CALL FOR PAPERS
DiGRA 2019: Digital Games Research Association Conference
‘Game, Play and the Emerging Ludo Mix’
Ritsumeikan University
Kyoto, Japan
August 6 – 10, 2019
http://www.digra2019.org/
Submission deadlines:
- Full Papers, Abstracts, Panels, and Doctoral Consortium: February 5, 2019
- Workshops: April 8, 2019
Media mix (wasei-eigo, メディアミックス or ‘media mikkusu’) bears a particular meaning in Japanese popular culture originating from anime production and consumption in the 1960s. Similarly to cross-media, media convergence, and transmediality, it refers to ways of presenting, representing, and sharing content on different platforms and media allowing dynamic communication between them. Media mix is best seen as a commercial approach as it was conceived to improve advertising strategies through heavy reliance on characters. Of particular importance for media mix are Intellectual Properties that link together various media products and entertainment services across technologies and platforms from TV to toys and game arcades. Its anime origins also bring along a range of analogue formats and outlets as parts of media mix. Conventionally, digital games are seen as one of these possible outlets.
In DiGRA 2019, we invite contributors to consider the possibility of ‘ludo mix’ where games and play increasingly occupy the focal point of such a diversified distribution and consumption model. Ludo mixes may include several versions of a game or several different games together with other content thus resulting in novel media ecologies, business models, and development and consumption cultures.
Papers are invited to the following eight tracks:
GAMES SPECTATORSHIP
live events, LAN publics, esports spectatorship ecosystems, livestreaming and broadcasting practices, LetsPlays, player micro-celebrity cultures, research methods, non-player viewership, game design/platforms and audience, diversity and watching/playing, infrastructure and materialities of spectatorship, learning practices through watching
GAMES BUSINESS
game production, development cultures, design practices, monetization, funding, marketing, brands, merchandise, ancillary products, co-production, creative industries)
PHILOSOPHY AND CRITIQUE
analyzing across platforms and formats, close readings, ontologies and frameworks, historical studies, philosophical explorations, literary analysis
IP, LAW AND GAMES
humanities-informed approaches to legal aspects of making, selling, marketing, purchasing, consuming and co-creating games
MAKING SENSE OF PLAY AND PLAYERS
everyday play in the media mix, ethnography and microethnography, analytics, lived game cultures, ludic subjectivities, player-generated content, fans, virtual / actual domains of play, diverse players, demographics, humans and nonhumans in play
COMPUTER GAMES AND ARTISTIC EXPRESSION
ludo mix for art games and game art, computer games and playable media as means of artistic expression: case studies, theoretical and practical descriptions, designs, reflections, and evaluations
SERIOUS GAMES
applied games, learning in and around games, designing learning, knowledge gained through digital game play, serious game development and production
DOING GAMES RESEARCH
practices and methods of research, publication and teaching, regional practices and research cultures, institutional practices, games design research
Important Dates
Submission opens: December 5, 2018
Final submission deadline (Full Papers, Abstracts, Panels, and Doctoral Consortium): February 5, 2019
Acceptance/rejection notification (Full Papers, Abstracts, Panels, and Doctoral Consortium): March 18, 2019
Final submission deadline (Workshops): April 8, 2019
Acceptance/rejection notification (Workshops): April 22, 2019
Reviewed and rewritten full papers final deadline: May 28, 2019
Conference dates: August 6-10, 2019
Contact Information
Email: furuichi.masakazu [a] nihon-u.ac.jp (Prof. Masakazu Furuichi)