Man is a "playful" creature and human culture as a whole is determined by the element of play. According to the well-known Dutch historian Johan Huizinga, all aspects of society including war and peace, law and art, language and philosophy, can be explained as "sub specie ludi", in terms of the elements of play.

In his magnus opus, entitled "Homo Ludens" (1938), Huizinga demonstrates that the element of play is an essential if not the only characteristic of our society. Playing is a means of learning, of venting one's emotions, of relaxing. Playing has become become an element of freedom to man. From its humble beginnings of miniaturized tools and weapons to the wargaming sandboxes of the Pharaos, gaming has been part of human life since the very beginning of man. Toys thus became an extension of man's existence and a means to simulate the environment and his life, which he aspired to control.

As technology moved on and games found their way on electronic media, computer games started to constitute the latest embodiment of the long evolution of toys' development with which man finds a means to fulfil some of his aspirations.

As simulation and gaming moved from the technical world into the realm of computer games, and computing power moved from large machines to the desktop, technical societies like EUROSIS followed this trend in the last century, to bring the established fields mentioned above to the creative computer gaming community. This was done by establishing a dedicated forum called GAME-ON, where practitioners and researchers could meet. Since its inception last century, GAME-ON has been at the forefront of this area of research. In the years since it has been running, it has been able to link pure scientific research and development with the latest trends in game play and establish itself as a beacon in the scientific community.

Thus we welcome you to the GAME-ON conference, the first and original international conference on the use of Simulation and Artificial intelligence in commercial computer games.