Though the deadline is fast approaching, this may be too tempting to pass up…
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We are opening the call for a special issue of Eludamos, titled: “Next Gen.”
Guest editors are Thomas H. Apperley, Darshana Jayemanne and Christian McCrea.
Console gaming has already had more than one ‘Next Generation’. PC gamers feverishly upgrade their rigs with each new state of the art FPS. Periodisation is often a major preoccupation for critics and publics interested in other media, but in the case of videogames the rapid pace of technical development seems to set the agenda of generational change. Games are caught up, culturally as well as aesthetically and technically, in their own futurism: each generation claims to be both anticipation and fulfillment of an imagined horizon of experience. Simultaneously, older technologies find new uses and contexts within the very conditions of their supposed obsolescence. Gaming is constantly speculating on its own future and recalling its past in order to coordinate a restless present. Just how coherent are gaming’s generations, and is the adoption of such classifications from the wider culture useful or counter-productive for academic game studies?
This special issue of Eludamos invites essays on the topic of generational change in gaming, from broad overviews of the critical usefulness of ‘official’ Next Generations to microhistories of individual game franchises or lineages, from agenda-setting successes to failed attempts that were too soon, too late, or just too bad. Possible avenues of exploration may include:
* The New Games journalism, advertising, hype and style in the gaming press
* Generational change in academia: Do we need a new Game Studies?
* Materiality: Histories of specific devices, console design and futurism.
* Audio and graphical standards and the historical status of claims to the realistic
* Audio and graphical standards and the historical status of claims to the cinematic
* Retrogaming, popping, speedruns, machinima, bitscene music
* Curatorship and exhibition of gaming history – problems, opportunities, practices
* Family and gaming: playing across generations
* Globalisation and the uneven distribution of gaming’s generations
* E-waste and the unrecognised costs of generational change
The issue is open to papers that go beyond these suggestions, and the editors encourage any innovative approach linking the topics of gaming and generations.
All articles undergo a double blind peer review process except for papers submitted to the game review section. We expect all submissions to be in English and accept full papers only. For further specificiations about our submission guidelines please consult http://www.eludamos.org. Submissions for “Next Gen” should go to the Perspectives section of the site.
Important dates
1st of August: submission deadline for the upcoming regular issue of Eludamos, as well as the special issue “Next Gen”. Submissions should be full papers plus abstracts and bio.
25th of Oct. 2009: publication date
We look forward to reading from you soon! Please address any queries and questions specifically regarding the Next Gen special issue to Darshana Jayemanne at escapismvelocity at gmail.