DiGRA 2024 will take place in Guadalajara, Mexico, 1–5 July 2024. A pre-conference will be held on the first day of the conference, on Monday 1st of July, together with a PhD Consortium and Workshops.
We are happy to announce the second edition of the DiGRA Solidarity Fund! The fund is meant for providing scholars from less privileged countries with means to travel to the DiGRA international conference which will be held in Sevilla 19-23 June 2023. Last year we provided travel funding for 5 scholars to attend the conference in Krakow. With a slightly increased budged we are aiming at providing travel funding for the same, or higher number of scholars this year.
Digital Games Research Conference
The Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) has as a central goal the support of an international conference on digital gaming. Eleven conferences have taken place, with two more already planned for 2023 and 2024. This document is a call for proposals for a committee and location to host the 2025 and 2026 DiGRA international games research conferences. Proposals for conference hosting in 2027 beyond are also welcome.
Proceedings are now published on a temporary address, http://digra.org:9998/.
The temporary proceedings contain links to non-existing papers when the authors of the paper did not submit a camera-ready version of the paper.
The proceedings will move to the digital library when we roll out a new version of the digital library software.
Dear colleagues,
It is my great pleasure to announce DiGRA Korea!
The DiGRA KR chapter is at the forefront of advancing the field of game studies in South Korea, while also fostering a collaborative environment with the global game studies community. The chapter was founded in December 2022 by a group of distinguished members, including Tae-Jin Yoon, Dal-Yong Jin, Kyounil Kim, Yaewon Jin, Bora Na, Jung-Yeop Lee, and Veli-Matti Karhulahti, along with esteemed affiliated organizations such as YEGER, TGSI, and the Game Culture Foundation. The proposal was met with great enthusiasm and was officially accepted by the DiGRA board in January 2023.
DiGRA KR invites game researchers, scholars, students, industry professionals, and grassroots participants in South Korea to join the chapter and actively engage in the dynamic discourse surrounding game studies. Additionally, the chapter extends its invitation to worldwide researchers and industry members who share a passion for South Korean games and gaming culture. With a commitment to exploring novel approaches to game studies, DiGRA KR aims to cultivate a vibrant community of scholars and industry professionals dedicated to advancing the field of game studies in South Korea and beyond.
Goals of the Chapter
Current Board Members (Alphabetical Order)
Bora Na | Postdoc Researcher, University of Jyväskylä
ByungKyu Kim | Adjunct Professor, Seoul National University, School of Law
Deukwoo Lee | Professor, Chungkang College of Cultural Industries
Jongyoon Lee | Department Manager, Nexon Korea Government Relationship & Policy Dept.
JyungYeop Lee | Associate Professor, Soonchunhyang University
Kun-Woo Park | Professor, Korea University, College of Medicine
Kyoungil Kim | Professor, Aju University, Department of Psychology
Minseok Kwon | Division Director, Netmarble Corp. Policy Division
Philsoo Shin | Head of CR, Krafton, Inc. Corporate Relations Dept.
Shin-Kyu Kang | Research Fellow, Korea Broadcast Advertising Corporation, Media & Advertising Research Institute
Solip Park | Doctoral researcher at Aalto University
Tae-Jin Yoon | Professor, Yonsei University, Graduate School of Communication and Arts
Yaewon Jin | Principal Researcher, The Game-n-Science Institute
Contact
Email: digrakr@tgsi.or.kr
Discord: https://discord.gg/zaZF3Raw
Phone: +82 2 586 3740
Website : http://tgsi.or.kr/content/
The theme of the conference will be Limits and Margins of Games, exploring games as interstitial spaces between disparate realities.
The negotiation of limits and margins is a fundamental component of play which has been discussed regularly, from foundational approaches of the study of games and play to more contemporary ones. DiGRA 2023 aims to continue expanding this discussion with debates that take into account recent developments in society, technology, and gaming industries, such as underground and countercultural game-making, the consolidation of VR as a gaming platform, the decentralisation of player communities, the interlacing between games and politics, and the changes in digital culture caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, to name a few. These events challenge the traditional theoretical framework of game studies as a discipline and call for new conversations.
Margins and limits are, by their very own nature, nebulous and hard to define. They accommodate conflicts for the social imaginary where matters of culture, race, gender, and social class are articulated. These spaces can be material or symbolic, from conceptions of the Global South, citizenship, and censorship to ideas about community, belonging, and representation.
By limits we understand the moving zone in which the materiality of play and games is manifested. This includes, but is not limited to, the ontology of games, the aesthetics of games and play, games as media, game genres, virtual reality experiences, and games and new social realities.
