Archives par mot-clé : videogames

Call for papers – Bedroom Journalists? Zines and Early Player Cultures (GAMEVIRONMENTS)

Bedroom Journalists? Zines and Early Player Cultures, GAMEVIRONMENTS (special issue)

Submission deadline : June 1st, 2026

Scheduled publication : Summer 2027

edited by Arno Görgen and Aurelia Brandenburg

Call for papers

In the 1980s and 1990s, for many computer game enthusiasts, the dream of a job in the games industry often began in their bedrooms: some created their first games on the C64 or Atari, while others wanted to write about games and literally put together their own gaming magazines. However, not much is known about these so-called zines.

Compared to other areas of the history of games and gaming, there has been relatively little research on the histories of print publications as part of cultural histories of gaming cultures in general. There are exceptions to this rule, however, although these exceptions tend to focus on the history of commercial gaming magazines and their contents. The most notable example for this is Graeme Kirkpatrick’s book (2015) who investigated the emergence of UK gaming magazines, but especially for magazines in English, there also have been other studies such as Fisher (2015), Summers and Miller (2007, 2014), Cote (2018) or Schmidt et al. (2020) that used gaming magazines as a vehicle to analyse representations of gender and in a similar vein, scholars such as Condis and Morrissette (2023) or Laabs (2023) have also been investigating the famously sexist print ads these magazines used to publish especially in the 1990s and 2000s. Meanwhile, approaches that either focus on the production side of these magazines or try to investigate the fringes of the professional fields these magazines established, are far rarer. Graeme Kirkpatrick touches upon this issue due to his timeframe starting in the early 1980s and others, such as Trammel (2023) tend to brush them as well when incorporating sources such as newsletters into their research. There also are some highly localized studies such as Metzmacher’s (2017) dissertation on early German computer magazines that regards these magazines as actors in early networks of computer hobbyists and thus, in part also early gaming enthusiasts.

Continuer la lecture de Call for papers – Bedroom Journalists? Zines and Early Player Cultures (GAMEVIRONMENTS)

Call for papers – Replaying Japan 2026: Beyond Games: Intersections of Popular Culture and Transmedia Entertainment (Ritsumeikan University Osaka Ibaraki Campus)

Replaying Japan 2026 – The 14thInternational Japan Game Studies Conference – Beyond Games: Intersections of Popular Culture and Transmedia Entertainment

Dates: August 18-21, 2026. A symposium on play and creation (conducted in Japanese) is scheduled for the 18th

Place: Osaka Ibaraki Campus, Ritsumeikan University, Osaka, Japan

Submission deadline: Mar. 14th, 2026

Organized by: Keiji AMANO (Ritsumeikan University), Aki Nakamura (Ritsumeikan University), Kazufumi FUKUDA (Ritsumeikan University), Akito INOUE (Ritsumeikan University), Yasuo KAWASAKI (Ritsumeikan University), Siyu YANG (Ritsumeikan University)

An excursion to TOEI Kyoto Studio Park (Aug. 22) will also be part of the conference

Call for papers

Since its inception, the Replaying Japan Conferences has served as the leading international conference dedicated to the study of Japanese and East Asian videogames. The 2026 conference will broaden the conference scope to explore the dynamic and evolving relationships between games and adjacent forms of popular culture. This year’s theme focuses on games in the context of media mix and transmedia storytelling, examining how games interact with and contribute to broader cultural ecosystems, including:

  • Anime 
  • Manga
  • Novel (including light novel) 
  • Film 
  • Television dramas (including period dramas) 
  • Consumer-generated media
  • Creative Labour,
  • Fandom, communities, consumer, user
  • Ecologies or Ecosystems

Games and these other forms of popular cultures can be seen as a source of mutual inspiration as well as a source from which cross-disciplinary movements and businesses draw. Continuer la lecture de Call for papers – Replaying Japan 2026: Beyond Games: Intersections of Popular Culture and Transmedia Entertainment (Ritsumeikan University Osaka Ibaraki Campus)

Symposium: “Archiving Videogames: Creation, Localisation & Intersectionality” (University of Liège)

Symposium: “Archiving Videogames: Creation, Localisation & Intersectionality” (University of Liège)

18-19 août, 2025

Val Benoît – University of Liège, Allée Zoé Gatti de Gamond, 4/11, 4000Liège (BE)

Organisé par Anna-Maria Trefois (Liège Game Lab)

On August 18th and 19th, the Liège Game Lab will be organizing the two days symposium “Archiving Videogames: Creation, Localisation & Intersectionality”, with the aim of examining the conservation of video games in an academic context.

We plan to explore different axes during these two days.

