Call for Papers: Special Issue of Loading…
Indie eh? Being Otherwise in Canadian Digital Game Scenes (tentative)
This issue will focus on alternative and independent cultural production in digital games and game cultures with a focus on the Canadian situation. Divided into three parts the issue intends to go beyond the question of “what is an independent game?” to explore both the discourse of “independence” and the organization and practices of indie developers and players as forms of potentially alternative cultural production and consumption.
Section 1 will feature peer reviewed articles focused on making sense of independent game culture. We are interested less in boundary or demarcation questions (i.e. what is and is not indie) than we are in articles which interrogate and effectively analyze the kinds of cultural work that “indie” as discourse, ideology and/or practice accomplishes in specific game scenes.
Section 2 will feature short articles reviewing the history and organization of indie game development and/or culture in specific locations in Canada – Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal for sure… but also hopefully Ottawa and/or the Maritimes and the Prairies. The purpose of these short pieces is to inform readers about specific indie scenes and to promote sharing and networking by scholars and developers across Canada.
Section 3 – will feature invited short commentaries by “independent” developers across Canada – these should be perspective or opinion pieces which reflect individual relationships to the ideas or practices of “being indie.” The purpose of this section is to provide space for indie developers (including lesser heard voices in the indie scene) and encourage collaboration and discussion between game studies scholars and indie developers.
List of possible topics
• Independent games as cultural movements
• Political economies of indie
• Political aesthetics of indie
• Gender, race and ethnicity in indie cultures
• Alternative design practices
• Indie gamers (it’s not just about design you know)
• Indie discourse and ideology
• Indie identities
• Comparative indies – games/music/film…
• Theoretical and Methodological frameworks for making sense of indie
• Case studies of indie games, studios
• Critical biographies
Submission Information:
Short abstracts and ideas for articles, short essays and commentaries should be submitted by June 22, decisions on green-lighted contributions will be made by July 1 and the deadline for final submission for review will be August 15th. The time-frame is short but we are aiming for a December 2012 publication date for this issue. Yes, we think it can be done.
We suggest that this issue will be so much fun and so exciting and inspirational that you should drop everything else to help make it happen! The issue is meant as both a pause for critical analysis of important shifts in game culture but also an active intervention in the development of a scene we all care about. Act fast and apply to be part of this issue!!!
Loading… is the journal of the Canadian Game Studies Association. Details about the journal can be found at http://journals.sfu.ca/loading/index.php/loading/about.
All abstracts/queries for this special issue should be sent ASAP or by June 22 to the issue editor, Dr. Bart Simon at simonb@alcor.concordia.ca).
Bart Simon Associate Professor of Sociology and the current director of the Centre for Technoculture, Art and Games at Concordia University in Montreal (www.tag.hexagram.ca). He is also the project leader for the national GRAND NCE project on digital labour and independent game development.