[Commlist] Call for Abstracts: 2P Press Start: Global perspectives on the physically shared spaces of videogame play

2P Press Start: Global perspectives on the physically shared spaces of 
videogame play
*
*
Call for Papers: One Day History of Games Special Event Conference, 17th 
February 2027

Arcades are often considered almost mythical spaces (Meades, 2022). In 
linear narratives of videogame history, arcades are usually associated 
with a particular time, often dubbed as the coin-op era (Banfi, 2024), 
when they were pivotal for the consolidation of gaming in the popular 
imaginary, including here popularising certain genres and establishing 
industrial transnational networks. Arcades are physically real spaces 
that still, or used to, exist, which can and do conjure memories of past 
play and social interaction, whereas myths do not lay such a concrete 
claim to physical ‘real’ space. Nevertheless, there are indeed mythic 
narratives overlayed on the nostalgia evoked by such spatially bound, 
shared experiences (Li, Zhao and Guo, 2026), permitted by the temporal 
distance between a ‘then’ and now, something well-exploited in 
contemporaneity through the ‘arcade revival’ and the rise of /barcades/, 
spaces that trade on this nostalgic relationship (Roundy, 2020). This 
revival, however, often refers to the mythical arcade of the broader, 
Western cultural imaginary: a dark room full of cabinets, a lot of neon 
lights, loud sounds. With this in mind, we ask: does the mythical arcade 
sufficiently represent the (historical,) physical reality of shared 
spaces of videogame play outside of the United States (Kocurek, 2015; 
Banfi, 2024), Japan (Pelletier-Gagnon, 2024), and the UK (Meades, 2022; 
Litherland, 2021)?
While naming a collective space for social videogame play with dedicated 
cabinet machines as an ‘arcade’ can evoke the dark room full of 
teenagers, or the well-worn seaside resort pier, a quick glance through 
time and around the world can reveal different terms and models, such 
maquinitas (Penix-Tadsen, 2016), fliperamas (Perani and Régis, 2015; 
Vicente, 2024), ουφάδικα (Zestanakis, 2025)/,/ or 遊戲機中心 [game machine 
centres] (Wirman and Jones, 2020). In the same way, one could attempt at 
tracing evolving trajectories on the constitution of other collective 
videogame play spaces, including cybercafés (Apperley, 2017), LAN houses 
(Pereira, 2007), LAN parties (Ackermann, 2012), and more informal 
arrangements around consoles (Penix-Tadsen, 2016) or mobile devices, 
location-based (de Souza e Silva et al., 2021) or not (Macedo and Kurtz, 
2021; Macedo, 2025). After all, as Apperley and Leorke (2013) argue, 
“Cybercafés and arcades, as well as the everyday locations carved out 
and appropriated by location–based games, can also be seen as 
environments from which this kind of unplanned, spontaneous social 
interaction can emerge”.

We seek to critically explore the kinds of formalised and informal 
practices that emerge in the physically shared spaces of videogame play. 
We therefore seek proposals for papers exploring where and how people 
played and still play together, outside of the overarching cultural 
imaginary that stereotypically taken from ‘arcade.’ The focus of this 
one day, online conference is to explore research on arcades, and other 
spaces of collective videogame play, especially from outside of the 
Anglophone world.
Submissions, are not limited to, but can address the following topics 
and locations of interest:

  *
    Locations: Latin America; Asia; Africa; the same, but different –
    arcades in non-Anglophone Europe
  *
    Lineages and types of shared playspace: Arcades, Informal shared
    play (for example people gathering with handhelds); LAN houses or
    LAN parties; Region-specific models, such as /locadoras /or Игровухи.
  *
    Practises: Of shared play; Of specific communities; Of bystanders,
    onlookers, hangers; Of user-defined evolutions of how spaces are
    accessed; Of specific communities formed around specific games


We especially welcome and encourage submissions from those _from_ or 
working _in_ Global South contexts. If we receive sufficient interest 
from speakers of any one language, we are open to having a 
non-Anglophone panel (for example, Hispanohablante, Mandarin, Polish, etc.)

What to Send?
Fill in our form 
<https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=_oivH5ipW0yTySEKEdmlwgBs_dDiyexFpFkZlQdRhPVUQ0Q1NVlBUzdOV01IUUYwMkdZUFA1VUoxWS4u> 
with your details and 500-word abstract by November 30th, 2026.
Any further queries can be emailed to <(uclgamestudies /at/ live.ucl.ac.uk)>.__
Submissions will be double reviewed, under anonymous (blind) conditions, 
by an interdisciplinary, global team.
You will be notified of the panel’s decision on or by December 18th 2026.

