[Commlist] Call for papers: Special issue on Fictional Games in Eludamos: Journal for Computer Game Culture

Here’s a CfP for a special issue of Eludamos: Journal for Computer Game 
Culture on Fictional Games, curated by Stefano Gualeni, Riccardo Fassone 
and myself. Don't hesitate to get in touch if you have questions at 
(domford /at/ uni-bremen.de). A permanent link for this call is available here: 
https://eludamos.org/index.php/eludamos/announcement/view/117

Eludamos Special Issue on Fictional Games and Game Studies

Guest editors: Stefano Gualeni, Riccardo Fassone & Dom Ford

Full paper submission deadline: October 15, 2024

Publication: June 2025

FICTIONAL GAMES AND FICTIONAL GAME STUDIES

Fictional games are playful activities and ludic artefacts that were 
specifically created as part of fictional worlds (or that otherwise 
originated in fiction). As examples, think of the titular Hunger Games, 
or Holo-chess in the fictional universe of Star Wars.

In their foundational academic work on games that exclusively exist as 
fictions, Stefano Gualeni and Riccardo Fassone emphasize that the 
purpose of fictional games is to trigger the imagination of the 
audience. These ‘games’ cannot actually be played, or - at least - were 
not originally meant as playable artefacts (Gualeni & Fassone 2022; 
Gualeni 2021). They are fictional elements whose main goal is aesthetic 
rather than ludic: their gameplay might aid characterization, add detail 
to the fictional world of which they are part, play an important part in 
the narrative, or simply function as comic relief. More simply put, a 
fictional videogame like Global Thermonuclear War – whose simplified 
wireframe graphics and ominous apocalyptic undertones are part of the 
fictional world of the film War Games (Badham 1983) – is the kind of 
cultural phenomenon we intend to analyze in this special issue, whereas 
the filmic representation of the actual game of basketball in Spike 
Lee’s He Got Game (1998) is not.

Concentrating on the uses and the cultural value of fictional games - as 
well as their relevance to the field of game studies - this special 
issue thus solicits contributions that are short and focused.

Short: we expect the submitted texts to not exceed 5000 words in length 
(not counting the bibliography), and
Focused: the editors encourage submissions that discuss a single case 
study of a fictional game (or a few related case studies) that the 
authors find particularly interesting to analyze and theorize about.
A successful submission leverages conceptual tools from fields such as 
literary theory, game studies, game design, and the philosophy of 
fiction, and engages with questions such as: what roles can imaginary 
games have in storytelling? Why do fiction authors outline rules and 
behaviors of games that the audience will never actually play? Can we 
apply tools and methods that are specific to game studies to better 
understand fictional games? What can fictional games teach us about 
games and play?

 Important dates

Full paper submission deadline: October 15, 2024

Review results: January 2025

Revisions due: March 15, 2025

Final notification of acceptance/rejection: May 1, 2025

Publication: June 30, 2025
Submission guidelines

Please make sure your manuscript corresponds to the journal’s formal 
requirements regarding length, citation style, and so on. Please keep in 
mind that this special issue solicits contributions that are up to 5000 
words in length (not counting the bibliography).

For the full submission guidelines, see the official Eludamos guidelines 
for authors available at: 
https://www.eludamos.org/index.php/eludamos/information/authors

The Eludamos style-guide is available here: 
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/aagitrpmd0ipqam9u7ycq/Eludamos-Style-Guide-2023.docx?dl=0&rlkey=g0rbegwlu4ol7bhcshihraj7c

When submitting your article, please clearly mark your contribution as 
belonging to the special issue by adding [SI: Fictional Games] to the 
title of your submission.

Please use the online submission system for all correspondence with the 
guest editors and editors: 
https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/eludamos/submission/wizard

 About Eludamos

Eludamos is a diamond open-access international, interdisciplinary, 
peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the academic study of computer games 
and play. The journal is indexed in Scopus and DOAJ. There is no charge 
for authors to submit or publish nor for readers to access articles. See 
a complete description of Eludamos and its objectives at 
https://eludamos.org/index.php/eludamos/about



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