[Commlist] CFP New Formations of Game Genres Edited Anthology

Call For Papers: “New Formations of Game Genre,” Edited Anthology


Game Studies has adopted a notion of genre that overcomes the “tension 
between ‘ludology’ and ‘narratology’... [by] conceptualizing video games 
as operating in the interplay between these two taxonomies of genre” 
(Apperley 2006). That is, the consensus of the field is that game genres 
are a combination of both narrative and other forms of representation 
(e.g. Adventure, Western, or Sci-Fi stories and/or motifs) and formal, 
ludic structures (e.g  cooperative or competitive, role-playing, 
shooting, platforming).


While game studies as a field seemed to quickly embrace consensus around 
Apperley’s definition of genre, the Approaches to Digital Game Studies 
series introduction (Voorhees, Call, and Whitlock 2012) maintained a 
more fluid and promiscuous line: game genres could be distinguished by 
their theme or representational qualities, rules and mechanics, 
function, or some combination of the above. However, the ideological 
effects of the ludology vs. narratology debate are pervasive and game 
genres are still understood as constellations of formal and 
representational properties. Despite making allowances for iconography, 
structure, and use as distinct and not necessarily overlapping ways of 
distinguishing game genres, most conversations about genre and 
videogames are still wedded to the representational and mechanical 
dimensions.


Meanwhile, outside of genre studies, game studies has experienced a 
cultural turn in the last decade, centering the social dimensions of 
games and play. What resources for theorizing game genres emerge from 
this cultural turn? How might the critical theories of race and culture, 
intersectional feminism, queer theory, post-colonial and decolonial 
approaches, and mad/crip interventions of the past decade suggest new 
ways of thinking about game genres? And what new and emergent genres can 
be identified from this side of this cultural turn? Put differently, 
what would the study of game genres look like today if the ludology vs. 
narratology debate never occurred?Or if it had taken some form more 
productive than it ultimately did? How might we understand game genres 
without the mandate to think about them through the two axes of 
“representation” and “ergodicity?”


For this volume, tentatively titled “New Formations of Game Genre,”to be 
submitted for publication in the Approaches to Digital Game Studies book 
series published by Bloomsbury Academic, the editors aim to assemble 
scholarship that advances two lines of inquiry and thus seek proposal 
for essays that speak to one or more of the following two areas:


 1.

    Minor forms and new genres that have been overlooked and
    understudied.Not every set of games warrants a monograph or even
    anthology like digital role-playing games, first-person shooters, or
    even Japanese role-playing games. But there are still lessons to be
    gained from giving space to looter-shooters, rhythm based or
    deck-building role-playing games, and/or text-based rouge-lites. We
    are seeking proposals for chapters that explore the various
    dimensions of these minor and emerging forms.


 2.

    Genres that are distinguished by their social use.Lauren Berlant
    (2011) describes genre as a set of expectations that organizes a
    subject’s relationship to their historical circumstances. Closer to
    home, TreaAndrea Russworm, Bo Ruberg, and Chris Patterson,
    respectively, ask us to think about what constitutes a Black game, a
    queer game, and an Asian game, not as a product of the thematic or
    mechanical aspects but rather – beyond representation – as distinct
    structures of feeling, patterns of embodied experiences, and/or sets
    of material practices. We are seeking proposals for chapters that
    further explore how game genres can be distinguished by their social
    function, and how they work to mediate players’ relationships to the
    material world.


Please send abstracts (350-500 words excluding references) to 
gamestudiesbooks[at]gmail.com <http://gmail.com> by September 30th, 
2022. If invited, full manuscripts of no more than 6500 words, including 
references, will be required by January 30, 2022.



About the Editors:


Gerald Voorhees is an Associate Professor in the Department 
Communication Arts at the University of Waterloo and President of the 
Canadian Game Studies Association. He researches games and new media as 
sites for the construction and contestation of identity and culture, and 
he has edited books on masculinities in games, feminism in play, 
role-playing games, and first-person shooter games. Gerald is co-editor 
of Bloomsbury’s Approaches to Game Studies book series and was managing 
editor of the Gender in Play trilogy in Palgrave’s Games in Context book 
series.

Josh Call is a Professor of English and Director of the Writing Program 
at Grand View University. His current research focuses on critiques of 
games and media as political and ideological expressions of culture and 
power, and has edited collections on role-playing games, and 
first-person shooter games. Josh is the co-editor of Bloomsbury’s 
Approaches to Game Studies book series.


Betsy Brey is a PhD candidate at the University of Waterloo in the 
Department of English Language and Literature. She researches narrative 
and queerness in video games. Her work examines the social and cultural 
practices of the communities that play or enjoy these games, including 
questions of collaboration, digital labour, canonicity, and the cultural 
economies of fans and fandoms.


Matthew Wysocki is an Associate Professor of Media Studies at Flagler 
College and an Area Co-Chair of Game Studies at the Popular Culture 
Association/American Culture Association. Much of his research revolves 
around questions of control and player agency especially with regard to 
sex and romance. Matthew is the editor of CTRL-ALT-PLAY: Essays on 
Control in Video Gamesand co-editor of Rated M for Mature: Sex and 
Sexuality in Video Games.


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