Author Archives: Brendan Keogh

Call for papers: DiGRA Australia 2025 National Conference

Posted on by Posted in DiGRAA2025 .

We invite you to contribute to a three-day Game Studies conference held on Wednesday 5th, Thursday the 6th, and Friday the 7th of February, 2025, at the University of South Australia, City West Campus, in Adelaide, South Australia. Registration is free. 

Important dates

Friday 11 October 2024 – Submission deadline
Monday 4th November 2024 (approximately) – Notification of submission outcomes
Wednesday to Friday 5-7 February 2025 – Conference 

Details

The DiGRA Australia 2025 National Conference is an opportunity for games researchers, critics, designers, developers and artists at any career stages to share their work. We aim to provide an inclusive forum that reflects the diversity and vibrancy of Game Studies in Australia, and that allows interdisciplinary dialogues to critically engage with games, players and the culture that surrounds them. 

DiGRA Australia 2025 will be hosted at the University of South Australia’s City West Campus in Adelaide, Australia. It will run as a hybrid conference, allowing both online and in-person attendance and presentations.  

This year’s conference theme is “Communities of Practice and Play”. We want to hear about the latest research in the game studies community. We welcome submissions describing research and/or creative projects that are completed or still underway. Tell us about that idea you’ve been turning over in your mind that you’d like to test out in front of an audience!

For the first time, we also welcome experimental project submissions to a new Experimental Track. The Experimental Track accepts games, playful experiences, and interactive installations in an expansive scope,  including game demos, websites, posters, live performances, board games, escape rooms, and anything that can be interacted with in an exhibition space.

Submission process

Extended abstracts 

This is the standard format for submissions to the DiGRAA conference. Extended abstracts of a maximum 800 words (excluding references) using the DiGRA Australia Template. Submissions do not have to be anonymised. Submissions will be reviewed by the DiGRA Australia programming committee.

Accepted Extended Abstracts will be presented at the conference as either a 10- or 15-minute talk (pending on ultimate number of accepted papers). In-person presenters will present live, and online presenters will be requested to provide a pre-recorded video to minimise technical issues. All presenters, in-person and online, are expected to be present in their session for a live Q&A.

Accepted Extended Abstracts will be archived on the DiGRA Australia website. Video presentations will be published on a dedicated YouTube channel (subject to permission). Aligning with DiGRAA social media policy, you will have the option not to have your video archived.

Extended abstracts are to be submitted via Google Form at this link.

Experimental works

In 2025, for the first time, DIGRA Australia will also be trialling a new submission format made with non-traditional research outputs (NTROs) in mind, specifically for those wishing to exhibit and present an experimental work at the conference. The Experimental Track exhibition will be programmed as part of the conference and is aimed at including industry and creative practitioners at DiGRA Australia. Conference attendees will have opportunities to mingle in the exhibition space and discuss the works.

Submissions to the Experimental Track include a description of the work and a research statement using the DiGRA Australia Experimental Track Template. Submissions do not have to be anonymised. Experimental submissions containing software must be able to run standalone or on a browser. Experimental submissions will be reviewed by the Experimental track programming committee (TBC).

Accepted works into the Experimental Track will be presented at the conference as a 5-minute lightning talk. Accepted works will be archived on the DiGRAA website. Presentation requirements, recording, and social media policy is the same as above.

Experimental works are to be submitted via Google Form at this link.

Submission rules

To ensure as many people as possible have the opportunity to present their work, only one submission may be made per lead author, per submission type, and individuals may present only one paper per submission type during the conference. There is no limit on secondary authorship. 

To present at DiGRAA 2025 you will need to be a member of DiGRA Australia. Membership is optional for non-presenting authors. You do not need to be a member at the time of submission, only at the time of the conference. You do not need to be a member of DiGRA International.

DiGRA Australia conferences have a ‘grey list’ policy for accepted submissions that are withdrawn with no reason provided, or for which the presenter simply does not attend. Please familiarise yourself with the specifics of this policy here. 

Tips for authors 

We advise potential authors to review the papers from previous DiGRA Australia conferences as a guide to the expected tone and quality. Some further tips: 

  • We welcome submissions that explore both in-progress and complete works, but they should represent novel scholarship. If the submission resembles previously published work, we recommend the author explicitly identify the additional contribution of their DiGRA Australia submission. 
  • Papers can present any kind of research, analysis or commentary, but should be written so that the importance of the work can be understood by reviewers working in different disciplines or using different approaches. 
  • We recommend that submissions articulate the issue or research question to be discussed, the methodological or critical framework used, the findings or conclusions to be presented, and/or the relevance to the wider game studies discipline. 

Submissions from academics are typically expected to have references to reflect the author’s engagement with existing scholarship. 

Abstract writing information session: Dr Jacqueline Burgess, an experienced conference abstract peer-reviewer, regular DiGRAA presenter and a member of the Executive, will facilitate an information session that will provide some tips and hints for writing and structuring your DiGRAA 2025 abstract and an introduction to DiGRAA for new attendees. There will also be time for questions. The session ran September 23rd 1pm-2pm QLD time. The recording is available to watch here.

