[Commlist] Video Game Cultures 2024 call for papers

The Game Cultures cluster at the Birmingham Centre for Media and 
Cultural Research <https://bcmcr.org/>, Birmingham City University, is 
happy to announce:

*Video Game Cultures 2024: The Other Conference*

*12-14 September 2024 / Birmingham City University (UK) *

Drawing on threads emerging from last year’s Video Game Cultures 
conference in Klagenfurt, the theme for this year’s conference is 
/other/ in all its permutations: other, others, othered, othering, 
otherness, and beyond. We seek to centre marginal practices, marginal 
identities, peripheral national traditions, and consider researcher 
positionality in/as other. Let us reflect on other spaces and sites of 
gaming, discuss other approaches and methods to studying games, players, 
and gaming cultures. What can we learn from (or about) other researcher 
practices, other player practices, other design and industrial 
practices? How do video games create or recognise difference, what does 
alternative embodiment look or feel like, and what worlds are possible 
in games?

Video Game Cultures 2024 will therefore investigate various ways in 
which video game cultures, technologies, practices, communities, 
paratexts and genres develop within the framework of five thematic 
tracks. As digital games encompass an expanding range of highly complex 
and variant phenomena, this often leads to an overlap of issues across 
themes, so we are inviting participants of all backgrounds (academic, 
developer, producer, player, fan etc.) to submit proposals to this 
interdisciplinary event.

Participants are encouraged to think broadly within and across thematic 
tracks, and submissions can address topics and questions relevant to 
games such as, but not limited to:

*1)**Narrative and History: *

Histories and historical narratives. Historical practices of developers 
and players. Time and textuality. Creation and analysis of interactive 
narrative media. Intertextual and comparative perspectives. Adaptation 
and media exchange.

*2)**Gender and Sexuality: *

Player demographics. Representation and identity. Love, romance, desire, 
and/or sexuality in videogames. Gender socialization and young players. 
Sexual harassment in virtual environments. Gender and sexual politics in 
the industry.

*3)**Ethics and Affect: *

The affective turn in game studies and design. Ethics of design and 
experience. Roles of affect and emotion in play. The role of agency. 
Games as (dis-)empowerment. Affective and emotional design. Fan 
engagement and -cultures.

*4)**Hardware and Space: *

Inventions in gaming and their socio-cultural impact. Processing power 
correlating to video game history. Control, input devices and movement. 
Virtual reality devices and gaming cultures. The future of immersion and 
embodiment.

*5)**Ludification and Simulation: *

Gameplay models beyond video game studies. Playful elements in 
non-gaming applications. Economic, social sciences, healthcare 
applications of ludic activity. Playful elements on users in serious 
applications.

We welcome approaches to these areas that consider video games as text 
and/or experience, that approach the areas from the designer’s 
perspective, and/or that consider cultures of video gaming.

We encourage the submission of proposals for academic papers, short 
workshops, practitioner-based activities, best practice showcases, 
how-to sessions, live demonstrations, performances, and pre-formed 
panels. We particularly welcome short film screenings, photographic 
essays, installations, interactive talks, and alternative presentation 
styles that encourage engagement.

Further details can be found at our conference website 
https://videogamecultures.org/ <https://videogamecultures.org/>, which 
will be updated with venue and travel information in due course.

*What to send:*

300-word abstracts, proposals and other forms of contribution should be 
submitted by *Tuesday 30 April 2024*. All submissions will be minimally 
double reviewed, under anonymous (blind) conditions, by a global panel 
drawn from members of the Project Team and the Video Game Cultures 
Advisory Board. In practice, by the time a proposal is accepted, 
typically it will have been triple and quadruple reviewed.

You will be notified of the panel's decision on or by *Friday 14 June 2024*.

All abstracts must be submitted via *openconf*: 
https://videogamecultures.org/conference/ 
<https://videogamecultures.org/conference/>

*Ethos*

This event is designed to be an inclusive academic research and 
publishing project. It aims to bring people together from different 
areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which 
are innovative and exciting. Currently, we therefore plan for a fully 
on-campus conference and remain keenly aware of the potential necessity 
for hybrid or online modes of participation.

We believe it is a mark of personal courtesy to and professional respect 
for your colleagues that all delegates should attend for the full 
duration of the conference and participate in all presentations. While 
limited options for hybrid participation can be made available, the main 
intention of Video Game Cultures 2024 is to create a personal, 
in-presence experience for its participants and to facilitate community 
building. Please consider this carefully when submitting an abstract for 
presentation.

All papers accepted for and presented at the conference must be in 
English and will be eligible for publication. Selected papers will be 
developed for publication in a themed hardcopy volume.


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