[Air-L] CfP: Games & Gaming, HICSS Jan 2026

[Nathaniel Poor]



Call for Papers: The 10th Anniversary of Games & Gaming at HICSS! (Game Scholars and Hawaii in January!)

Games & Gaming at HICSS
59th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS)
January 6th - 9th, 2026, Hyatt Regency Maui

For the TENTH straight year, the Games & Gaming minitrack at HICSS is seeking papers that examine the social aspects of digital gaming. We feature work related to digital games and sociality that covers a variety of methods: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods papers are welcome, ranging from interviews to big data analyses, detailed observations of games and associated social or streaming networks, as well as theoretical papers looking at digital gaming practices in general. Types of games studied may include mobile, social, free to play, AAA, MMOs, PC, console, multiplayer, and indie games. As part of the Digital and Social Media track, papers must contain a social dimension, examining, for example, sociability, social practices, communities (in-game, out-game, across multiple spaces or time), use of social affordances, or some other social dimension. Student authors are welcome! See here for HICSS author instructions and guidelines: http://hicss.hawaii.edu/authors/. Also, see below for links to previously accepted papers to get an idea of what we are looking for, and a list of other game-related mini-tracks that will probably be at HICSS 59.

DATES
April 15: Submission site opens (see http://hicss.hawaii.edu/authors/)
June 15, 11:59 pm HST: Papers due
August 17: Decision notification
September 22: Camera ready version due
October 1: Deadline for at least one author to register for HICSS
January 6-9, 2026: Conference!

G&G TOPICS
Community management
Cooperative and competitive play
Fans and fan communities
Game curation via sites like Steam
Game design for sociality
Intercultural play
Multigenerational play
Multiplayer games
Network analysis of game-related groups and communities
Player communities
Social affordances of games
Social issues in game development 
Social practices (in-game, out-game, both)
Streaming gameplay (e.g., Twitch, YouTube Live, etc.)
Toxicity online
…or email us!

LINKS
HICSS: http://hicss.hawaii.edu/   
Author Instructions: http://hicss.hawaii.edu/authors/     
Digital and Social Media track: https://hicss.hawaii.edu/tracks-57/digital-and-social-media/    
Papers from 2025: https://hdl.handle.net/10125/109892  
Papers from 2024: https://hdl.handle.net/10125/107457  
Papers from 2023: https://hdl.handle.net/10125/102510    
Papers from 2022: https://hdl.handle.net/10125/79200    
Papers from 2021: https://hdl.handle.net/10125/72169    

CO-CHAIRS
Nathaniel Poor (Primary Contact Co-Chair)
Underwood Institute
natpoor at gmail.com <mailto:natpoor at gmail.com> 

Steph Orme
Key Lime Interactive
orme.stephanie at gmail.com <mailto:orme.stephanie at gmail.com> 

Andy Phelps
American University & University of Canterbury
andymphelps at gmail.com <mailto:andymphelps at gmail.com> 


OTHER GAME-RELATED MINI-TRACKS AT HICSS 59 (and Track)
Esports (in Internet at Work and Play)
Explainable and Responsible AI in Gamification (in Decision Analytics and Service Science)
Game-Based Learning (in Knowledge Innovation and Entrepreneurial Systems)
Game-Changing Analytics in Sports Minitrack (in Decision Analytics and Service Science)
Games for Impact (in Software Technology)
Gamification (in Decision Analytics and Service Science)
Metaverse, Mixed Reality, and Digital Me (in Digital and Social Media)
Metaverse for Work and Play (in Internet at Work and Play)
Social Media Influencers and Influencing (in Digital and Social Media)



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Nathaniel Poor, Ph.D. (he/him/his)
Underwood Institute
http://www.underwood-institute.org/
http://github.com/natpoor
http://natpoor.blogspot.com/
http://sites.google.com/site/natpoor/