Dear Colleagues, Friends and DiGRA Members,
As our term of service comes to an end, we would like to thank you all for your support and commitment to making and keeping DiGRA such a thriving community. We are glad to be passing on the role of leading the DiGRA community to the newly elected Executive Board with Dr Ashley Guajardo as its incoming President.
In the past years, we had an exciting opportunity to work on new directions as well as challenges that have followed from the association’s notable cross-national and cross-cultural growth. DiGRA has become a truly global and diverse academic association with 19 regional chapters. This was visible on our board as well, which brought together nine members from eight countries.
Since our appointment, we have overseen and coordinated two annual conferences, both taking place in regions outside of the academic mainstream: in 2023 we met in Seville (Spain) and in 2024, in Guadalajara, Jalisco (Mexico). Invited by the changes in membership and the world around us, our term saw major developments in the areas of inclusion, security and sustainability. The funds allocated through Solidarity Fund were expanded and we set the expectation for providing possibilities for online conference participation. Both developments serve more equal possibilities for being part of the DiGRA community. To foster both socially and geographically more accessible sharing and exchange of games research, numerous chapter initiatives were supported and several new chapters established. We introduced the position of a Sustainability Officer and prioritised for the future the need to focus on environmental sustainability in relation to DiGRA conference organising. After more than two decades, the association’s website, Digital Library and membership registration and management system were redesigned and replaced with new systems that significantly improve DiGRA’s online security. For better visibility, we established an active presence on LinkedIn. As we prepared the conferences for 2025 and 2026, a new Call for Hosts was introduced and the terms for conference organisers were rewritten to better highlight our shared values. As a step towards transparency and called for by the community, we introduced new participatory rules for the Executive Board election. These were already implemented in our last election.
All this work would not have been possible without great help from volunteers who tirelessly support the Digital Library and ToDiGRA Journal as well as those who contributed to the DiGRA Diversity Working Group and on social media presence. Thank you!
As a worldwide community, DiGRA brings together people from all around the world, of different backgrounds, cultures and often at different stages in their academic paths. Perhaps the biggest challenge this Board ever faced was in addressing the clashing expectations regarding the conduct of our members. Despite our best intentions, the situation resulted in high tension within the Association and the Board itself. We sincerely hope this very unfortunate event will pave the road to a safer, more inclusive and supportive space for all scholars.
DiGRA members of today, yesterday and tomorrow, thank you for your support and for being part of our worldwide community of game researchers. It is our utmost wish to see the community thrive long into the future.
With full trust in the capabilities of the new elected board to continue tackling future challenges and to support the community in a sustained manner, we wish you the ability to act with integrity and focus.
20 December 2024,
The DiGRA Executive Board