By margins we understand the emergent practices in light of a changing environment under continuous transformation. This includes, but is not limited to, queer practices in games, playing with sexuality, the hegemony of play, game developments in the periphery, identity/identification through play, games as texts, and flaneurism, contemplation, and archaeogaming.
We would like to encourage scholarly reflection on all those diverse ways in which games act as spaces of possibility between disparate realities. Possible themes can include:
With the theme of Limits and Margins of Games, DiGRA 2023 makes space for an interdisciplinary critical debate around a plethora of interconnected topics, inviting a diversity of voices and perspectives. As games continue to grow and playful practices continue to shape both dominant and resisting forces in society, game studies must keep looking at the margins and limits not only of its objects of study, but of itself as a discipline. This creates potentials for interdisciplinary exchange, methodical variety, and multifaceted critique. DiGRA 2023 welcomes contributions on different game formats, expressions, and phenomena both related to digital and non-digital games.
The submissions are invited into six tracks:
There will be several special events associated with the conference, including a PhD Consortium. It will beorganised on the pre-conference day, and it will allow PhD students to discuss key issues, benefit from peer support, and seek feedback from experienced scholars. It will provide opportunities for further development of research skills that will be of help to emerging scholars in achieving their academic goals.
To submit your proposal, please apply directly through EasyChair: https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=digra2023
The organisers also accept thematic workshop proposals (see submission guidelines below).
DiGRA was established by an international group of scholars in Tampere, Finland, after the Computer Games and Digital Cultures conference that took place in 2002. Since then, it has continued to grow, including the establishment of many regional chapters in different parts of the world.
To submit your proposal, please apply directly through EasyChair: https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=digra2023
Proposals other than workshop proposals sent to the DiGRA email address will not be considered.
We are looking forward to welcoming the game studies community to Sevilla in June 2023!
We welcome a range of contributions to DiGRA 2023: full papers, extended abstracts, panel and doctoral consortium participation, and workshop proposals.
Full papers and extended abstracts will be peer-reviewed, published on the conference website, and published in the conference proceedings available via open-access through the DiGRA Digital Library: http://www.digra.org/digital-library. Panel proposals will be peer-reviewed and published on the conference website but will not be included in the conference proceedings published through the DiGRA Digital Library. Workshop proposals will be selected by the conference organisers based on non-anonymous submissions.
All except workshop submissions should be made via EasyChair. Workshop proposals should be sent directly to the conference email: heylisten@digra2023.org.
Authors are asked to direct questions to the program chairs: Marcelo Simão de Vasconcellos (marcelodevasconcellos@gmail.com), Tanja Sihvonen (tanja.sihvonen@uwasa.fi), and Víctor Navarro-Remesal (vnavarro@tecnocampus.cat).
Full papers are expected to be 5000-7000 words plus references, submitted as an anonymized PDF on DiGRA 2023 Submission Template. Submissions must be original, which means that they have not been published or are not under peer review elsewhere.
Full papers are peer-reviewed publications of original game studies research, presenting mature, complete research. Authors must present accepted full papers at the DiGRA conference. Accepted manuscripts will appear in the Proceedings of the 2023 DiGRA International Conference, which is published in the open access DiGRA Digital Library.
The suggested length for an extended abstract is 500-800 words, with a maximum of 1000 words, excluding references (only key references should be included), submitted as an anonymised PDF using the DiGRA 2023 Submission Template. Give a short description in the abstract field of the conference management system, but there is no need for extended abstracts to contain an abstract.
The purpose of an extended abstract is to demonstrate a contribution interesting to DiGRA audiences. An extended abstract might describe a study or research program that is underway but might also describe a pending program of research. It might outline findings, or it might establish and discuss a research question. It might describe the study’s method or methodology, or it might focus on outcomes and results. It might describe work that is planned, work that is in progress, or work that has been completed.
Accepted extended abstracts will appear in open access DiGRA Digital Library.
Selection for the PhD consortium will be based on an extended abstract based on an ongoing PhD research project, with a maximum of 1000 words, excluding references (see Extended Abstract guidelines, above). They should be submitted to PhD Consortium track, as NON-anonymised PDF, with a short description in the abstract field of the conference management system (there is no need for a doctoral consortium application to have an abstract).
Submissions must use the DiGRA 2023 Submission Template.
A panel session will typically occupy a single conference session and have a duration of 80 to 90 minutes. Panel proposals should have a maximum length of 1000 words, excluding references, plus a 100-word biography of each participant. They should include: the focus or topic of the panel, a description of why the topic will be of interest or relevant to DiGRA attendees, a list of confirmed participants, and a description of their background and expertise.
