"The organisation" - tasks and commitment
"The Orga" is a team of students who, under the direction of professor Christian Fuchs, research assistant Sebastian Krois and technical assistant Volker Spaarmann, organise the content of the wide-ranging practical course "GamesLab: Video Game Development and Game Studies".
Just like our participants, we are an interdisziplinär team from different study programmes, such as Media Studies, Computer Science, Popular Music and Media or Comparative Literature. Our team size varies, but since 2022 we have grown to a team of around 15 people, who are studying for both Bachelor's and Master's degrees and are aged between 21 and 35.
We bring different experience in terms of game development or project management in creative development work. In some cases, we have orga-persons who, for example, have learnt aspects of the field during their studies abroad, or people who have completed training in the field at the Paderborn BiB. There is also development experience from research projects carried out in cooperation with the SICP. However, most of us start with an intrinsic interest in a department. Building on this, we have learnt our skills through our own continuing/further education, professional development [je nach Kontext] or developed them as part of the GamesLab.
What is important to us in the organisation?
„There is a lot to consider, think about, discuss, memorise, plan, implement and learn. Of course, it's fun in the foreground, but the responsibility of planning and running a course so well that up to 120 participants feel well enough prepared should not be underestimated.”
The extent of the organisation's
The invisible work of the orga
A special feature of the organisation's work is that it is mainly done on a voluntary basis. The GamesLab was created "bottom up" from the intrinsic motivation to give video games and the conceptual and technical effort behind them more relevance and attention. Very few people realise that most of the organisation work is based on voluntary commitment and actually requires a lot of resources.
One hurdle that organisers have to face time and again is the question of how the perceived responsibility is negotiated. How the division of labour is sensibly organised so that individual members of the organisation do not have to carry too much of the load compared to others are also leadership and management issues that the organisation has to deal with. Few people know how much work is involved. How much effort lies behind the conception and management of such a large course, or how much energy goes into making it as exciting, fun and educational as possible for our participants.
Maintaining the GamesLab and ensuring that it remains relevant and important are things that the organisation is committed to. Even the organising generations before us have had to manage technical, content-related, organisational, bureaucratic or resource-based hurdles behind the scenes - and this is still a large part of the invisible organising work for which we are actively trying to develop solutions.
Why we like being "the organisation"
The work in the organisation is very extensive and at the same time very enriching. Many of us learn more about ourselves as part of our involvement. Above all, however, we learn important practical and organisational skills in project management, team leadership, solution-oriented and positive communication, process organisation, independent work, time management and many other soft skills that are important in everyday working life.
We are lucky to be able to work and cooperate closely with Professor Christian Fuchs, Sebastian Krois, Volker Spaarmann and other important people from ZIM. The GamesLab is a student initiative that is allowed to design and further develop ideas and concepts in the context of teaching by and for students.
