THATCamp Epic Play is a week away!

Day One (Friday, May 24, 3-5 PM) is Workshops Day!  We have three excellent, engaging, and informative workshops lined up.  Welcome and Registration is from 3-3:30 PM.  Workshops run from 3:30-5 PM.

Day Two (Saturday, May 25, 8-5 PM) is a full day of breakout sessions inspired, organized, and facilitated by you, our participants!  Welcome and Registration, including a light breakfast, is from 8-9 AM.  Session generation, where we aggregate and select the day’s topics, is from 9-9:45 AM.  Then there will be three Breakout Sessions over the course the day, including a catered lunch (featuring lightning talks).

To get the ball rolling, we ask participants to begin brainstorming topic ideas for sessions, lines of inquiry, general questions, and games of interest.  Please respond to this brainstorming thread or start a proposal thread of your own.  We will take these initial suggestions to seed the Session generation forum on Saturday morning!  For example, how might we think about and talk about (though not limited to):

• THATCamp theme and keyword “Epic” 
• Studying, researching, games and academia
• Teaching (with) games, games and students
• Making, developing, designing, modding, marketing games
• Playing games
• Game paratexts, game communities, fandom
• Analog v. digital games, live-action and alternate/augmented reality games

For more information about session proposing (below the location information): epicplay2013.thatcamp.org/schedule/

THATCamp Epic Play is only four weeks away!  Welcome to the merry month of May and the ramp-up to (hopefully) a engaging, idea-provoking, playful, and fun unconference!  We have nearly forty registered particpants representing students (undergraduate and graduate), teachers, scholars, designers, developers, and aficionados.

Workshops for the first day/afternoon of the camp — May 24 — are set and ready to go:

     3-3:30 PM Welcome & Registration

     3:30-5 PM Workshops
“Digital Game-Making for Non-Programmers” | merritt kopas
“Badger Badges Badgee(s)” | Theresa Horstman and Sean Fullerton
“How To Make A Let’s Play Of Your Very Own!” | Solon Scott

Saturday’s full-day schedule — May 25 — is also set.  As you can see, we will have three breakout sessions over the course of the day.  Next week, we will start a conversation thread asking for suggested topics, critical questions, ideas, and games for these sessions, which will then seed our session generation powwow Saturday morning.

         8-9 AM Welcome & Registration (includes continental breakfast)

         9-9:45 AM Session Generation

         10-11:30 PM Breakout Sessions I

         11:30 AM- 1 PM Lunch (catered lunch included)

         1-2:30 PM Breakout Sessions II

         2:45-4:15 PM Breakout Sessions III

         4:30 PM Closing

We are also hoping to be able to offer a few gameful perks on Saturday, including a Epic Play Augmented Reality Game (ARG) and a cosplay contest!  Details forthcoming soon!

Thank you to the generosity of the Simpson Center for the Humanities at the University of Washington for hosting, providing space, and resources!  Thank you to THATCamp and the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University for their support.  And thank you to Microsoft Research’s support for Digital Heritage and Humanities!

If registrants have any questions, comments, or concerns, please reply to this message or send an email to thatcampepicplay (at) gmail (dot) com.