Are you part of the online gaming culture and tired of how hateful and violent it can be? Are you a human rights activist who never had the chance to talk seriously about gaming communities? Are you a passionate gamer with a strong interest in human rights? Do you run an online gaming community, write about videogames or develop them and feel curious about this topic?

GameOver Hate is just for you!

Where human rights meet geekdom. Where social awareness meets ponies. Where gamers and activists work together to make gaming communities friendlier and more inclusive.

The application process is now open, apply to the conference by filling this online form. Deadline for applications: 31th July

GameOver Hate is a 6 day (23th-28th September) conference about building better online gaming communities and tackling online hate. Our focus will be on forging a community of gamers/professionals in the gaming industry that do not only understand and recognize hateful behaviors that happen in online gaming spaces but also proactively act to change them.



To achieve this goal we will, of course, play videogames, but more than that we’ll discuss and debate together, listen to and talk with gaming journalists, academics and game developers. We aim to broaden our own world views, grasp the gaming communities at a larger scale and learn and craft as a group.



We’ll work towards the encouragement and development of community based actions, the continuous sharing of good online practices and the creation of a common set of recommendations on the development of better online gaming communities.

Objectives:

Understand and question the reality of online gaming communities;

Empower gamers* to understand, recognize and react to online hate;

Share best-practices on online gaming communities management;

Create a network of gamers and activists motivated to tackle online hate;

Read our draft programme here.

Target:

Community leaders, game journalists, game developers, community manager, online activists, active gamers.

We encourages applicants from all ethnic, cultural, and migrant backgrounds to apply, as well as all socio-economic situations and all sexual orientations and gender identities and expressions.

Working methods:

We emphasize a participatory approach to learning, utilizing non-formal education methods as promoted by the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe, as well as other human rights education organisations. This conference will also contain a limited number of formal education sessions from outside resource persons, though the primary approach will be activity-based and participant centered. The conference will be conducted in English.

Costs and practical arrangements:

All accommodation and food will be provided for with the support of the Council of Europe. Travel expenses and visa costs will be reimbursed. Reimbursement will take place during the conference, upon presenting the receipts, tickets, etc, or by bank transfer after the conference if preferred.

A participation fee of 50€ will be deducted from the reimbursement.

Arrivals are expected during the day of September 22, departures on September 29 2013

Participants selection process:

The preparatory team will review all complete applications. Participants will be selected upon the motivation and on how well they meet the criteria of the ideal participant profile above. Successful applicants will be notified by email before 15th August.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at gameoverhate[at]gmail.com or through our facebook page.

Apply now. For honor!