May 2105 was conference month. It started with DiGRA 2015 in Lüneburg, Germany. The Digital Games Research Association is a community of game researchers and developers. Most research is qualitative, or theoretical. Our Persuasive Gaming in Context team was able to present our work and establish links, in particular with other empirical researchers. Next, I travelled to Puerto Rico for the annual conference of the International Communication Association. It was a special conference for me as one of the founders of the Game Studies Special Interest Group, back in 2005. This year the SIG was promoted to Division status. This means more influence in ICA and more slots for presentations in the program at future conferences. Academically, ICA 2015 was very attractive. The presentations of our Rotterdam group were well received, and I engaged with a small international team to prepare the Game Studies 2016 Pre-Conference in Japan.
