2023年5月25日，由国际传播学会（ICA）游戏研究分会主办的第73届年会前会“游戏与传播的未来”（Games and the (Playful) Future of Communication）将在多伦多大学密西沙加校区举行。

如果说媒介研究的未来是游戏研究，那么我们是否可以在传播领域作同样的判断？本次会议将汇集学界和业界专家，共同就游戏、媒介与传播研究的交叉性进行分享与讨论。来稿可以关注如下议题：传播政治经济中的游戏和玩家、对通过游戏技术和玩家社群而进行的大数据、人工智能和算法控制的批判、文化生产平台化中的游戏和玩家、传播与文化政策中的游戏，以及作为更广泛的心理、社会和传播现象的游戏案例研究，等等。

摘要提交截止日期：2023年1月25日

ICA Game Studies Division Preconference:

Games and the (Playful) Future of Communication

Date: May 25, 2023

Location: University of Toronto: Mississauga

Fee: $75

Submission deadline: January 25, 2023

While recent publications have declared that “the future of media studies is game studies” (Chess & Consalvo, 2022), can the same be said in the field of communications? Games have a long tradition within the discipline, with ties to cybernetics and psychological concepts ranging from “meta-communication” to flow. The medium of games has also firmly embedded itself into a vast array of communications fields: journalists, politicians, public relations and advertising professionals, and even educators all turn to games, not to mention their omnipresence in popular culture and heavy integration in mobile devices and other technologies.

Beyond this, games provide invaluable insight into past, contemporary, and future cultural, psychological, and economic concerns. Conversations about virtual worlds (e.g., the metaverse), toxicity and harassment (e.g., trolls; QAnon), screen time, and “Zoom fatigue” all find traction within the ambit of games. They are focal points for debates regarding violence and gender, online cultures, labor, and technological innovation. And there are even those who question whether this subfield should remain a separate area of study at all (e.g., Gekker, 2021).

This preconference aims to bridge disciplinary divides and emphasize collaboration by bringing together practitioners and scholars whose work highlights the intersection of game, media, and communication studies; showcases novel approaches to these fields; and imagines a future research agenda that brings together diverse objects of study, methodologies, and theories. Our goal is to both open issues surrounding games to wider fields (and vice versa) and to showcase how game studies can act as vital testing grounds for issues of culture and society.  We also aim to draw a wide range of scholars and practitioners, especially those who are junior and emerging, those whose work has not found a clear disciplinary home or just lightly addresses games and play, and those who want to explore what games and play means for communications. In this way, we seek to foster interdisciplinary connections and open up conversations around what game studies has been and can be.

Taking place at the University of Toronto: Mississauga, home of the Syd Bolton video game collection with over 14,000 titles and 5,000 magazines, this preconference will also be an opportunity to draw as much from the past connections between games and communications as the present and the future. We are particularly interested in work from graduate students and early career scholars, as they represent the future of this field. If you’re unsure if your topic would work for our preconference, please reach out to us!

References

Chess, S., & Consalvo, M. (2022). The future of media studies is game studies. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 39(3), 159-164.

Gekker, A. (2021). Against game studies. Media and Communication, 9(1), 73-83.

Topics might include (but are not limited to!):

-       Games (and their players) in political economies of communication

-       Critiques of Big Data, AI & algorithmic control via gaming technologies and player communities

-       Methodologies (and critiques thereof) to studying games within/against communication studies

-       Games and players in the platformization of cultural production

-       Intersectional feminist game studies approaches to communication studies research

-       Globalization and colonial power as circulated (and critiqued) in game productions, player communities, and ludic practices

-       Games in communications and cultural policy

-       Close analyses of game content, production practices, or game culture/fandom

-       Examinations of software/tools/app design and infrastructure in games

-       Discussions of inclusivity and diversity that take up games as case studies and cautionary tales

-       Research-creation and media practices grounded in technologies and social practices of player cultures

-       Games as case studies/examples of broader psychological, social, and communicative phenomena.

Types of Submissions (abstracts only):

-       Research papers

-       Theoretical papers

-       Pedagogical works (e.g., teaching about/with games)

-       Short papers / roundtable presentations

-       Panel proposals

-       Industry presentations

-       Creative submissions

-       Research-in-progress showcases

-       Games-in-progress showcases

How to Submit: Please email anonymized abstract submissions of no more than 1,000 words in length (inclusive of references) as a PDF attachment to icagamespreconf2023@gmail.com and include your name, role/title (i.e., independent scholar, graduate student, postdoc, assistant professor, etc.), affiliation/institution if you have one, and preferred email address in the body of the email. In the subject line please indicate submission type (e.g., Theory Paper, Creative Submission, etc.).

Submissions may be organized into themed panels outside of submission type.

Deadline for Submission: January 25, 2023