DiGRA 2007 First Circular

We, the DiGRA 2007 Local Organizing Committee, are happy to announce that the third DiGRA (Digital Games Research Association) international conference will be held in Tokyo, Japan in September 2007. Scholars of digital games from around the world are encouraged to submit a paper and to participate in the conference. Held in the world capital of videogames, this conference will be an event that no game studies scholar can afford to miss. We are working hard for DiGRA 2007 to be truly special.

The theme of this conference is Situated Play. Game play does not take place in vacuum. For play to be possible, certain social, cultural, economic, and technological conditions need to converge. Digital games, therefore, require truly diverse approaches to illuminate their extremely multi-faceted nature. The goal of this conference is to shed more light on these various kinds of situatedness of games. In particular, the conference aims to bridge professionally and geographically diverse scholars and practitioners. We therefore welcome panel proposals and papers that describe various facets regarding the situatedness of digital games and attempt to combine a range of approaches in innovative ways.

For our participants' convenience, the dates of the conference will be set close to the Tokyo Game Show so that participants can take advantage of both events. The selection of papers will be based on full papers instead of abstracts, and the deadline will be in February 2007. A second circular revealing more details about DiGRA 2007 will be issued in late May or early July.

We hope to see you in Tokyo!

- DiGRA 2007 Local Organizing Committee
Akira Baba (Chair), Kiyoshi Shin, Akinori Nakamura, Kenji Ito