[Commlist] History of Games 2024 conference CfP

History of Games Conference 2024

Birmingham City University, United Kingdom

22^nd – 24^th May 2024

Call for Papers

*Conference Theme: Families of Games*

In 2023, the *History of Games* conference celebrated its 10^th 
anniversary. During this time, the conference has visited Montréal, 
Copenhagen and Zoom. In /Philosophical Investigations/, Ludwig 
Wittgenstein (1958: 65-67) says that in games there is a ‘complicated 
network of similarities’, and that he ‘can think of no better expression 
to characterize these similarities than "family resemblances"[…]: 
“games” form a family’. This is the departure point for our conference 
theme. Games, like families, are central to the creation of our 
lifeworld. In May 2024, then, we look forward to welcoming you to 
Birmingham in the United Kingdom to celebrate the growing family of 
international researchers investigating histories of games.

Games of all kinds have a broad association with families. Early 
psychological studies of video games (e.g. Loftus and Loftus 1983) 
focused on transferring the positive reinforcement schedules associated 
with pay-to-play gaming to the home, where exposure could be more 
closely monitored than in the public sphere. The widespread effects of 
the percolation of home computers in Europe and beyond has become more 
recognised as scholarship in this area gathers pace (Švelch, 2018), 
centred on networks of families who would swap, code and play games 
across boundaries.

The UK, our venue for *History of Games* *2024*, has a particular 
relationship with families and games, and many historic British software 
houses were founded on familial relations. Rare was founded by Chris and 
Tim Stamper, with Carole Stamper particularly active in promotion and 
distribution, an often-overlooked element of their success which 
demonstrates the centrality of women’s ‘unseen labour’ in game history. 
Codemasters, founded by the Darling brothers, made an early name for 
themselves producing low cost ‘pocket money’ games. These were iterated 
through a family of sequels to become bestsellers, part of a lineage 
realised in the present day through annual releases of the /Formula One/ 
licence.Elsewhere, videogame compilations - software ‘mixtapes’ - 
brought different families, different genres, and even different media 
together. One outstanding example is /SoftAid/, released by UK software 
house Quiksilva to raise funds for families devastated by the Ethiopian 
famine of 1985. Including the Band-Aid song ‘Do they know it’s 
Christmas?’ and ten games, this was the first known release of videogame 
software for a charitable cause, and the largest selling title in the UK 
until 1989’s /RoboCop/.

Games also centre or mimic families through minutiae and everyday drama, 
or use family as a backdrop for affective narratives. /The Sims/ allows 
for experimental ways of living beyond ascribed family boundaries, 
online games bring us closer to people who share our interests, and 
games are able to traverse lifeworlds and take us outside of ourselves 
in a way that is familiar to family. Histories of games from /Speak and 
Spell/ through /Tamagotchi/ to /Pokémon/ show us that those who educate, 
accompany and entertain us do not have to be human and are as much part 
of our family as any other.

*Submissions*

With these thoughts in mind, we welcome submissions to the *History of 
Games 2024* conference around the organising theme of ‘Families of 
Games’. Below, we offer a (non-exclusive) list of potential topics as a 
starting point for thinking and reflection on the state of the field of 
histories of games. Submissions can be conceptual, theoretical, 
methodological, critical or data driven/informed, or a combination of 
some or all of these.

●AI and game histories

●Capital and games

●Childhood games

●Critical readings of historical games

●Cultural and political discourse of games

●Diversity in/and histories of games

●Games and everyday life

●Games and their sequels

●Histories of games and education (e.g. andragogy, pedagogy of games, 
using games in and as learning)

●Histories of game production, promotion, distribution and/or consumption

●Histories of gender and/or sexuality in play and games

●Histories of global majorities in play and games

●Histories of hardware and software (including board, card, table-top, 
playground, field, hand games, and pinball and arcade games)

●Histories of videogames and addiction

●Home or lone programming

●Local, regional, national, international and transnational game histories

●Material games histories (e.g. storage, curation, display, upgrade, 
degradation)

●Methodologies of games histories

●Political economy of games

●Sites of play (e.g. amusement arcades, theme parks, bowling alleys, 
hackerspaces)

●Theories of games

●Wargames and political deployment of games

Submissions of an abstract of 500 words (not including references) are 
welcome to the Histories of Games 2024 conference and will be 
double-blind peer reviewed.

Please note that to ensure equity and access to the conference, no 
author may present more than two contributions to the conference.This 
includes single and joint authored submissions.

*Submission link*
https://www.history-of-games.com/openconf/openconf.php 
<https://www.history-of-games.com/openconf/openconf.php>

Please write everything in the form, with no attachments.

*Important dates*

Opens: 8^th December 2023

Closes: 22^nd January 2024

Notifications of Acceptance: Sent to authors by 15^th March 2024

*Conference Cost: *

*In person: £150 / €175*

*Hybrid: £75 / €85 *

The conference fee includes access to the conference, coffee and tea in 
the morning and afternoon and lunchtime meal.Additional social events 
will be organised on the evenings of the 22^nd and 23^rd May.Further 
details to follow.

*Financial Support for Unwaged / Students*

A fee waiver for the conference may be available to unwaged / 
students.You must present in person at the conference for this to be 
considered.This will be considered on a case-by-case basis.It is hoped 
that there may be support available for unwaged / students for travel 
and accommodation costs.This is contingent on funds being made available 
for this.Further details to follow.

*Presentation of Papers*

It is encouraged that all accepted papers are presented in person at the 
conference by at least one of the authors on the paper.However, it is 
also accepted that it is not always possible or expedient to travel to 
conferences.Therefore, it is expected that there may be provision for 
hybrid attendance.Further details to follow.

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