Forum Nokia Champion Personal Introduction Page

Mr. Steffen P. Walz
Ph.D. cand. in Computer Aided Architectural Design
M.A. in Social Anthropology with minors in Rhetoric and Political Science
Switzerland

Steffen P. Walz earned his M.A. degree in social anthropology, rhetoric, and political science from the University of Tübingen, Germany. He is a fellow of the ACTlab at the University of Texas at Austin, USA. At the ETH Zurich, he currently pursues his Ph.D. in Computer Aided Architectural Design about the design rhetoric of pervasive games.

Walz is a co-founder of the B.A. Game Design study program at the Zurich School for Art and Design (HGKZ), and a price winner of the International Bauhaus Award 2002 for his pioneering serious pervasive game „M.A.D. Countdown“.

He leads design workshops for, lectures about, and writes on topics such as serious & pervasive game design, the relationship of space-time & games, convergent entertainment, the history of entertainment architecture, media rhetoric, as well as surveillance & games. In the fall of 2007, Birkhäuser Basel Boston Berlin will publish the book „Space Time Play. Synergies between Computer Games, Architecture, and Urbanism“, co-edited by Walz.

Since 2000, his firm playbe has been consulting for major web and design agencies, Fortune 500 enterprises, and institutions concerning convergent and cross media entertainment concepts, and business endeavors. With his other company, playbe records, Walz has been experimenting with alternative music distribution games, landing a massive Internet hit in Germany in the summer of 2005. Before his entry into the IT realm, Walz used to serve as a TV format developer, producer, and a satire journalist for major German TV stations.

A complete list of Walz’s activities can be found at his website playbe’s place at spw.playbe.com.

Development Areas of Interest

Mobile platforms

Symbian 60, Java

Application categories

(Pervasive) games

Programming languages

Flash, Python, Processing

Integrated development environments (IDEs)

Codewarrior for Symbian 60, iStuff (RWTH Aachen University), cf. media.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/istuff/.

Wireless device technologies

Sensor / actuator enabled mobile devices and scenarios, Mobile ad hoc networks and applications, Novel mobile interactions and interfaces,Large scale and mobile massive multiplayer scenarios.

Other areas of interest

Game design theory, practice, and experimentation, Pervasive games and hybrid reality games for playcemaking, Conceptualizing and designing interactive & persuasive architecture, Serious game design, e.g. for tourism, education and learning, wellness, Sociologies/architectures of surveillance, tracking, monitoring, control, and resistance - History of entertainment architectures

Personal Competencies

Languages

Spoken: German (native speaker), English (fluent), French (basics)
Reading: German, English, French, Latin, Japanese (basics)

Mobile competencies

Steffen brings together a broad understanding of, as well as, a research interest in human and computer mediated mobility and communication with a focus on interactive entertainment. He has set up and run his own companies in these fields, and has worked professionally as a conceptual executive for web agencies, as a consulter for companies and institutions, and as a study program / curriculum developer, teacher and researcher in these areas.

Forum Nokia Discussion Board user name

eth-walz

Main Nokia Platform Related Achievements

Applications

REXplorer (touristic mobile pervasive game service for S60 smartphones, mainly authored by Rafael Ballagas, RWTH Aachen University)

Books and other publications

For a complete and updated list, please go to wiki.caad.arch.ethz.ch/Organisation/SteffenPWalz.

Books:
Borries, Friedrich von, Walz, Steffen P. and Matthias Böttger (eds.) (2007): Space Time Play. Exploring the Synergies Between Computer Games, Architecture, and Urbanism. Birkhäuser Publishing: Basel Boston Berlin. [in preparation]

Select journal & book articles:
Walz, Steffen P. (2007), "Pervasive persuasive play: Influencing audiences with mobile and ubiquitous games", in Fogg, BJ (ed.): Mobile Persuasion: Perspectives on the Future of Influence. Proceedings of the Mobile Persuasion Conference, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, 2.2.2007.

Walz, Steffen P. (2006): „Enterveillance? Surveiltainment! Imagining the game generation world." In: Davidson, Drew (ed.): Cross-Media Communications: An Introduction to the Creation of Integrated Media Experiences. Thompson New Media. [accepted]

Walz, Steffen P. (2005): „Delightful Identification & Persuasion: Towards an Analytical and Applied Rhetoric of Digital Games." In: McAllister, Ken and Ryan Moeller (eds.): Works and Days. Capitalizing on Play: The Politics of Computer Gaming. Vol 22, Nr. 43/44. Indiana, PA: Indiana University of Pennsylvania. pp. 185-200. Available Online at www.playbe.com/stuff/games_rhetoric.htm

Conference proceedings:
Ballagas, Rafael, Walz, Steffen P., Kratz, Sven, Fuhr, Claudia, Yu, Eugen, Tann, Martin, Borchers, Jan and Ludger Hovestadt: „REXplorer: A Mobile, Pervasive Spell-Casting Game for Tourists." In: CHI '07 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems, San Jose, CA, USA, 2007. ACM Press. [in press]

Walz, Steffen P., Ballagas, Rafael, Borchers, Jan, Mendoza, Joel, Kratz, Sven, Wartmann, Christoph, Hameed, Bilal, and Laszlo Bardos: „Cell Spell-Casting: Designing a Locative Gesture Recognition Smartphone Game for Tourists." In: Proceedings of PerGames 2006, held in conjunction with the 4th Intl. Conference on Pervasive Computing, Dublin, 7 May 06. Springer LNCS.