  1. We will examine the ways in which different institutions manage to conserve video games, including BnF (Bibliothèque Nationale de France), SVGA (Swiss Video Games Archivist), KBR (Royal Library of Belgium), ULiège, and others. What does it mean to set up a video game research center in a university or library? What are the different methodologies?
  2. In a subsequent session, we will address some questions about how we should look at the process of archiving and showcasing video games. This process raises important issues, particularly in terms of resources and choice of work, which can be influenced by gender bias. What knowledge does a gender study approach produce about these objects? How can we take a committed look at a collection that, at first glance, is not?
  3. Lastly, we’d also like to highlight some thoughts on how to approach a collection housed in a different place from its origin. Most video game archiving initiatives focus on local production. For example, Pixelvetica, a SVGA initiative, is committed to preserving Swiss video games. At the Liège Game Lab, we have the project to write a history of Belgian video games. However, our lab has received a loan of 4832 japanese video games from Ritsumeikan University. This context raises questions about the potential link between production and organization of an archive and the culture of a country. In our case, we are also questioning the specificity of the so-called “Japanese video game”, and the criteria on which we should base our efforts to preserve this object. These reflections invite us to rethink the notion of territory in the conservation and study of video games. What does it mean to preserve video games relating to a geographical area (e.g. Japan)? What are the particularities if this collection is not preserved in the geographical area concerned?

Continuer la lecture de Symposium: “Archiving Videogames: Creation, Localisation & Intersectionality” (University of Liège)

Call for papers: The Journal of Replaying Japan – Vol. 8

“Hobbyist games, hacks and (other) homegrown activities”, The Journal of Replaying Japan, vol. 8

Deadline for proposals: September 17th, 2025 (JST)

Scheduled publication: March, 2026

Call for papers

The Ritsumeikan Center for Game Studies (RCGS) is pleased to call for submissions to the 8th issue of the academic journal Replaying Japan, which covers a wide range of topics around Japanese videogames, gaming culture and related media and invites contributions from researchers, developers and practitioners working in related areas. 

For this issue, the editorial committee will particularly welcome proposals on the subjects of hobbyist games, hacks and (other) homegrown activities.  

Continuer la lecture de Call for papers: The Journal of Replaying Japan – Vol. 8

Call for papers – Game and Monetisation (Acta Ludologica, special issue)

Game and Monetisation

Acta Ludologica, special issue

Deadline for proposals: May 31, 2025

Publication date: Autumn 2025

Edited by Jana Radošinská (University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius)

Call for papers

The term monetisation is a contemporary concept that covers the various direct and indirect methods of generating revenue from games, thus monetising them (Mago, 2022). The monetisation in the creative industries has evolved to include diverse revenue models and strategies, reflecting shifts in technology and consumer expectations. Within games and digital games, traditional models have hybridised, combining various approaches including in-game purchases, subscriptions and advertising formats. These are based on an adaptation of media monetisation strategies in general, balancing current consumer demands for affordable access with revenue generation (Pravdová et al., 2023). By blending immersive experiences with monetisation tactics, the games industry demonstrates how creative sectors are continually reshaping monetisation to meet evolving market dynamics, however, sometimes even to the point of malpractices within the grey areas of legality (Mago, 2020). Continuer la lecture de Call for papers – Game and Monetisation (Acta Ludologica, special issue)

Call for papers: Replaying Japan 2025 – “Homebrew: hobbyist games, hacks and (other) homegrown activities” (RMIT University, Melbourne)

Replaying Japan 2025 – The 13th International Japan Game Studies Conference: “Homebrew: hobbyist games, hacks and (other) homegrown activities”

Dates: September 1(Mon)-3(Wed), 2025

Location: Melbourne City Campus, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia

Deadline for proposals: Feb 14th, 2025

Organized by: Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT University), in collaboration with the Ritsumeikan Center for Game Studies, the University of Alberta, the University of Delaware, Bath Spa University, DiGRA Japan, Liège Game Lab and l’Université de l’Ontario français.

Call for papers

This conference, hosted by the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT University), is organized in collaboration with the Ritsumeikan Center for Game Studies, the University of Alberta, the University of Delaware, Bath Spa University, DiGRA Japan, Liège Game Lab and l’Université de l’Ontario français. This conference, the 14th collaboratively organized event, focuses broadly on Japanese game culture, education, and industry. It aims to bring together a wide range of researchers and creators from many different countries to present and exchange their work. Continuer la lecture de Call for papers: Replaying Japan 2025 – “Homebrew: hobbyist games, hacks and (other) homegrown activities” (RMIT University, Melbourne)

Rencontre avec Julien Mailland (Indiana University Media School) autour de son ouvrage “The Game That Never Ends” (Sorbonne Nouvelle)

Rencontre avec Julien Mailland (Indiana University Media School) autour de son ouvrage The Game That Never Ends (MIT Press, 2024)

Date : 16 décembre 2024 de 18h à 19h30

Lieu : Amphithéâtre BR06 (120 places) à la Sorbonne Nouvelle (site Nation)

Organisé par Alexis Blanchet

Présentation

Julien Mailland est l’auteur d’une étonnante recherche en histoire des jeux vidéo portant sur les questions juridiques traversant ce secteur depuis les débuts de son histoire commerciale. Fort d’un travail sur des sources méconnues et d’une enquête historique menée auprès des acteurs de l’histoire des jeux vidéo, Julien Mailland apporte une lumière nouvelle sur des points aveugles de l’histoire du secteur.

