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  • Call for Papers - Vol. 3 No. 1

    2024-02-12

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    Call for Papers IJGSI Vol. 3 No. 1

    The Challenges of Making Games for Contemporary Societies

    Guest Editor: Micael Sousa (CITTA, Departamento de Engenharia Civil, Universidade de Coimbra)

    Modern board games make people the centre of the game (Parlett, 1999). People play for several reasons, and social interactions and face-to-face togetherness are among the main reasons (Both, 2021). However, the game materiality and other game design elements make the game experiences engaging (Rogerson et al., 2016) and different from other playable media (Calleja, 2022). Game design is always evolving and responding to the players' needs. Societies are also changing, and individuals are looking for games from different experiences and perspectives (Martinho & Sousa, 2023). What are the challenges of designing and creating games for contemporary societies?

    The International Journal of Games and Social Impact (IJGSI) will have a special issue related to LeiriaTalks, an event within LeiriaCon, with the purpose of being a space for reflection on the broad social role of board games. For this purpose, we are accepting manuscripts that are related, not exclusively, to one or more of the following aspects:

    • Board game design research.
    • Board game players, profiles, societal dimensions and demographics.
    • Board game markets and economics. 
    • The potential social impact of board games
    • Board games in community development
    • Board games as a tool for social inclusion
    • Sustainable proposals for board games design and modding
    • Board games as a tool or strategy to promote change
    • Learning through board games
    • The accessibility of board games
    • Diversity and representation in the board games industry and community
    • New spaces and contexts for play
    • 'Serious' applications for commercial board games
    • Hybrid games or other mixed approaches

    Full papers must be submitted electronically after registering on the platform, respecting the guidelines established in the Submissions section.

    Publication Timeline
    Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere. All manuscripts are referred through a double-blind peer-review process. Dates are indicative.

    Submission deadline for full papers: 01-07-2024
    Notifications of reviews sent to authors: 30-07-2024
    Submission deadline for final full papers: 15-09-2024
    Publication of full papers in special issue: 01-01-2025

     

    References

    Booth, P. (2021). Board Games as Media. Bloomsbury Academic.

    Huizinga, J. (1980). Homo Ludens: a study of the play-element in culture. Routledge (Publicação Original 1944).

    Lorenzo, R. (2017). The Social Character of Contemporary Board Game Culture. The Phoenix Papers, 3(1), 69-77.

    Read more about Call for Papers - Vol. 3 No. 1

  • Call for Papers - Vol. 2 No. 2

    2024-01-15

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    Programmed to Love: Players and Virtual Lovers

    Guest Editor: Renata Ntelia (School of Computer Science, University of Lincoln)

    Games often offer their players strong emotional experiences. Love is a profound human experience that affects all aspects of our lives. Indeed, many games include love as part of their narrative and/or gameplay. Nevertheless, is this truly love? Unlike other media, in which the audience reads about or watches a love story unfold, in games players take on an active role on the execution of the love story.
    This raises concerns as to the ability of games to simulate love. Can a player love a (virtual) character? If not, what does this mean for the capacity of games to afford love? If yes, how does this change our understanding of love? Game Studies has approached the concept of love from multiple perspectives: philosophical enquiries (Leino 2015, Dicken 2018), game design challenges (Grace 2020), feminist and queer analyses (Salter 2020, Youngblood 2015), and sociological studies (Burgess and Jones 2020, Bopp et al. 2019, Karhulahti and Välisalo 2021). Yet, despite the multitude and resonance of the existing scholarship, love in games remains an underexplored and fascinating topic that interests both game players and creators alike.

    For this issue of IJGSI, we are accepting full papers that are related, not exclusively, with one or more of the following aspects:

    • Meaning of love in games
    • Love relationships between human players and NPCs
    • Representation and poetics of love in games
    • Queer and feminist approaches to game love
    • Close reading of games featuring love
    • Love as a mechanics and design challenge
    • History of love in games
    • Games as spaces for humans to fall in love
    • Roleplaying and love in games

    We welcome submissions relating to any type of game: digital, online, VR, tabletop, board games, LARP, etc.

    Full papers must be submitted electronically after registering on the platform, respecting the guidelines established in the Submissions section.

    Publication timeline
    Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere. All manuscripts are referred through a double-blind peer-review process. Dates are indicative.

    Submission deadline for full-papers: 01-06-2024, extended until 10-06-2024
    Notifications of reviews sent to authors: 30-07-2024
    Submission deadline for final full-papers:  05-09-2024
    Publication of full-papers in special issue: 01-10-2024

     

    Works Cited
    Bopp, J. A., Müller, L. J., Aeschbach, L. F., Opwis, K., & Mekler, E. D. (2019, October). Exploring emotional
    attachment to game characters. In Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human
    Interaction in Play (pp. 313-324).
    Burgess, J., & Jones, C. (2020). I harbour strong feelings for Tali despite her being a fictional character”:
    Investigating videogame players’ emotional attachments to non-player characters. Game Studies, 20(1).
    Dicken, L. (2018). Do Androids Dream of Electric Consent?. In Digital Love (pp. 267-275). AK Peters/CRC
    Press.
    Grace, L. D. (2020). Love and electronic affection: A design primer. CRC Press.
    Karhulahti, V. M., & Välisalo, T. (2021). Fictosexuality, fictoromance, and fictophilia: A qualitative study
    of love and desire for fictional characters. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 3693.
    Leino, O. T. (2015). I know your type, you are a player: Suspended Fulfillment in Fallout: New Vegas.
    Game Love: Essays on Play and Affection, 165-178.
    Salter, A. (2020). Plundered Hearts: Infocom, Romance, and the History of Feminist Game Design.
    Feminist Media Histories, 6(1), 66-92.
    Youngblood, J. (2015). Climbing the heterosexual maze: Catherine and queering spatiality in gaming.
    Rated m for mature: Sex and sexuality in video games, 240-252.

    Read more about Call for Papers - Vol. 2 No. 2

  • Call for Papers - Vol. 1 No. 2

    2023-01-19

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    Call for Papers IJGSI Vol. 1 No. 2

    Rethinking board games in contemporary societies

    Guest Editor: Micael Sousa (CITTA, Departamento de Engenharia Civil, Universidade de Coimbra)

    The idea of playing is older than culture itself, presenting a function that transcends physiological phenomena, to support human beings in the construction of interpretations and meanings (Huizinga, 1944/1980). Board games, in particular, have proven to be more than a form of escape from everyday life, but rather a mode of reproduction of its complex problems (Lorenzo, 2017), which can support important critical reflections. Moreover, and unlike a significant part of digital game communities, the board game community tends to be particularly inclusive, valuing diversity, associated with an industry receptive to feedback from those who play (Booth, 2021).

    For the second issue of the first volume of IJGSI, we are accepting talk proposals that are related, not exclusively, with one or more of the following aspects:

    • The potential social impact of board games
    • Board games in community development
    • Board games as a tool for social inclusion
    • Sustainable proposals for board games design and modding
    • Board games as a tool or strategy to promote change
    • Learning through board games
    • The accessibility of board games
    • Diversity and representation in the board games industry and community
    • New spaces and contexts for play
    • 'Serious' applications for commercial board games
    • Hybrid games or other mixed approaches

    Full papers must be sent to glow@ulusofona.pt, respecting the guidelines establishing in the Information for Authors section.

    The submission deadline is the 1st of June 2023.

    This special issue results from a partnership between the magazine and the event LeiriaTalks at LeiriaCon 2023. More information HERE.

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    Read more about Call for Papers - Vol. 1 No. 2