosted sessions.
I gave a presentation on Thirty Flights of Loving with Brendon Chung, the game’s creator. It was a lot of fun as the game was short enough to be completed live, and Brendon was open to various interpretations of the game experience.
GLS
Hosted sessions.
I gave a presentation at GLS on Gorogoa, which was in demo form at the time. I was able to have some good talks with game’s creator, Jason Roberts. He wasn’t able to attend, but it helped contextualize the game he was designing and developing.
IndieCade
Hosted sessions.
DiGRA
Hosted sessions.
2014
Well Played V3 N1: Games, Value and Meaning. Drew Davidson et al.
Well Played V3 N2: Seriously Weird. Emily Flynn-Jones et al.
Purdue University
I gave a talk at Purdue on the history and philosophy of Well Played. I was invited by Samantha Blackmon as part of Purdue’s David Hutton Interdisciplinary Lecture Series.
Games for Change
Games for Change started hosting sessions of Well Played presentations at their festival.
DiGRA
Hosted sessions.
GLS
Hosted sessions.
2015
Well Played V4 N1: DiGRA and GLS. Sean Duncan and Caro Williams et al.
Well Played V4 N2: Learning and Games. Stephen Jacobs and Ira Fay et al.
Well Played V4 N3: Diversity in Games. Jane Pinckard and Clara Fernández-Vara et al.
Museum of the Moving Image
The Museum of the Moving Image in New York hosted a year-long series of Well Played presentations based on games that were made in New York.
SxSW
I also gave a presentation on Crossy Road and Monument Valley at SxSW.
Games for Change
Hosted sessions.
DiGRA
Hosted sessions.
GLS
Hosted sessions.
IndieCade
Hosted sessions.
2016
Well Played V5 N1: Games, Value and Meaning. Ira Fay and Drew Davidson et al.
Well Played V5 N2: GLS and DiGRA. Drew Davidson et al.
Games and Media Summit
The Games and Media Summit hosted sessions
Games for Change
Hosted sessions.
GLS
Hosted sessions.
Meaningful Play
I gave a presentation at Meaningful Play on verby noun games (i.e. Crossy Road, Faily Brakes, Flappy Bird, Looty Dungeon, Rodeo Stampede, Shooty Skies, Steppy Pants, Disney Cross Road, Land Slides, and PacMan 256). Hands down the most games I’ve ever played in one presentation.
2017
Well Played V6 N1: Let's Play. Moses Wolfenstein and Drew Davidson et al.
The journal did an experimental Let’s Play all video issue hosted on YouTube. It was an interesting experiment to try and blend what we try to do with Well Played in the Let’s Play format of gameplay walkthroughs with more analysis. We hope to do it again!
Well Played V6 N2: European Videogames of the 1980s. Clara Fernández-Vara and Bennett Foddy et al.
Well Played V6 N3: Games, Value and Meaning. Drew Davidson et al.
Stanford University
I gave a talk on an overview of Well Played at Stanford. Ingmar H. Riedel- Kruse invited me as part of Stanford’s mediaX Interactive Media & Games Seminar Series.
Games for Change
Hosted sessions.
VR for Change
We also had sessions at VR for Change.
IndieCade
Hosted sessions.
2018
Well Played V7 N1: Analog Games. Ira Fay et al.
Well Played V7 N2: Meaningful Play and Games for Social and Emotional Learning. Susan E. Rivers and Heidi McDonald et al.
Well Played Singles
Brad King had the idea of publishing popular culture Singles, longform essays aimed at the general public. And we decided to also do this with Well Played. These Well Played Singles are meant to go beyond just the gameplay analysis to include an overall look at a game’s importance in our culture in general.
The Pleasure of Playing Less: A Study of Incremental Games Through the Lens of Kittens
The first Well Played single is published on Kittens.
Physics Is Still Your Friend: World of Goo @ 10
For the 10th anniversary of World of Goo, I revisited the game with Kyle and Ron, and this gave me enough content to write the second Well played Single.
Meaningful Play
I gave a Well Played presentation at Meaningful Play on the 10-anniversary of World of Goo. I was able to catch up with Kyle Gabler and Ron Carmel again. They had continued to keep it up-to-date and released on almost every avail- able platform possible. It was a joint 10th anniversary for both Meaningful Play and World of Goo.
Connected Learning Summit
We hosted sessions at the Connected Learning Summit in 2018.
Games for Change
Hosted sessions.
2019
Well Played V8 N1: Connected Learning Summit. Drew Davidson et al.
Well Played V8 N2: Intergenerational Play. Eric Klopfer et al.
Well Played V8 N3: The Sporting Mindset. John Sharp et al.
A Cure for Toxic Masculinity: Male Bonding and Friendship in Final Fantasy XV
The third Well single is published. It focused on Final Fantasy XV.
Games for Change
Hosted sessions.
Connected Learning Summit
Hosted sessions.
2020
2020 was heart-wrenchingly defined by the pandemic, and it impacted all of us in so many ways. In terms of Well Played, it has caused everything to go more slowly. So much so that for the first time the journal didn’t publish any issues for a year, although two issues are almost completed.
Games for Change
Hosted sessions.
IndieCade
Hosted a retrospective session on Well Played @ Indiecade.
During the pandemic many of us have found some solace playing games, as well as playing games in new ways (e.g. over videoconferencing, or through virtual tabletop services). For a companion to this retrospective, we invited authors to submit essays that articulate how games have been a part of their pandemic experience, and the value and role games have had in their lives this past year. By analyzing these gameplay experiences, we hope to highlight how importanat games can be in our lives.
2021
Well Played V10 N1: Escape Rooms. Clara Fernández-Vara and Ira Fay et al.
Well Played V10 N2: Playable Theatre. Celia Pearce and Nick Fortugno et al.
Well Played Retrospective: The Past, Pandemic and Future of Games, Value and Meaning.
Games for Change
Hosted sessions.
Connected Learning Summit
Hosted sessions.
Looking forward, we still hope to host a Well Played event in the future when we can. The journal will continue with thematic calls and issues, and we’ll continue hosting Well Played sessions at various events. We’re open to submissions around singles, and we’re looking at new books, videos and more to keep exploring the ways games can be well played.
