[Commlist] CFP: Media Theory Journal – "Videogame Theory"

CFP: VIDEOGAME THEORY

Deadline extension: 15 February 2025.

https://mediatheoryjournal.org/cfp-videogame-theory/

This special issue of Media Theory will commission articles on videogame 
theory from scholars in the humanities and social sciences, especially 
those working in the field of videogame studies.

Videogame scholars have drawn on a range of theories to analyse and 
interpret the medium, including affect theory (Anable 2018), queer 
theory (Ruberg 2019), visual theory and critical race theory (Murray 
2018), and postcolonial theory (Mukherjee 2017). Yet, while a range of 
theories have been used to gain insight into videogames, videogames are 
themselves rarely used to gain insight into theory. Unlike film and 
literature, for example, videogames are not typically mobilized to give 
voice to theoretical insights that theorists have not yet articulated 
for themselves. While exceptions exist, like McKenzie Wark’s (2007) 
Gamer Theory, such experiments are rare.

The articles commissioned for this special issue will not simply apply 
theory to the study of videogames or recapitulate key theories in 
videogame studies, but explore how and to what extent videogames prompt 
us to theorize anew. Rather than revising the formalist debates 
associated with the field’s formative years, articles will utilize 
videogames to make contributions to broader theoretical conversations in 
media and cultural studies and/or critical and continental thought.

Prospective authors are invited to address how videogame studies can 
disrupt or reshape critical approaches to media and cultural theories. 
Potential topics include but are not limited to:

Theories of play

Theories of subjectivity

Theories of affect and the body

Theories of posthumanism

Theories of technology and materiality

Theories of platforms and monetisation

Theories of simulation and speculation

Media and screen theory

Marxism and psychoanalysis

Critical race theory

Critical disability theory

Postcolonial theory

Feminist theory

Queer theory

Genealogies of videogame theory

The political potential of videogame theory

We encourage submissions from authors writing from global majority 
contexts and submissions on ability/disability.

Submission Information

Guest Editors include Benjamin Nicoll (Queensland University of 
Technology), Aleena Chia (Goldsmiths, University of London), Braxton 
Soderman (University of California, Irvine)

Please submit a 500-word abstract and a 150-word bio to all guest 
editors: (b2.nicoll /at/ qut.edu.au), (a.chia /at/ gold.ac.uk) and asoderma@uci.eduby 
15 February 2025. Contact the guest editors with any questions.

Notification of abstract acceptance: March 2025

Submission of manuscript: 15 August 2025

A selection of authors will be invited to submit a full paper. Please 
note that acceptance of the abstract does not guarantee publication, 
given that all papers will be put through the journal’s peer review process.

No payment from authors will be required.

REFERENCES

Anable, Aubrey. 2018. Playing With Feelings: Video Games and Affect. 
Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press.

Mukherjee, Souvik. 2017. Videogames and postcolonialism: Empire plays 
back. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.

Murray, Soraya. 2018. On Video Games: The Visual Politics of Race, 
Gender and Space. New York: Bloomsbury.

Ruberg, Bo. 2019. Video Games Have Always Been Queer. New York: NYU Press.

Wark, McKenzie. 2007. Gamer Theory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

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