Conference organising committee

Associate Professor Erik Champion, University of South Australia (Conference Co-Chair)
Dr Susie Emery, University of South Australia (Conference Co-Chair)
Sophia Booij, University of South Australia
George Martin, University of South Australia
Associate Professor G Stewart Von Itzstein, University of South Australia
Louise Trudgett-Klose, University of South Australia
Dr Sarven McLinton, University of South Australia
Corey McKechnie-Martin, University of South Australia 
Dr Douglas Kelly, University of South Australia
Dr Lauren Woolbright, Flinders University
Shane Bevin, Flinders University
Dr Xavier Ho, Monash University
Dr James Manning, RMIT University
Jesus Cuauhtemoc Moreno Ramos, Serenade Games
Ashlee Borgkvist, University of South Australia
Josh McLean, University of South Australia
Steve Cook, University of Adelaide

Program for Games Symposium for Oceania and the Asia Pacific

DiGRA Australia 2021 Conference Program

Posted on by Posted in DiGRAA2021 .

DiGRA Australia 2021 Conference Program

University of Melbourne (online)

Registration link

After you register, we will send you a link to the conference Zoom sessions.

**NOTE: All times in Melbourne time (AEDT) **

(see this in your local time: http://go.unimelb.edu.au/7wei).

Tuesday 9 February
9.30 am Conference welcome
10.00 am Session 1 – Gaming MediaWhere is all the good writing about videogames? A decade of data and the critical games writing sphere
(Dan Golding)

Understanding the Paratextual Practices of “Let’s Plays” (Abstract)
(Brian McKitrick)

The Audiences of The Adventure Zone: Analysing Actual Play as Inclusive Gaming Media
(Ryan Stanton & Mark Johnson)
11.00 am Session 2 – Making Meaning from GamesConsidering Complexity in Emergent Narratives
(Cassandra Barkman)

Comparing Player Preferences for Historical Accuracy and Authenticity (Jacqueline Burgess & Christian Jones)

Performing within the Threshold: Girlhood Themed Games as Transformative Spaces
(Stephanie Harkin)
12.00 pm Lunch break
12.30 pm Party Zoom
1.00 pm Session 3 – Navigating Gender and PoliticsFast Paced and Action Packed: The Temporality of Masculinity in Shooter Videogames
(Erin Maclean)

How We Are (Not)Coping Under The New Gaming Public: An Existential-Materialist Approach to Feminist Games and Cultural Research
(Mahli-Ann Butt)

Beyond the Bodyfucked: Mapping a Politics of “Trans Game Studies”
(Gawain Lucian Lax)
2.00 pm Session 4 – Game Design AnalysisCapturing hybridity: a comparative analysis of three hybrid digital boardgames
(Melissa J. Rogerson, Lucy A. Sparrow, Martin R. Gibbs)

Gaming the system: Legally-required loot box probability disclosures in China are implemented sub-optimally
(Leon Y. Xiao, Laura L. Henderson, Yuhan Yang, Philip W.S. Newall)

Indie Creatorship: Rendering the ‘Indie-ness’ of Indie Games
(Christian Hayes, Karen Le Rossignol, Stefan Greuter)
3.00 pm Afternoon break
3.30 pm Session 5 – Tabletop RPGsUnlearning in Games: Deconstructing Failure in Dungeons & Dragons
(Premeet Sidhu, Marcus Carter, Jen Scott Curwood)

Critical Fail – Addressing problematic designs in table-top role-playing games for narrative therapy and community wellbeing
(Adric Polkinghorne, Jane Turner, Manuela Taboada, Jeremy Kerr)

The Potential for Facial Biometrics in Role-Playing Games
(Niels Wouters, Melissa J. Rogerson, Yian Hu)
6.00 pm Some in-person social events
Wednesday 10 February
9.45 am Opening of Day 2
10.00 am Session 6 – Esports and Streaming“You gotta understand the context of this though”: Preliminary insights on perceptions of trash talk across esport communities
(Sidney Irwin, Anjum Naweed, Michele Lastella)

Behind the Streams: The Hidden Labour of Game Live Streaming
(Mark R. Johnson)

Laborious Spectatorship of Esports Fans
(David Cumming, Martin Gibbs, Wally Smith)
11.00 am Session 7 – Community, Ethics, and JusticeIs There Room for Community Ethics in Game Design Education?
(Lucy Sparrow, Martin Gibbs, Michael Arnold)Gamechanger: Digital Games as Simulative Models for Human Services
(Prithi Yadav & Manuela Taboada)Boundary making practices in Virtual Reality
(Kate Euphemia Clark)
12.00 pm Lunch break
12.30 pm Party Zoom
1.00 pm Session 8 – Player Practices and ExperiencesNetworking roulette, babies, and playing !hitball: An ethnographic study of online games events in 2020
(Taylor Hardwick)

Player problem-solving strategies in co-located play of a single-player video game
(Megan Pusey, Kevin Wong, Natasha Rappa)

Interactive Spatial Disorder in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
(Madeleine Mackenzie)

Atmospheres in the Affective Arrangement of Play
(Andrea Andiloro)
2.00 pm  DiGRA Australia AGM and Elections
3.00 pm (or after close of DiGRAA AGM) Party Zoom – Dinosaur Racing

Call For Papers – DiGRA Australia 2021 National Conference

Posted on by Posted in DiGRAA2021 .