Ballagas, Rafael, Walz, Steffen P., and Jan Borchers (2006): „REXplorer: A Pervasive Spell-Casting Game for Tourists as Social Software." Position paper submitted to the CHI 2006 Workshop on Mobile Social Software, Montréal, Canada, April. Available Online at media.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/materials/publications/ballagas2006a.pdf.

Walz, Steffen P. (2006): „A Spatio-Ludic Rhetoric: Serious Pervasive Game Design for Sentient Architectures". In: Proceedings of game set and match II. International Conference 2006 on Computer Games, Advanced Geometries and Digital Technologies, TU Delft.

Posters:
Walz, Steffen P., Schoch, Odilo, Schaerer, Philipp, Gmelin, Sebastian, Bonwetsch, Tobias, Hillner, Bergit, Schmidt, Rafael Georg, Mermans, Bart, Przerwa, Jan, and Arno Schlueter (2005): „Serious Bioplay: A Computer Integrated Building Service Game applying Psychophysiological Input." (poster) In: Extended Proceedings of UbiComp 2005 - The 7th International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing, Tokyo, Japan.

Brezinka, Veronika and Steffen P. Walz (2005): „Computerspiele in der Psychotherapie von Kindern und Jugendlichen." (poster) In: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Psychologie, 4. Fachtagung der Fachgruppe Medienpsychologie, Schwerpunkt-Thema "Kinder und Medien", September 7-9, Universität Erfurt. Cf. www.uni-erfurt.de/LLBZ/fgt2005/

Speaking engagements

For a complete and updated list, please go to wiki.caad.arch.ethz.ch/Organisation/SteffenPWalz.

02/2007
Guest lecture, "Playcemaking”
Carnegie Mellon University, Entertainment Technology Center, Pittsburgh, PA (USA)

02/2007
Talk, “Pervasive Persuasive play: Influencing Audiences with Mobile and Ubiquitous Games”
Mobile Persuasion Conference, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA (USA)

01/2007
Invited talk, “The Future of Pervasive Games: A Look Back”
The Future of Mobile and Pervasive Games in China Symposium
Tsinghua University, Academy of Arts and Design, Beijing (PR of China)

12/2006
Invited talk together with Tico Ballagas (RWTH Aachen University), “REXplorer: A Touristic Smartphone Game For A UNESCO World Heritage Protected City”
Italian National Research Council Workshop on Culture for the Masses.
Venice International University, Venice (IT) 

12/2006
Invited talk, “Mixed Reality Games: When Serious Games Get Real”
Serious Games Summit Europe, Lyon (FR)

09/2006
Invited lecture, “REXplorer: Place-Making with Game Design”
Nokia Research Center / Nokia Games Day (internal), Helsinki (FI)

08/2005
Invited lecture, "Massively Multiplayer Audio Reality Gaming"
Webzen Inc, Seoul (Rep. of SK)

06/2005
Invited lecture, "Serious Pervasive Games: Vom Spass zum Ernst und zurück"
International symposium on Mobile Creativity, ZKMax, Munich (FRG)

03/2005
Guest lecture, "Gaming & Architecture", Critical-Digital Lecture Series
Harvard Graduate School of Design, Dept. of Architecture, Cambridge, MA (USA)

03/2005
Guest lecture, "Surveillant Fun: Pervasive Games as Technology of Power", Colloquium Lecture Series
MIT, Institute for Comparative Media Studies, Cambridge, MA (USA)

10/2004
Invited panelist together with Prof. Eric Kloper, Ph.D. (MIT): "Augmented Reality Games: Integrating Computer Games with Physical Environments"
Serious Games Summit, Washington D.C. (USA)

08/2004
Invited lecture, “An Architectural Game Design Archaeology”, academic track,
Games Convention Developer Conference, Leipzig (FRG)

06/2004
Panelist, “Challenges and Risks – The Future of E-Sports” concluding panel,
1st International E-Sport Forum, Düsseldorf (FRG)

01/2004
Guest lecture together with Prof. Dr. Buurman (HGKZ): “Game Design Education”
Quo Vadis Game Developer Gathering, Mülheim (FRG)

03/2003
Talk, Experimental Gameplay Workshop
Game Developers Conference, San Jose, CA (USA)

12/2002
Talk, game design track
Australian Game Developers Conference, Melbourne (AUS)

Awards

2007: Finalist for portfolio website at the SXSW Web Awards (USA)
2007: Forum Nokia Champion
2002: International Bauhaus Award, 2nd prize
2001 -    Fellow of the Advanced Communication Technologies Lab, College of Communications
University of Texas at Austin (USA)
2001 -    Winner of several New Media / Internet Awards as concept/creative executive for AGI, Stuttgart (FRG) & 21Torr GmbH, Stuttgart (FRG), e.g. London International Advertising Awards (Gold); Annual Multimedia Award (Distinctions); New York Festivals (Gold); Clio Awards (Shortlist), Jahrbuch der Werbung (Mentions)

For a complete and updated list, please go to wiki.caad.arch.ethz.ch/Organisation/SteffenPWalz.

Hosted Web pages

spw.playbe.com (works)
wiki.arch.ethz.ch/twiki/bin/view/Main/SteffenPWalz (academic)

Mobile communities in which you are active

Mobile persuasion: www.mobilepersuasion.org
Mobile processing: mobile.processing.org
Mobile application design: mad.hgkz.ch/english.htm

Contact Information

Personal Web pages

spw.playbe.com (works)
wiki.caad.arch.ethz.ch/Organisation/SteffenPWalz (academic)

email

walzATarch.ethz.ch

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