Call for Papers

Design, Practice, and Critique of Narratives as Entertainment in the Video Game Art Form
An article collection in the Cogent Arts & Humanities Journal
https://think.taylorandfrancis.com/article_collections/design-practice-and-critique-of-narratives-as-entertainment-in-the-video-game-art-form/

Guest Advisors:
Dr Peter Howell & Dr Matthew Higgins (Creative Technologies Research Lab, School of Film, Media, and Creative Technologies, University of Portsmouth)

Submission deadline: January 3, 2025

Stories are a fundamental form of communication for humanity and are a central facet to human culture. Stories can be highly engaging both emotionally and intellectually, and can bring people and communities together. Video games and interactive digital narratives expand the landscape of storytelling and engage players emotionally and intellectually through their participatory nature. These playable stories are a form of entertainment but also possess significant cultural and artistic importance. They are vehicles for exploring complex themes, challenging societal norms, and expressing diverse perspectives. They can provoke critical thought and reflection from players and even affect change in attitudes and behaviours in the real world. Narrative in video games can experiment at the boundaries of narrative expression and elicit meaningful connections between players and the stories they experience, contributing to the development of the broader artistic and cultural landscape.

Interactive storytelling and games technology more broadly have valuable applications in non-entertainment fields and ‘serious games’ applications. However, the design, development, and critique of games as pure entertainment and as a culturally significant art form is often seen as secondary to these other ‘applied’ fields of games research when it comes to key issues such as research funding and decision-making about research support within academic institutions. The global games industry is not only economically significant. Games as a form of entertainment are also highly valued by many people and provide a range of potential benefits to wellbeing and quality of life. Understanding how to continue developing and enhancing these human benefits, whilst maintaining and growing the economic value of the games entertainment industry, deserves greater academic attention alongside the existing bodies of work around serious and applied games technology.

Games and interactive narratives can possess multiple layers of meaning. Through design practice, games are imbued with meaning and values that reflect their designer. Through play and analysis, the different perspectives and experiences of others can uncover layers of meaning that go beyond designer intent but are no less critical in understanding the holistic value and impact of a particular game on those that play it. Much work has been done across the industry in recent years to improve, for example, representation and diversity in the characters, stories, and worlds that are created. This is reflected in a similar growth in scholarly critique of these aspects of games design, narrative, and culture.

However, game development is a creative practice and as such, it is frequently messy and complex. There will inevitably be failures, direction changes, and many iterations along the way to creating something players want to experience. The practitioner’s perspective is vital in providing context and practical examples of how interactive narratives for games are conceptualised, designed, and created for the purposes of entertainment whilst working within the necessities of a competitive marketplace. In this article collection we therefore aim to bring the scholarly and designer communities together, synthesising the expertise and perspectives of each to explore game narratives. We encourage submissions from scholars and practitioners in game design, narrative writing, worldbuilding, storytelling, and games culture.

Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:

1. The process and practice of interactive narrative design
2. Critical perspectives on interactive narrative design
3. Player and audience studies of narrative games
4. Case studies and designer reflections on creative practice
5. Novel approaches to narrative design and worldbuilding
6. Synthesising and integrating narrative and gameplay
7. The role of paratextual elements in interactive storytelling
8. Representation, diversity, and inclusivity in commercial game narratives
9. The impact of technological and cultural shifts on the way interactive stories are designed, shared, and played

All manuscripts submitted to this Article Collection will undergo a full peer-review; the Guest Advisors for this collection will not be handling the manuscripts (unless they are an Editorial Board member). Please review the journal scope and author submission instructions prior to submitting a manuscript.

If you have any questions relating to this Article Collection, please reach out to the Commissioning Editor, Kristen Brida, at kristen.brida@taylorandfrancis.com