Panel proposals will be peer-reviewed.Panels should be submitted as PDFs on DiGRA 2023 Submission Template
The conference workshops are three to six hours long sessions focused on a particular game-related topic. Workshops provide an opportunity for new ideas, theories, and trends to be presented and discussed. Workshops can also be practical tutorials.
Concise workshop proposals of no more than 1000 words (excluding bibliography) should include major objectives and expected outcomes of the workshop, the justification for the workshop informed by current trends and research, the format and activities planned for the workshop, the organisers’ background, the anticipated number of participants, and the way they will be selected.
Please note that the submission should NOT be anonymous as the organisers’ background is very important in the decision-making process for workshops.
Submit workshop proposals directly by email to heylisten@digra2023.org by 30 January 2023.
Authors cannot submit more than two papers and/or extended abstracts to DiGRA 2023, including PhD Consortium submissions. An individual can be co-authors on as many full papers and extended abstracts as they like but cannot submit more than two as main author/presenter. If the limit is exceeded, only the two first submissions will be reviewed.The limit does not include participation in panels or workshops.
For more details about the conference, visit the website: https://digra2023.org/
Nordic DiGRA (Digital Games Research Association) invites research contributions in the form of extended abstracts which will be peer reviewed for quality and suitability to the theme. We accept deviations from the format as well as creative interpretations (such as panels, workshops and demos). The conference will be a fully in-person event in Uppsala, Sweden, on 27–28 April 2023.
We invite contributions from within and across any discipline committed to advancing knowledge on games. The conference theme this year, Interdisciplinary embraces, speaks to the multidisciplinary nature of the field of games research. We ask for extended abstracts in a first round, all accepted speakers will be invited to submit full papers for a special issue in the Transactions of the Digital Games Research Association (ToDiGRA) journal. This will be subject to a second round of peer-review.
The conference is organised at the Department for Informatics and Media, Unit for Human-Computer Interaction, at Uppsala University and supported by The Centre for Digital Humanities, Uppsala University and the Centre for Integrated Research on Culture and Society (CIRCUS), Uppsala University.
The deadline for research contributions is 18 November 2022. Nov 25 2022.
See you in Uppsala in 2023!
Full CFP: https://www.im.uu.se/nordicdigra2023/call-for-research-contributions/
Due to a range of unavoidable circumstances, including issues created by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico, the 2022 DiGRA International Conference will not able to be held in Guadalajara, Mexico this year. While this is deeply disappointing, it is not entirely surprising.
Fortunately we have been able to identify a new venue, and I can now share details for our new plans.
The event will be held on July 7 -11 in Krakow, Poland, hosted by Jagiellonian University. The conference website has been updated with information about registration fees, travel and accommodation options (and other topics) here: http://digra2022.org.
A poll of our membership indicates that, currently, about 60% of the respondents intend to travel and 40% plan on participating remotely. Fortunately, the hosting team at Jagiellonian University has experience managing hybrid events, and those unable to travel should will be able to present their work and participate in the conference.
Although submissions are closed, we understand that many who had papers accepted at the cancelled 2020 Tampere event did not resubmit their papers to be presented this year. If you had a paper accepted in 2020 and have not resubmitted it for presentation this year, resubmissions are now open. These papers do not go through additional peer review: you would automatically be given a place in a session to present your work. You would still need to pay appropriate registration fees: these papers have already been distributed in the proceedings for the previous conference, so they will not be added to this year’s proceedings, but the former remain available for download from the digital library.
Many of the workshops scheduled for Guadalajara have been rescheduled for Krakow, and more will be added soon. Workshop organizers have been contacted by the local organizing committee and should have updated information about submission deadlines.
We wish to personally thank Tomasz Majkowski and his team at Jagiellonian University for this remarkable feat, while also sharing our appreciation for all the work of the Guadalajara organizing committee so far: We will be hearing more DiGRA news from Mexico in the future and hope that we will be able to meet there someday soon. In the meantime, here’s looking forward to seeing each other in Krakow this summer.
Update: new submission deadline is October 31!
DiGRA 2022 will take place in Guadalajara, Mexico from April 25th – 29th 2022. A pre-conference will be held one day prior to the official beginning of the conference.
The theme of the upcoming DiGRA 2022 is Bringing Worlds Together, exploring games as spaces of speculative possibility, ambiguity and liminality.
