[Air-L] CFP New Formations of Game Genres Edited Anthology

[Gerald Voorhees]

Call For Papers: “New Formations of Game Genre,” Edited Anthology

Game Studies has adopted a notion of genre that overcomes the “tension
between ‘ludology’ and ‘narratology’... [by] conceptualizing video games as
operating in the interplay between these two taxonomies of genre” (Apperley
2006). That is, the consensus of the field is that game genres are a
combination of both narrative and other forms of representation (e.g.
Adventure, Western, or Sci-Fi stories and/or motifs) and formal, ludic
structures (e.g  cooperative or competitive, role-playing, shooting,
platforming).

While game studies as a field seemed to quickly embrace consensus around
Apperley’s definition of genre, the Approaches to Digital Game Studies
series introduction (Voorhees, Call, and Whitlock 2012) maintained a more
fluid and promiscuous line: game genres could be distinguished by their
theme or representational qualities, rules and mechanics, function, or some
combination of the above. However, the ideological effects of the ludology
vs. narratology debate are pervasive and game genres are still understood
as constellations of formal and representational properties. Despite making
allowances for iconography, structure, and use as distinct and not
necessarily overlapping ways of distinguishing game genres, most
conversations about genre and videogames are still wedded to the
representational and mechanical dimensions.

Meanwhile, outside of genre studies, game studies has experienced a
cultural turn in the last decade, centering the social dimensions of games
and play. What resources for theorizing game genres emerge from this
cultural turn? How might the critical theories of race and culture,
intersectional feminism, queer theory, post-colonial and decolonial
approaches, and mad/crip interventions of the past decade suggest new ways
of thinking about game genres? And what new and emergent genres can be
identified from this side of this cultural turn? Put differently, what
would the study of game genres look like today if the ludology vs.
narratology debate never occurred? Or if it had taken some form more
productive than it ultimately did? How might we understand game genres
without the mandate to think about them through the two axes of
“representation” and “ergodicity?”

For this volume, tentatively titled “New Formations of Game Genre,” to be
submitted for publication in the Approaches to Digital Game Studies book
series published by Bloomsbury Academic, the editors aim to assemble
scholarship that advances two lines of inquiry and thus seek proposal for
essays that speak to one or more of the following two areas:


   1.

   Minor forms and new genres that have been overlooked and understudied.
   Not every set of games warrants a monograph or even anthology like digital
   role-playing games, first-person shooters, or even Japanese role-playing
   games. But there are still lessons to be gained from giving space to
   looter-shooters, rhythm based or deck-building role-playing games, and/or
   text-based rouge-lites. We are seeking proposals for chapters that explore
   the various dimensions of these minor and emerging forms.



   1.

   Genres that are distinguished by their social use. Lauren Berlant (2011)
   describes genre as a set of expectations that organizes a subject’s
   relationship to their historical circumstances. Closer to home, TreaAndrea
   Russworm, Bo Ruberg, and Chris Patterson, respectively, ask us to think
   about what constitutes a Black game, a queer game, and an Asian game, not
   as a product of the thematic or mechanical aspects but rather – beyond
   representation – as distinct structures of feeling, patterns of embodied
   experiences, and/or sets of material practices. We are seeking proposals
   for chapters that further explore how game genres can be distinguished by
   their social function, and how they work to mediate players’ relationships
   to the material world.


Please send abstracts (350-500 words excluding references) to
gamestudiesbooks[at]gmail.com by September 30th, 2022. If invited, full
manuscripts of no more than 6500 words, including references, will be
required by January 30, 2022.


About the Editors:

Gerald Voorhees is an Associate Professor in the Department Communication
Arts at the University of Waterloo and President of the Canadian Game
Studies Association. He researches games and new media as sites for the
construction and contestation of identity and culture, and he has edited
books on masculinities in games, feminism in play, role-playing games, and
first-person shooter games. Gerald is co-editor of Bloomsbury’s Approaches
to Game Studies book series and was managing editor of the Gender in Play
trilogy in Palgrave’s Games in Context book series.

Josh Call is a Professor of English and Director of the Writing Program at
Grand View University. His current research focuses on critiques of games
and media as political and ideological expressions of culture and power,
and has edited collections on role-playing games, and first-person shooter
games. Josh is the co-editor of Bloomsbury’s Approaches to Game Studies
book series.

Betsy Brey is a PhD candidate at the University of Waterloo in the
Department of English Language and Literature. She researches narrative and
queerness in video games. Her work examines the social and cultural
practices of the communities that play or enjoy these games, including
questions of collaboration, digital labour, canonicity, and the cultural
economies of fans and fandoms.

Matthew Wysocki is an Associate Professor of Media Studies at Flagler
College and an Area Co-Chair of Game Studies at the Popular Culture
Association/American Culture Association. Much of his research revolves
around questions of control and player agency especially with regard to sex
and romance. Matthew is the editor of CTRL-ALT-PLAY: Essays on Control in
Video Games and co-editor of Rated M for Mature: Sex and Sexuality in Video
Games.