Much of the recent history of game studies, both in Central/Eastern Europe and elsewhere, has been invested in the construction of the field’s unique identity that sharply distinguishes it from other disciplines. Between the narratology/ludology wars of the early 21st century, the debates of the artistic status of the medium, and the predictions of cultural dominance in the years to come, game critics have devoted an extraordinary amount of discursive energy to firmly establishing the singularity of their medium, often with fervency that is both understandable given the relative youthfulness of the medium and autarkic in its overprotectiveness against incursions by scholars from other fields.
But now, the number of dedicated academic journals can already be counted in tens; the number of book volumes and conferences in hundreds; and the number of articles and reviews in thousands. The field has several vibrant academic associations and communities, boasts numerous links with the industry whose sales revenues rival Hollywood’s box office, and has been officially canonized in academia following the creation of degree and research programs at numerous universities in Asia, Europe, and North America. In fact, critics have started to emphasize the influence games have had on other media, such as film and television, while popularisers like Jane McGonigal have been preaching the gospel of universal gamification. It is now safe to open the gates and start trading again – the conference co-hosted by the auspiciously-named Centre for the Meeting of Cultures is an apt opportunity for this.
For this year’s conference, we are thus primarily interested in rediscovering older and forging new links with other disciplines, media, cultural forms, and practices. We invite participants to address how approaches, theories, and concepts borrowed from other frameworks and apparatuses can be applied to and in the study of games; to seek new bridges between games and other cultural forms and practices; and to reflect how game theories can reinvigorate discussions of film or literature. While we do not wish to re-tread the well-blazed paths of games’ connectivity to other forms and conceptions of play or reiterate the usefulness of traditional literary theories in interpreting some game narratives, we also believe that there are numerous intersections between the gaming medium and other cultural domains that have thus far received little or no critical attention.
Possible topics and angles include but are not limited to:
- bridges between the study of games and literary studies, visual studies, and media studies (film studies, television studies, etc.);
- transactions between game studies and art history;
- game archaeology and the medium’s roots in earlier media;
- narrative, philosophical, and aesthetic theories that have not been applied to games in any systematic manner;
- not-games, game-like constructs, and border texts that defy traditional game definitions;
- inspirations, influences, and borrowings, both thematic and formal, from other cultural forms and practices;
- diversity of gaming communities, cultures, practices, and histories;
- relationships between game genres and traditional genre systems;
- bridges between games and previously unexplored or largely unexplored media and practices, such as photography, radio, or theatre and ballet;
- two-way transactions between games and the world of advertising and marketing;
- transmedia texts in which games constitute integral (not passively adaptive) elements;
- avant-garde, art, and museum games;
- the ways in which game theories can reinvigorate the experience and study of other cultural forms and practices;
- game histories and their similarities to and differences from histories of other media;
- critiquing and teaching strategies borrowed from other fields.
Learn more here.