The Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) announces its 2014 annual conference. DiGRA 2014 is being hosted by the University of Utah’s EAE program and will be held in the Wasatch Mountains at Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort from August 3rd-6th. The location is scenic, secluded, economical, and within easy access of Salt Lake City’s International Airport. We believe it offers a unique setting in which to explore games, and the blanks in games research.
New deadline: February 24th
The theme of DiGRA 2014 is “Filling in the Blanks of Game Research.” For DiGRA’s 2014 Conference we playfully emphasize work that explores non-traditional questions, peers between the cracks of areas that are starting to become well-worn, and revisits old themes from new perspectives. In other words, what has been overlooked or otherwise not given the care and respect it deserves? A Mad Lib is a word game in which one player asks another for nouns, verbs, and other parts of speech with little or no context. They then proceed to fill in the blanks of a phrasal template to often humorous and sometimes profound results. As game scholars we have worked hard to figure out what were the most important blanks. However, at this, the seventh DiGRA conference, we invite you to point out the blanks that have yet to be filled. Your answers to our Mad Lib theme could highlight the profound, sublime, or humorous. Join us and play at filling in the blanks of game research. To this end, we offer the following phrasal template:
DiGRA 2014: <Verb that ends in ‘ing’> the <noun> of Game <plural noun>
Conference Website: http://digra2014.eae.utah.edu/
TRACKS
DiGRA aims at being a venue for game research from all research disciplines. In line with this, it accepts and encourages submissions on a wide range of subjects including but not limited to:
- Game design: Design techniques, practices, methods, post mortems, etc.
- Game criticism and analysis: Close readings, ontologies and frameworks, historical studies, philosophical explorations, and other humanities-informed approaches
- Play studies: studies of play, observations and interviews of players, and research based on other methods from the social sciences
- Game technology and production: case studies of experimental game technologies, evaluations of existing systems, and studies of game production processes
- Applications and uses of games: case studies of serious, documentary and learning games, games for health, as well as examples of gamification
Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the DiGRA conference, authors and reviewers alike will be required to describe their research background and field of study. The intention for this is to help reviewers be conscious of when they are reviewing work outside their own field as well as making clear the proportions of contributing fields.
Formats
Submit a paper or an abstract?
DiGRA 2014 supports two different categories for submitting research; full papers (no more than 16 pages) and abstracts (up to 1000 words including references). The structure reflects the cross-disciplinary nature and different conference traditions of the conference attendants. A full paper submission is recommended for completed research work, in particular empirical or technical work. The abstract format is suitable for discussion topics and ideas. Both papers and abstracts are subject to a double-blind review process, and get equal time for presentation and discussion during the conference.
If accepted, full-length submissions will be uploaded into the DiGRA digital library after the conference. Both papers and abstracts will be available from the conference web site, and authors of abstracts may submit a full-length text. Do however note that abstracts, and full-length texts written post conference will not be uploaded to the DiGRA digital library. Finally, both selected articles and full-length texts may be invited for re-publication in the DiGRA journal ToDiGRA.
SUBMISSION DEADLINES
Submissions site: https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=digra2014
Submission template: here
Full papers:
- No more than 16 pages (including references)
- Will be published on conference website & DiGRA digital library
- Submission deadline: February 24, 2014
- Notifications of decisions: March 21, 2014
- Rebuttal deadline: April 1, 2014
- Notifications of final decisions: April 15, 2014
- Revised submission deadline: May 15, 2014 (camera ready)
Abstracts:
- No more than 1,000 words (including references)
- Will be published on conference website
- Will not be published in DiGRA digital library
- Submission deadline: February 24, 2014
- Notifications of decision: March 21, 2014
- Full text submission deadline: May 15, 2014
Panels:
- Proposal: no more than 1000 words, including references
- Will not be published in the DiGRA digital library
- Submission deadline: February 24, 2014
- Notifications of decision: March 21, 2014
- Full text submission deadline: May 15, 2014
Workshops:
- Proposal: no more than 1000 words, including references
- Indicate full or half day (Workshops will take place August 3, 2014)
- Contact details of organizing committee
- Will not be published in the DiGRA digital library
- Submission deadline: February 24, 2014
- Notifications of decision: March 21, 2014
- Full text submission deadline: May 15, 2014
Conference event submissions, filling in the blanks of DiGRA 2014:
DiGRA 2014 understands that no call can accommodate all types of research. We believe that there is excellent research and scholarship happening in the spaces between the formats we traditionally offer. We are happy to consider submissions not listed above, for example tutorials, performances, or an experimental session. Many participants in the past have asked, “why don’t they do a blank” at DiGRA. This is an invitation to fill in the blank.
A conference event proposal can be at most 1000 words long and should provide justification for the event, describe the required time and resources, and provide names and backgrounds of the organisers.
- Submission deadline: February 24, 2014
- Notifications of decision: March 1, 2014
Submissions to conference events
For conference events that issue their own calls, deadlines should conform to this schedule.
- Events Submission deadline: April 15, 2014
- Events Notification date: May 15, 2014
Program Chairs
- Staffan Björk, University of Gothenburg, Sweden (staffan.bjork@gu.se)
- Annika Waern, University of Uppsala, Sweden (annika.waern@im.uu.se)
Conference Chairs
- Roger Altizer, University of Utah, USA (Roger.Altizer@utah.edu)
- Jose Zagal, University of Utah, USA (jose.zagal@utah.edu)
Program Committee
TBA
Venue
Snowbird, Utah – http://www.snowbirdmeetings.com/
