Call for Papers: Fourth International Video Game Studies Conference (SVI2025)December 1-2, 2025Bydgoszcz, Polandhttps://sviconference.org Deadline for submission of abstracts: September 30, 2025 The fourth edition of the SVI video game conference seeks to return to topics of game design and game analysis. Game design studies as a focal point for research means combining the theoretical backdrop and sensibilities of game analysis with an interest in better understanding the practice of game design. Within this frame, we include examinations of game design as theory and practice, its historical developments, current challenges, and related theoretical frameworks such as game design patterns and core…

Call for Papers: “Sonic Practices in Virtual Worlds—Game Audio, Spatial Sound, and Experimental Music in Games”Special Issue of Computer Music Journalhttp://www.computermusicjournal.org/CallForSonicPracticesVirtualWorldsIssue.html Guest Editors: Juan Carlos Vasquez, Assistant Professor, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (China)Publisher: MIT Press Deadline for submission of optional abstract: July 11, 2025Deadline for submission of manuscript: November 15, 2025 OVERVIEW: The role of audio and music in games and virtual environments has evolved dramatically over the last two decades (Collins, 2008; Summers, 2016). While visual and narrative aspects of interactive media have traditionally garnered the most scholarly attention, sound remains a deeply performative, spatial, and affective medium central to…

Call for Papers: The Future Is Near: Design Fiction Explorations of Virtual CompanionsThe 1st International Workshop on Design Fiction for IVAs @ ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVA) 2025September 16th 2025Berlin, Germanyhttps://sites.google.com/view/ivafuture/home Deadline for submissions: July 22, 2025 WORKSHOP OVERVIEW This workshop will explore virtual companions using design fiction to anticipate ethical, aesthetic, and cultural implications, as well as how such design fiction can be evaluated in a systematic way. Participants will create speculative narratives to examine future interactions, stereotypes, and societal impact. Virtual companions, a type of intelligent virtual agent (IVA), have become more common and advanced…

Call for Papers: Digital Intimacies 11: The Love of MachinesDecember 3-5, 2025The University of Sydney [and online]Sydney, Australiahttps://digitalintiamcies11.wordpress.com Deadline for submissions: August 29, 2025 In the contemporary intimacy landscape, machines have emerged not merely as mediators but as potential objects of desire. From sophisticated dating apps that claim to decode compatibility, to conversational agents scripting our seductions, to synthetic lovers rendering human connection obsolete—machines don’t just shape digital intimacies; they reconfigure the terrain upon which intimacy itself is constructed. For Digital Intimacies 11, we invoke Alan Turing’s seminal question: “Can machines think?” — but with a crucial reimagining for our…

Call for Participation: Beyond Game MechanicsOctober 8-9, 2025School of Creative Media, The City University of Hong Kong  (offline participation only)[From a post on the Gamesnetwork electronic mailing list; use contact emails below for more information –Matthew] Deadline for submission: July 15, 2025 “Game mechanics” is a frequently referenced yet contested term in game studies. There have been some efforts to define it, of which perhaps the most widely known is Sicart’s (2008) definition of game mechanics as “methods invoked by agents interacting with the game world.” The term has also been explored for its tangled relationship to game rules as…

Call for Participation: Authenticity Unmasked: Unveiling AI-Driven Realities Through ArtExhibition during Edinburgh Summer FestivalsAugust 7-17, 2025University of EdinburghScotlandhttps://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa-jisc.exe?A2=ind2506&L=ART-TECHNOLOGY&O=D&P=4128https://crea-tec.weebly.com/authenticity_unmasked.html You are warmly invited to the opening event of the upcoming exhibition Authenticity Unmasked: Unveiling AI-Driven Realities Through Art, which will take place at the University of Edinburgh from 7–17 August 2025. In an age of AI-generated content, questions surrounding truth, memory, and authorship have become increasingly urgent. This exhibition, curated by Theodore Koterwas, brings together new works by artists Georgia Gardner, Kinnari Saraiya, and dmstfctn, offering a critical exploration of how emerging technologies are reshaping perceptions of authenticity.…