20-22.11
CEEGS26
WARSAW
POLAND
CEEGS 2026 in Warsaw
CEEGS, the Central and Eastern European Games Studies Conference, is the annual conference of the DiGRA Central and Eastern Europe chapter dedicated to exploring various aspects of games, including digital, analog, and hybrid formats, as well as the cultural and social contexts in which they exist. CEEGS aims to promote and advance game research, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe. With a decade-long presence in game studies, CEEGS has established itself as an inclusive and internationally-minded platform, welcoming researchers, academics, and professionals from Europe, North America, and Asia.
This year’s conference will take place in Warsaw, organized by the University of Warsaw in collaboration with Sustainable TRAnsiTion for Europe’s Game IndustrIES (STRATEGIES)
IMPORTANT DATES
Submissions Deadline: 14 February 2026
Notification of Acceptance: 30 April 2026
Workshops proposals: 30 May 2026
Registration Opens: 15 June 2026
Conference Dates: 20-22 November 2026
CEEGS 2026 CALL FOR PAPERS
Digital Earths | Material Realities: Sustainability of/in Video Games
As we navigate the complexities of the Anthropocene, the relationship between play, technology, and the environment has become a critical focal point for scholars, designers, and players alike. Video games are not merely escapes from reality: they are complex systems that model, simulate, and comment upon our ecological existence. Even more critically, the medium itself is deeply embedded in the material world, reliant on global supply chains, energy consumption, and hardware lifecycles.
“Digital Earths | Material Realities” invites scholars and researchers to explore the manifold intersections between game studies and ecology. We seek to investigate how games represent natural environments and how game mechanics reinforce or challenge extractive ideologies, as well as to consider the material footprint of the gaming industry itself.
From the lush, digital wilderness of open-world RPGs to the resource management game mechanics and from the carbon footprint of cloud gaming to the rise of solarpunk narratives, the conference seeks proposals that illuminate the ways in which games shape our understanding of the climate crisis and its attendant concepts of sustainability, ecocriticism, and ecology.
We welcome submissions from a wide variety of disciplines, including game studies, media ecology, environmental humanities, sociology, and design. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
god games and geo-engineering
(anti)colonial ecologies
carbon footprint of cloud gaming, streaming, and server farms
indie / slow games as eco-design practices, as well as low-poly/low-spec games
systems of extraction and game mechanics
virtual photography and digital nature tourism
ecocriticism and close readings of environmental narratives in video games
aesthetics of the “digital sublime”: rendering nature, weather, and flora
post-apocalyptic vs. solarpunk: (e)utopian and dystopian ecological futures
animals, plants, and non-human actors in game worlds
green game mechanics
environmental impact of the games industry: e-waste, planned obsolescence, and hardware lifecycles
serious games and gamification for climate action
eco-activism within gaming communities
sustainability in game production
extractivism in game worlds (terraforming, land&resource grabs: how games reproduce or challenge colonial ways)
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
All CEEGS 2026 papers in the main program must contain original research work and should be submitted as abstracts of approximately 500 words (400 words minimum and 600 words maximum), preferably in .docx format. Each submission needs to be accompanied by a list of references cited within the abstract, which do not count towards the word limit.
To submit an abstract, you will need to create an account (or use an existing account) in the CMT system. Please click here to submit. In CMT, your abstract and references will need to be entered as plain text in the field provided.
All papers will undergo a peer review process by at least two expert reviewers to ensure a high standard of quality, considering originality, soundness of method and/or argument, clarity of exposition, and relevance to the conference’s thematic areas. For this reason, please remember to anonymize your submission.
A single author may submit multiple abstracts, but will only be allowed to present a maximum of one single-authored and one co-authored paper (or two co-authored papers). The Doctoral Consortium and workshops do not count into this limit. Details for DC will follow.
If you have questions about the review process, please contact the Program Chair: Agata Waszkiewicz, agata.waszkiewicz@kul.pl.
CEEGS has a long tradition of inspiring workshops, meant mainly to present and discuss work-in-progress research. Workshops will take place on the first day of the conference. Workshops can be proposed by May 30, 2026. If you want to propose a workshop, please contact Przemysław Kordos, pkordos@al.uw.edu.pl.
On-site participation only (no hybrid form).
ORGANIZING COMMITTEES
PROGRAM COMMITTEE
Agata Waszkiewicz, agata.waszkiewicz@kul.pl
Andrei Nae
Kübra Aksay
Zsofia Orosz-Reti
The Microsoft CMT service was used for managing the peer-reviewing process for this conference. This service was provided for free by Microsoft and they bore all expenses, including costs for Azure cloud services as well as for software development and support.