CALL FOR PAPERS
The social side of gaming: International
Conference on the Social Aspects of Digital Gaming
Thursday 21 July to Saturday 23 July 2011
University Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany
Topic
In the past decade, digital games have become a
widely accepted form of media entertainment,
even outside the traditional ?core gamer?
segment. In tandem with this shift into the
mainstream media market, we have seen an
increasing interest in ?social? multiplayer
gaming activities, from both the audience and the gaming industry.
The development of social games is of great
academic interest. Wide-ranging studies have
been initiated to investigate the sociality of
virtual worlds, massively multiplayer role
playing games (MMORPGs), multiplayer shooters,
e-sports, and cooperation in party-oriented
console gaming, yet games research remains a
relatively new field. Despite explosive growth
in the field over the past decade, many aspects
of social gaming still remain largely unexplored.
This international conference, titled The Social
Side of Gaming and hosted by the University
Hohenheim (Germany), will take a closer look at
the various forms of human interaction in
digital games. The aim of the conference is to
bring together researchers from a variety of
disciplines interested in social interaction in
games, including (but not limited to) the fields
of communication research, media studies,
sociology, psychology, education studies, and economics.
Papers and presentations will address one or
more of the following conference topics:
· Theoretical and empirical approaches to
social interaction in digital games
· Forms of communication in digital games
· Interaction among co-located gamers
· Game communities and cultures, social
interaction in and around games (e.g., clans and online discussions)
· Avatars, identification, and self-representation in virtual worlds
· Development of interaction rules and
social norms, including questions of ethics,
morality, economy & justice in digital games
· Entertainment through social interaction
· Design and implementation of social interaction
· Methodology of research on social interaction in games
· Violent interactions, griefing, and sexual harassment in digital games
· Excessive use and forms of addiction
related to social aspects of gaming
Abstracts
An extended abstract of no more than 3 pages in
length (7500 characters in total) should be
prepared for blind review as a Word file (.doc
or .docx). When submitting the abstract, please
include a separate cover page including the following contact details:
· paper title
· name
· department/organization
· postal address
· e-mail address
The abstract should provide a clear outline of
the status of the proposed work (for empirical
studies: status of data collection and analysis)
and confirm that the research will be ready for
presentation at the conference. By sending an
abstract, the author(s) agrees to personally
present the research at the conference.
The abstract should be sent to the organizing
committee by email
((gamescon2011 /at/ uni-hohenheim.de)) before 28
February 2011. The double-blind review process
will take place during March, with the results
returned on 31 March 2011. Further information
on the conference program, including keynote
speakers, will soon be available on the conference Website at
sofoga.uni-hohenheim.de/conf2011
Organization
· The ERC (European Research Council)
project group The Social Fabric of Virtual Life
· The Sociology of Media Communication
section of the German Communication Association (DGPuK)
Additional Information
The conference language is English. The
conference proceedings will be published after
the conference. Papers selected for the
proceedings volume should be prepared for a book
publication until October 2011.