Game studies have always considered games – especially digital ones – hybrid forms, able to combine various cultural phenomena to create liminoid spaces of uncertain ontology. The tradition to perceive games through interferences, uneasy alliances, disturbing dissonances or outright conflicts is rich. Diverse worlds, literally and metaphorically, collide at play: technological infrastructures, cultural practices, political, ethical, aesthetic and ontological dimensions. These can manifest in a variety of research focus points, including the way physical body of the player is merged with the electronic components of the machine and the digital space; the collision of the fictive narrative and real ruleset, governing the way fiction can unfold; the tension between global production regimes and vernacular resistance practices; or the circulation of camaraderie and oppression in player communities. But above all, games are always embedded within broader existing value systems. They can reflect those or challenge their status quo, paving new ways of becoming in the world.
The past months of the worldwide pandemic have also shown the capacity of games and play to literally bring remote worlds together, whether as practices of intimate socialization otherwise hindered by lock-downs and physical isolation, spaces of political resistance or products of increased consumption able to distract from long hours of boredom.
We would like to encourage scholarly reflection on all those diverse ways in which games bring different worlds together. Possible themes can include:
With the theme of ““Bringing Worlds Together”, DiGRA 2022 makes space for an interdisciplinary critical debate around related questions, inviting a diversity of voices. As mainstream phenomena around games and play grow, so do approaches and tactics at the margin of games culture. This creates potentials for interdisciplinary exchange, methodical variety, and multifaceted critique. DiGRA 2022 welcomes contributions on different game formats, expressions, and phenomena both related to digital and non-digital games.
The submissions are invited into seven tracks:
There will be several special events associated with the conference, including a PhD Consortium. It will be organized on the pre-conference conference day, this event will allow PhD students to discuss key issues and seek feedback from experienced scholars. It will provide opportunities for further development of research skills that will be of help to emerging scholars in achieving their academic goals.
More thematic workshops can be proposed to the organisers (see submission guidelines below).
The submissions will be handled via the EasyChair system at: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=digra2022
More information will be updated into the conference website: http://digra2022.org
We are looking forward to welcoming game studies community to Guadalajara in April 2022!
We welcome a range of contributions to DiGRA 2022: full papers, extended abstracts, panel and doctoral consortium participation, and workshop proposals.
Full papers and extended abstracts will be peer-reviewed, published on the conference website and published in the conference proceedings available via open-access through the DiGRA Digital Library: http://www.digra.org/digital-library. Panel proposals will be peer-reviewed and published on the conference website, but will not be included in the conference proceedings published through the DiGRA Digital Library. Workshop proposals will be selected by the conference organizers based on non-anonymous submissions.
All except workshop submissions should be made via EasyChair. Workshop proposals should be sent directly to the conference email.
Authors are asked to direct questions to the program chairs: Sonia Fizek (fizek.sonia@gmail.com), Marcelo Simão de Vasconcellos (marcelodevasconcellos@gmail.com) and Tomasz Z. Majkowski (tzmajkowski@gmail.com).
Full papers are expected to be 5000 – 7000 words plus references, submitted as an anonymized pdf on DiGRA Submission Template. Submissions must be original, which means that they have not been published or are under peer review elsewhere.
Full papers are peer-reviewed publications of original game studies research, presenting mature, complete research. Authors must present accepted full papers at the DiGRA conference. Accepted manuscripts will appear in the Proceedings of the 2019 DiGRA International Conference, which is published in the open access DiGRA Digital Library.
The suggested length for an extended abstract is 500-800 words, with a maximum of 1000 words, excluding references (only key references should be included), submitted as an anonymized pdf using the DiGRA Submission Template. Give a short description in the abstract field of the conference management system, but there is no need for extended abstracts to contain an abstract.
The purpose of an extended abstract is to demonstrate a contribution interesting to DiGRA audiences. An extended abstract might describe a study or research program that is underway, but might also describe a pending program of research. It might outline findings, or it might establish and discuss a research question. It might describe the study’s method or methodology, or it might focus on outcomes and results. It might describe work that is planned, work that is in progress, or work that has been completed.
Accepted extended abstracts will appear in open access DiGRA Digital Library.
Selection for the PhD consortium will be based on an extended abstract based on an ongoing PhD research project, with a maximum of 1000 words, excluding references (see Extended Abstract guidelines, above). They should be submitted to PhD Consortium track, as NON-anonymized pdf, with a short description in the abstract field of the conference management system (there is no need for a doctoral consortium application to have an abstract).
Submissions must use the DiGRA 2022 submission template.
A panel session will typically occupy a single conference session and have a duration of 80 to 90 minutes. Panel proposals should have a maximum length of 1000 words, excluding references, plus a 100 word biography of each participant. They should include: the focus or topic of the panel; a description of why the topic will be of interest or relevant to DiGRA attendees; a list of confirmed participants and a description of their background and expertise. Panel proposals will be peer-reviewed.
