Keynote address: “Worlds Apart?: Game Worlds Versus Other Imaginary Worlds”. Clash of Realities: International Conference on the Art, Technology and Theory of Digital Games, Cologne, Germany, November 16, 2016. Pictured (Left to right): David OReilly, Mark J.P. Wolf, Eric Zimmerman, and Gundolf S. Freyermuth. Credits: Costa Belibasakis.
This post is by Prof. Dr. Mark J. P. Wolf, who was invited to give a keynote address at the 7th Clash of Realities Conference organized by Prof. Em. Dr. Gundolf S. Freyermuth at the Cologne Game Lab in 2016. He met Gundolf S. Freyermuth in person then and remained in touch afterward, inviting him to collaborate on other projects, and has enjoyed exchanges with him since then. Mark J. P. Wolf is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Digital Media & Design at Concordia University Wisconsin.
Check out his contribution below:
Meeting Gundolf
I first met Gundolf when he invited me out to the Clash of Realities conference on video games in November of 2016 in Cologne. I had e-mailed him, of course, beforehand, and even from his first e-mail to me inviting me to deliver the opening keynote address at the conference, his e-mail was so personal and complimentary that you couldn’t help liking him at once.
On my arrival I was asked to join him and others for dinner, and was introduced to his brother and the others at the table. Despite how busy he was running the conference, he always took time out to talk, answer questions, and make one feel very welcome. I didn’t know anyone at the conference beforehand, but it was largely due to Gundolf’s welcome and introductions that I had a very good conference indeed.
Naturally he is also a very active scholar (how many CVs require a Table of Contents?) who has had an impact on video game studies and also more broadly, other areas of digital media studies, as well as other shared interests of mine, including transmedia storytelling and fiction writing. And also besides the academic writing, there’s his Game Lab, which I enjoyed seeing (and playing games at) during the conference; through this, I am sure he has had a very direct influence on the shape of games and game design in Germany.
Although I only saw him in person during the days of the conference, we corresponded afterward, and know that Gundolf is the sort of person who can always make time for you, someone whom you can count on, and someone whom you would definitely like to involve in a project or collaborate with; he wrote some entries for the Second Edition of my Encyclopedia of Video Games (2021). Most recently, he wrote a great essay for my Island Worlds (2027) anthology. I hope I will have the chance to collaborate with him again, and will try to keep in touch as well.
I hope in his retirement he gets to write that fourth mystery novel that he told me about, and maybe someday they will even be available in English. At any rate, I feel privileged to have gotten to know Gundolf, and am glad to see this Prisms of Gundolf project being done to honor him, and feel honored to have been asked to participate and be a part of it.
Mark J. P. Wolf