[ecrea] Call for Chapters - Mobile Gaming in Asia: Politics, Culture and Emerging Technologies

Call for Chapters





Mobile Gaming in Asia: Politics, Culture and Emerging Technologies



Edited by Dal Yong Jin, Ph.D., Simon Fraser University. To be published 
by Springer in October 2016



The dramatic improvement of mobile phones, tablets, and game consoles 
has fundamentally changed our daily lives. While the bite-sized software 
programs people loaded onto their mobile phones seemed to be frivolous 
games until several years ago, smartphones and their applications have 
recently created new capital for information and communication 
technology corporations and changed the way people communicate. While 
many countries have invested in mobile industries since the early 21st 
century, several Asian countries have become some of the centers for 
mobile technologies and culture with their global smartphone 
manufacturers, such as Samsung and LG in Korea, HTC in Taiwan, Huawei 
and Lenovo in China. Although these countries were once lagging behind 
in the penetration of mobile phones, Asia exists as an interesting 
test-bed for the future of mobile technology and culture because several 
Asian countries advance several new mobile games based on their 
smartphones and application. The recent emergence of the smartphone 
industry and mobile gaming in Asia can be attributed to favorable 
information technology policies, severe competition among IT 
corporations, and enthusiastic mobile game users in the region. Equally 
important is the role of local smartphone applications, which have 
provided convenient smartphone platforms for local game users. Asians’ 
engagement with smartphones and related mobile apps suggest that the 
smartphone becomes a symbolic and material resource for people’s mobile 
game lifestyle.



SCOPE



Despite the significance of smartphones and mobile gaming in both 
digital economy and youth culture across the globe, there has been a 
lack of academic literature exploring how mobile phones are integrated 
into the socio-economic and cultural landscapes of a particular local 
game context, and how smartphone users engage in the process. This 
volume looks into a hitherto neglected focus of inquiry, a localized 
mobile landscape emerging with the smartphone and its apps, with 
particular reference to Asians’ engagement with mobile gaming. This 
edited volume focuses on not only the celebratory achievement of local 
mobile games, but also the significance of the social milieu in the 
development of Asian mobile gaming culture. It also investigates several 
dimensions in the growth of mobile game technologies and culture, 
including government policy through the lens of globalization theory. 
Although it seeks to identify factors for the growth of local mobile 
games, it will also critically examine significant conflicts between 
global and the local forces. Given that users are the primary actors 
propelling the smartphone era forward, the volume analyzes how 
smartphones have taken shape within the context of Asia’s particular 
mobile culture.

We welcome research by emerging Asia-focused or Asian-based scholars 
whose work has not been published in English.



Possible topics for submissions include but are not limited to:



*History of the growth of mobile gaming as a regional/global industry, 
discourse, and media product

*Critical interpretation of emerging local game industries in Asia

*Comparative mobile game studies

*Mobile games and globalization/regionalization

*Convergent technologies and the impact on established modes of 
mobile/social game play

*Government regulations and types of mobile game play

*Mobile game fandom and free labor

*Mobile gaming as social technology/media

*A culturally specific aesthetic to the production and consumption of 
mobile games

*New media and experimental mobile gaming

*Gendered consumption and production of mobile games

*Mobile gaming and the role of apps

*Moral panics about mobile gaming (especially among religious communities)

*Concerns about mobile gaming addiction and consequent policy changes

*Traditional dominance of the market by Asian developers

*Unique ways in which specific Asian countries have adopted mobile devices

*Intellectual property issues particular to the region

*Tendency for big developers to look to Asia for outsourcing and 
localization

*Case studies to gaming in places such as Korea (PC Bangs/StarCraft 
tournaments etc.)



SUBMISSION



Please submit proposals of up to 800 words, and a brief (300-word) 
author bio in an e-mail attachment by 30 May, 2015, to Dal Yong Jin 
((yongjin23 /at/ gmail.com)). Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by 
15 July, 2015, and invited to submit a full paper by 15 October, 2015. 
Manuscripts should be no more than 8,000 words, including notes and 
references, and conform to APA style. All chapters will be subjected to 
anonymous peer review following submission.



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