[acc-cca-l] [Call for Book Chapters]- Edited Collection on Subversive Gaming

[Aparajita Bhandari]

[△EXTERNAL]


Hello everyone,


We are seeking chapter contributions for an edited volume on the topic of subversion in games and gaming culture as part of the Games in Context<https://link.springer.com/series/16027> Series.


Tanenbaum (2013) notes that video game players are often positioned by designers as “agents of chaos” that are resistant towards pre-authored narratives and architectures. While this description is overly simplistic and does not account for the diverse, context-dependent, and sometimes contradictory goals that motivate play, it does speak to the importance of the element of subversion in both video games and video game cultures. Both with regards to underlying code and representational norms, players have long been invested to some degree in making “a mockery of the author’s intentions” (Aarseth, 2004): Modding kits and associated modding communities have been integral to gaming subcultures since the early 1980s (Voorhes, 2014); speedrunners and “glitch hunters” “revel” in disregarding designers’ operational assumptions about how players could or should interact with intelligently designed digital spaces (Hemmingsen, 2021, 447); queer, feminist, and critical race reimaginations of games and have long deployed strategies of transgressive play to illuminate and disrupt normative assumptions about the “ideal player” (e.g. Gray, 2012; Schleiner, 2001; Sunden, 2009; Ruberg, 2019).


Games, as computational systems that create simulated systems through narratives and mechanics (Bogost, 2007), are deeply concerned with dynamics of boundedness and freedom. The nature of play can be understood as something that pushes up against (and in some cases, threatens) the power of the game as a world and as a structure of meaning(s) and knowledge(s). Viewed this way, subversion is a central consideration when it comes to understanding video games as an artistic medium and social experience. Subversion in gaming leads inexorably to questions of power; the power to define meanings, values and truths in both digital and non digital gaming worlds.


As diverse forms of media and communication technologies become increasingly “gamified,” understanding dynamics of subversion and alterity becomes imperative in order to account for emerging dynamics of domination and resistance across media landscapes


Thus this book aims to bring together diverse projects that engage with subversion in relation to games and gaming cultures.


The peer reviewed book will be published as part of the Games in Context Series at Palgrave<https://link.springer.com/series/16027/books>.

This series asks us what it means to study, critique, and create games in context. Titles in this series include Feminism in Play<https://www.springer.com/book/9783319905389> (Edited by Kishonna L. Gray, Gerald Voorhees, Emma Vossen) and  Queerness in Play<https://www.springer.com/book/9783319905419> (Edited by Todd Harper, Meghan Blythe Adams and Nicholas Taylor).

Book Editors:

  *   Dr. Aparajita Bhandari, Assistant Professor of Critical Digital Studies, University of Waterloo, Canada

  *   Sara Bimo, PhD student in Communication and Culture, York University, Canada

What we’re looking for:

We invite academics, researchers, students and industry experts to submit book chapter proposals that address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

  1.  The potential (or lack thereof) of games in subverting patterns of globalization and colonial power, hegemonic political systems, ideologies, or structures of power

  2.  Analysis of how games and/or players can subvert traditional expectations of gender and sexuality

  3.  Subversive labor practices within the video game, esports and livestreaming industries

  4.  Gamification of everyday life

  5.  Investigating how games can act as a medium for societal critique, addressing issues such as inequality, race, class, and discrimination or alternatively the limitations of the games industry in enacting such critiques

  6.  The subversive potential of in-game art, sound design, and narrative structure and gaming environments

  7.  The role of player agency in subversive gaming, including choices that challenge ethical, moral, or societal norms.

  8.  The impact of controversial games, censorship, and the boundaries of free expression in gaming and gamer communities

  9.  Contributions of independent and alternative game developers to subversive gaming culture

Tentative Timeline:

Submit an abstract to us by: January 15th, 2024

Decisions on abstracts: January 25th, 2024

First chapter drafts due by: July 30th, 2024 (Chapters should be between 4000 to 7000 words)

How to Apply:

Interested contributors are asked to submit a 300-500 word (not including references) abstract summarizing the chapter background, methods, and aims. The submission should also contain the names, institution of affiliation, and a short biography of all contributing authors and contact details for the corresponding author. For inquiries and submissions, please email Dr. Aparajita Bhandari at aparajita.bhandari at uwaterloo.ca<mailto:aparajita.bhandari at uwaterloo.ca>. When submitting abstracts please put in the subject line “Abstract submission- Subversive Gaming”.

References

Aarseth, E. (2004). Genre trouble. Electronic book review, 3, 1-7.

Bogost, I. (2010). Persuasive games: The expressive power of videogames. (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2007).

Gray, K. L. (2012). Deviant bodies, stigmatized identities, and racist acts: Examining the experiences of African-American gamers in Xbox Live. New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia, 18(4), 261-276.

Hemmingsen, M. (2021). Code is law: subversion and collective knowledge in the ethos of video game speedrunning. Sport, Ethics and Philosophy, 15(3), 435-460.

Ruberg, B. (2019). Video games have always been queer. NYU Press. NYC, New York.

Schleiner, A. M. (2001). Does Lara Croft wear fake polygons? Gender and gender-role subversion in computer adventure games. Leonardo Music Journal, 34(3), 221-226.

Sundén, J. (2009, September). Play as transgression: An ethnographic approach to queer game cultures. In DiGRA Conference (Vol. 7).

Tanenbaum, T. J. (2013). How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Gamer: Reframing Subversive Play in Story-Based Games. In DiGRA Conference (Vol. 7).

Voorhees, Gerald (2014). "Chapter 31: Shooting". In Perron, Bernard (ed.). The Routledge Companion to Video Game Studies. Taylor & Francis. pp. 251–258.

Best,


Aparajita Bhandari (she/her), PhD

Assistant Professor of Critical Digital Studies

Department of English Language and Literature

519-888-4567 ext. 42261

University of Waterloo


The University of Waterloo sits upon the traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishinaabeg, and Haudenosaunee peoples. It is important as a community to move beyond merely acknowledging to reckoning with ongoing structures of colonial violence in order to achieve true reconciliation. Learn more: https://apihtawikosisan.com/2016/09/beyond-territorial-acknowledgments/.
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