Panels should be submitted as pdfs on DiGRA Submission Template (optional).
The conference workshops are three to six hours long sessions focused on a particular game-related topic. Workshops provide an opportunity for new ideas, theories and trends to be presented and discussed. Workshops can also be practical tutorials.
Concise workshop proposals of no more than 1000 words (excluding bibliography) should include major objectives and expected outcomes of the workshop, the justification for the workshop informed by current trends and research, the format and activities planned for the workshop, the organizers’ background, the anticipated number of participants and the way they will be selected.
Please note that the submission should not be anonymous as the organizers’ background is very important in the decision-making process for workshops.
Submit workshop proposals directly by email to info@digra2022.org by 15 November 2021.
All Full papers and Extended Abstracts accepted to be presented during DiGRA 2020, are eligible for re-submission in track 7: Accepted for DiGRA 2020 Tampere (regardless of the original track for 2020). As they were already peer-reviewed, submit non-anonymized, camera-ready pdf using DiGRA Submission Template. Mark the original track they were accepted for in the submission form.
All submissions in this track will be checked regarding their eligibility (2020 review result, and the status of DiGRA membership fee for 2020) and moved directly to the DiGRA 2022 program, without additional reviews and other considerations.
Remember, all submissions in track 1-6 will be peer-reviewed regardless of their 2020 status. If you wish to undergo the review process once more, you are welcome to submit an anonymized version to one of those tracks.
Authors cannot submit more than two papers and/or extended abstracts at DiGRA 2020, including PhD Consortium submissions. An individual can be co-authors on as many full papers and extended abstracts as they like, but cannot submit more than two as main author/presenter. If the limit is exceeded, only the two first submissions will be reviewed.
The limit does not include participation in panels or workshops. The limit does include submissions,from DiGRA 2020, though.
For more details about the conference, visit the website: digra2022.org
The Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) is pleased to announce the official launch of its Ombuds Team, an organizational ombuds program linked here, and its Code of Conduct, linked here.
Both of these efforts are intended to support DiGRA’s ongoing commitment to ensuring the organization and conference are welcoming, supportive, and safe space for scholars from many disciplines, countries, and communities. The Code of Conduct is a guide for professional behavior in DiGRA, and members are expected to conduct themselves according to its standards. The Ombuds is a service that will be available to all DiGRA members at any time before, during, and after the international conference each year, in accordance with the Code of Conduct.
The Ombuds Team is a confidential, informal, neutral, and independent resource for DiGRA community members, as well as conference and listserv participants (referred to as visitors), to safely discuss any concerns they may have related to the behaviors, activities, and events of DiGRA. The only (unlikely) exception to Ombuds confidentiality is if a visitor presents a risk of imminent harm to themselves or someone else, in which case the Ombuds must report it to law enforcement and the DiGRA Executive Board.
Conversations with the Ombuds Team are considered confidential, offering a safe place for people to discuss their concerns, understand all sides of an issue, and explore their options. They are independent of the Executive Board, and will not share any identifiable information unless given explicit permission to do so by the visitor. The Ombuds Team does not serve in any formal or official reporting function. Likewise, the ombuds will not have the responsibility nor authority to investigate any issues raised or take any punitive actions.
The Ombuds can bring issues to leadership’s attention without any attribution, thereby serving as an independent voice. Ombuds do not advocate for any particular individual or group, instead, they advocate for fair processes and provide feedback on systemic trends. Instead, The Ombuds Team uses anonymous, aggregated data, so as to not breach the confidentiality of people using its services and to provide DiGRA with feedback, insights, and recommendations on systemic issues relating to the conference or DiGRA. The Ombuds follow the generally accepted standards of ombuds practice as espoused by the International Ombudsman Association (Found here: https://www.ombudsassociation.org/standards-of-practice-code-of-ethics-2 ). These standards define and guide all of their work, and also differentiate them from other functions.
For further information about the DiGRA Ombuds Team and the role of ombuds, please consult the FAQ.
To contact the DiGRA Ombuds Team, you can e-mail digra-ombuds@outlook.com. All e-mails are sent to a confidential inbox that is only accessible to the Ombuds. Please allow one (1) business day for them to respond.
If you have questions or concerns, you can also contact the DiGRA Executive Board at board@digra.org, or the Diversity Working Group at digra-diversity@googlegroups.com. The current DiGRA Diversity Officer is Cody Mejeur, they can be reached at codymeje@buffalo.edu.
