Mid-late April, 2020
Madrid, Spain
Deadline (EXTENDED): February 10, 2020
Since the twilight of the last century, game studies have emerged to become a legitimate discipline by which to study digital entertainment products as part of the Humanities. Deriving from this phenomenon are historical game studies, which have blossomed in the last decade and help us understand the uses of and discourses about the past in gaming. Most of the works, however, have focused on Western computer games using an analytical approach that also draws from a Western heritage, despite the importance of the Asian market, especially the Japanese one, after the 1983 crash of the American game industry. Furthermore, in recent decades the production of videogames in countries like China, South Korea and Taiwan has been reaching global audiences. Therefore, we have deemed it relevant to focus the 3rd Complutense’s Historical Game Studies Conference on this Asian phenomenon.
The 2020 Conference follows an open call for papers system. The organization will evaluate positively those contributions built on original and appropriate theoretical frames and methodological apparatuses (in preference to purely descriptive ones).
Proposals should be sent to asiangamesconference@gmail.com and will consist of a title, an abstract of no more than 400 words, up to 5 key words and a selection of bibliography in a text document with the name of the contributor. They will be blind peer reviewed by a scientific committee of five experts. The accepted languages are English and Spanish. Research topics proposed by the organization are as follows:
- History of videogames and gaming culture in East Asia: producers and developers, evolution of franchises, chronologically defined audiences, their practices and their evolution…
- Western games consumed in East Asia and vice versa: impact of historical computer game franchises around the globe, ports, localization of historical games in order to adapt their discourses to foreign audiences…
- Representations of foreign history in Asian videogames: how Asian developers reimagine foreign history (Operation Europe: Path to Victory, Uncharted Waters, Bladestorm Valkyria Chronicles…), adaptation of historical elements in contexts of fantasy (Fate, Granblue Fantasy…), historical anthropomorfism (Azur Lane, Girl’s Frontline…)…
- Representations of Asian history in Asian videogames: Sengoku Basara, Samurai Warriors, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Nobunaga’s Ambition, Touken Ranbu…
- Computer game genres and gender/sexual identities: historical games marketed to gender-based audiences (otome games, bishoujo games), sexuality and history in East Asian games (moé)…
- Transmedia visual culture: relationship between historical games and comics (manga, manhwa, manhua), animation, film, advertisement…
- Reception dynamics: fan activities (cosplay, fanzines, doujinshi, modding, pilgrimages…), fan cultures around historical videogames…
Deadline for abstracts is February 10, 2020. Authors of selected contributions will be notified approximately one month after the deadline. The two-day long conference will be held at Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Madrid, Spain) mid-late April 2020.
If you have any questions regarding the Conference, please contact us at asiangamesconference@gmail.com. We are looking forward to your contributions.