This cfa, plus versions in Español and Português can be found at 
<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nOPFS-q-bAOdynqgVs9w1cEC96iCFyr9>

References
Ackermann, J. (2012). 'Playing Computer Games as Social Interaction: An 
Analysis of LAN Parties'. In J. Fromme and A. Unger (Eds.), /Computer 
Games and New Media Cultures: A Handbook of Digital Games Studies/. 
Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, pp.465–476. Available [Online] at: 
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2777-9_29. [Last accessed 17 July 2026].
Apperley, T. (2017). 'Digital Gaming, Social Inclusion and the Right to 
Play: A Case Study of a Venezuelan Cybercafe'. In L. Hjorth, H. Horst, 
A. Galloway, and G. Bell (Eds.), /The Routledge companion to digital 
ethnography/. Oxon: Routledge.
Apperley, T. and Leorke, D. (2013). 'From the cybercafé to the street: 
the right to play in the city'. /First Monday/, 18 (11).
Banfi, R. (2024). 'Gaming I, II, and III: Arcades, Video Game Systems, 
and Modern Game Streaming Services'. /Games and Culture/, 19 (8), 
pp.1000–1037.
Kocurek, C.A. (2015). /Coin-Operated Americans: Rebooting Boyhood at the 
Video Game Arcade/. U of Minnesota Press.
Li, J., Zhao, Z. and Guo, J. (2026). 'Relaunching arcade games: game 
nostalgia and collective memory practice for China’s first-generation 
players'. /Frontiers in Psychology/, 17. Available [Online] at: 
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1784510/full. 
[Last accessed 17 July 2026].
Litherland, B. (2021). 'Ludosity, Radical Contextualism, and a New Games 
History: Pleasure, Truth, and Deception in the Mid-20th-Century London 
Arcade'. /Games and Culture/, 16 (2), pp.139–159.
Macedo, T. (2025). 'A batalha de muitos, o glamour de poucos: Esports, 
materialidades e gambiarra em Free Fire'. /Cuadernos de Antropología 
Social/, (61), pp.47–70.
Macedo, T. and Kurtz, G. (2021). 'Who hasn’t dreamed of being a video 
game player? Coloniality, precariousness, and hope labor in Free Fire'. 
/Contracampo/, 40 (3). Available [Online] at: 
https://periodicos.uff.br/contracampo/article/view/50495. [Last accessed 
19 October 2025].
Meades, A. (2022). /Arcade Britannia: A Social History of the British 
Amusement Arcade/. The MIT Press. Available [Online] at: 
https://direct.mit.edu/books/oa-monograph/5459/Arcade-BritanniaA-Social-History-of-the-British. 
[Last accessed 12 June 2026].
Pelletier-Gagnon, J. (2024). /Space and Play in Japanese Videogame 
Arcades/. Abingdon: Routledge.
Penix-Tadsen, P. (2016). /Cultural code: video games and Latin America/. 
London: MIT Press.
Perani, L. and Régis, F. (2015). 'Os beats dos bits: games, Ficção 
Científica e música eletrônica nos anos de 1970 e 1980'. /Fronteiras - 
estudos midiáticos/, 17 (3), pp.312–320.
Pereira, V.A. (2007). 'Entre games e folgações: apontamentos de uma 
antropóloga na lan house'. /Etnográfica. Revista do Centro em Rede de 
Investigação em Antropologia/, (vol. 11 (2)), pp.327–352.
Roundy, P.T. (2020). 'An “extra life” for the arcade? Entrepreneurship, 
hybridization, and industry renewal'. /Journal of Business Venturing 
Insights/, 14, p.e00178.
de Souza e Silva, A., Glover-Rijkse, R., Njathi, A. and de Cunto Bueno, 
D. (2021). 'Exploring the material conditions of Pokémon Go play in Rio 
de Janeiro and Nairobi'. /Information, Communication & Society/, 24 (6), 
pp.813–829.
Vicente, A.M. (2024). 'Lugar de marginal? A cruzada moral dos anos 80-90 
contra os fliperamas e sua influência na legislação de São Paulo'. 
/Revista Multidisciplinar de Estudos Nerds/Geek/, 6 (10), pp.4–23.
Wirman, H. and Jones, R. (2020). 'Invading Space? On perceived risk and 
doing research in game arcades'. /GAME: The Italian Journal of Game 
Studies/, (9), pp.91–104.
Zestanakis, P. (2025). 'Nostalgia and cultural creativity: The case of 
contemporary Athens'. /European Journal of Cultural Studies/, 
p.13675494251390658.

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