Conférence en français animée par Alexis Blanchet (département Cinéma et Audiovisuel, IRCAV)

L’ouvrage The Game That Never Ends (MIT Press, 2024) est disponible en open edition sur : https://direct.mit.edu/books/oa-monograph/5819/The-Game-That-Never-EndsHow-Lawyers-Shape-the

 

 

 

Colloque interuniversitaire francophone d’études ludiques – CIFEL (UQAT)

Colloque interuniversitaire francophone d’études ludiques – CIFEL : “Pouvoir et vulnérabilité”

Dates : 13, 14 et 15 juin 2024

Lieu : Campus de Montréal de l’Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (625 avenue du Président-Kennedy, 8e étage)

Organisé par : Université de Montréal, Concordia, Université du Québec à Montréal et Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue

Programme

International conference: “Leisure electronics and the emergence of video games” (University of Lausanne)

Leisure electronics and the emergence of video games

International conference: “Leisure electronics and the emergence of video games”

2 and 3 May 2024

On-site: in room Amphimax 414 on UNIL Campus, Lausanne, Switzerland
On-line: on Zoom and discord (links to come)

Co-organized by the GameLab UNIL-EPFL and the research project Confoederatio Ludens, with the support of the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lausanne

Conference program

DAY 1 – 2 May 2024

08:30 Welcoming and registration – in front of the conference room

09:00 Opening speech – Pierre-Yves Hurel & Sophie Bémelmans

09:30 OPENING KEYNOTE:

Alex Wade (Birmingham City University) – Genealogies of videogame production, consumption and distribution in the English Midlands (Online) – Moderator: Yannick Rochat

10:30 Coffee Break – in front of the conference room

10:45 PANEL 1: Local contexts – Moderator: Guillaume Guenat

  • A. Gabrielyan (Université de Lausanne) and T. Vaillancourt (University of Konstanz / Paris Nanterre) – The intermedial and cultural genealogy of Nu, Pogodi! in the USSR, or why a clone is not just a clone (On-site)
  • R. Seiwald (University of Birmingham) – Happy Birthday, Tetris! Tracing the Game’s History within a Genealogy of Ludic Practices (On-site)
  • M. Conrad (University St. Gallen) – United by Code: The Cultural Impact of BASIC as a Glocalized Coding Language for Gaming Communities in East and West Germany during the 1980s (On-site)

Continuer la lecture de International conference: “Leisure electronics and the emergence of video games” (University of Lausanne)

Call for papers: GAME-ON Conference 2024 (Bahçeşehir University, Istanbul)

GAME-ON Conference 2024 on Simulation and AI in Computer Games

September 9-11

Bahçeşehir University, Istanbul

Call for papers

The aim of the 25TH annual European GAME-ON® Conference (GAME-ON®’2024) on Simulation and AI in Computer Games, is to bring together researchers and game developers in order to exchange ideas on programming and programming techniques, which will be beneficial to the gaming industry and academia. Secondly it aims to steer young people into this industry by providing how-to tutorials and giving them the opportunity to show their ideas and demos to the gaming industry.

The conference will concentrate mostly on the programming of games, with special emphasis on simulation, AI and fuzzy sets, and physics related computer graphics. Next to that, all of this will be fused in the topic of computer game design in stand-alone and networked games. Software providers will be able to show their latest packages and give hand-on tutorials for the participants.

Companies will also have the opportunity to seek new talent at this unique event.

GAME-ON®’2024 consists of five core tracks (Game Design, Game Play and Game Applications) subdivided into a number of suptopics, which cover, Gaming Methodology, Game Theory, Gamification, Artificial Intelligence and Simulation, Game design linked topics, like 3-D scalability, facial and skeletal animation, 3D in-game animation etc, Mobile Gaming and Gaming Applications such as Serious games and Gamification in different sectors; Organizational issues when implementing games; Designing games for learning; Technologies, tools and platforms for developing games for learning; Games to teach arts, science, or business; Social and collaborative aspects of game-based learning; Multi-modal aspects of game-based learning (e.g. audio, augmented reality, virtual reality, etc); Motivational aspects of game-based learning, Board Games, Deep Learning Evolutionary (Genetic) approaches combined with Deep Learning. Procedural Generation, Real-Time Ray-Tracing (RTRT), Real-Time Path-Tracing (RTPT), Hybrid Rendering and Mesh Shaders. Continuer la lecture de Call for papers: GAME-ON Conference 2024 (Bahçeşehir University, Istanbul)