DiGRA Australia National Conference 2021: How’s it going?

February 9-10, 2021 – Zooming to you from Melbourne, Australia

In 2021, the DiGRAA conference will be fully online – and of course it’s also free. We’ll still have a mix of academic presentations as well as opportunities to meet other games researchers – plus plenty of informal, playful social events as well as panels on some of the big questions that we are all facing. There’s no theme, but we do want to know how you’re getting on.

We know that for many people, 2020 has been stressful. For many of us, the DiGRAA conference in February was the last time we attended an academic conference in person, the last time we saw friends and colleagues (especially from interstate) other than over Zoom. Maybe the last thing that you want to do is write another paper or extended abstract about research that didn’t happen quite as fast or as successfully as you’d hoped. But we don’t want you to go missing! We’re making DiGRAA even more accessible this year.

Submission

There are three ways to submit to DiGRAA this year.

  1. Abstracts

Tell us about your research. What are you working on, what has you stumped? 100-200 words, plain text. Abstract submissions will be reviewed by the organising committee. They will not be archived on the DiGRAA website.

Accepted Abstracts will be presented as a 5-minute pre-recorded video and a subsequent live group discussion time.

 

  1. Extended Abstracts

This is the way that most of us submit to DiGRAA. Up to 800 words on the DiGRAA template. Submissions should be anonymised. These will be reviewed by the organising committee and will be archived on the DiGRAA website.

Accepted Extended Abstracts will be presented as a 10-minute pre-recorded video and a subsequent live group question time.

 

  1. Full Papers

We don’t get a lot of full paper submissions to DiGRAA. We don’t encourage them either – but we know that sometimes you need to submit somewhere. Usually it’s about travel funding, but this year it might be about meeting a milestone for your PhD. If you need to submit a full paper, please submit an anonymised paper to the “full papers” track. It will be blind peer reviewed by at least two reviewers.

 

Accepted Full Papers will be presented as a 10-minute pre-recorded video and a subsequent live group question time.

Submission rules

To ensure as many people as possible have the opportunity to present their work at the conference, only one submission may be made per lead author, and individuals may only present one paper during the conference. There is no limit on secondary authorship.

From 2020, DiGRA Australia is implementing a ‘grey list’ policy for accepted submissions that are withdrawn with no reason provided, or for which the presenter simply does not attend. Please familiarise yourself with the specifics of this policy here.

Submissions should be formatted according to the extended abstract and full paper templates.

Please submit via Easychair here.

Important dates

All submissions due:      Friday November 27th 2020, 5pm Australian Eastern Daylight Time. We will close Easychair after midnight on Sunday November 29th but please do not work through the weekend to prepare a submission! We have already pushed this as late as we can; there will not be an extension of this deadline.

Paper and abstract decisions:     Wednesday 16th December 2020.

Video presentations due:           Monday, 1st February 2021

Publication

Full Papers and Extended Abstracts will be archived on the DiGRAA website. Videos (subject to permissions) will be published in a dedicated YouTube channel. Aligning with DiGRAA social media policy, you will have the option to NOT have your video archived.

Conference Organising Committee

Chairs: Dr Melissa Rogerson & Associate Professor Martin Gibbs

melissa.rogerson@unimelb.edu.au / martin.gibbs@unimelb.edu.au

DiGRA Australia 2020 National Conference – Registration Open

Posted on by Posted in DiGRAA2020 .

The national conference for DiGRA Australia will be held at Queensland University of Technology’s Gardens Point campus, Brisbane, On 10-11 February, 2020.

As with all previous DiGRA Australia events, the 2020 conference has free registration, and we encourage game studies researchers and students, and industry representatives to attend and participate in the conversation.

Please register via this link if you intend to attend.

More details, including the program, will be published in the new year.

 

 

Call for Expressions of Interest to Host DiGRA Australia 2019 National Conference

Posted on by Posted in DiGRAA2019 .

The Australian chapter of the Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) invites expressions of interest from relevant departments, schools, or centres at Australian universities to host the fourth DiGRA Australia National Conference in February 2019.

The successful host will be selected by the DiGRA Australia board. The board will be guided by the following criteria in making their decision:

  1. The conference should be run by a department with a cohort of academics and postgraduates producing research relevant to the field of game studies.
  2. The host should be able to provide the necessary institutional support to ensure a successful conference.
  3. The host should be able to head the peer-review process, with assistance from the DiGRA Australia board.
  4. Following the success of previous national conferences, the 2019 conference should have no registration fee and, pending on submissions, be capable of running a single track for two days.
  5. In the event of more than one competitive bid, cities other than Sydney and Melbourne will be preferenced to support regional equity.

The deadline for expressions of interest is Friday, 31 August. The board will decide on a successful host in early September, with the intent to see a Call For Papers released shortly afterwards. Ideally, the peer review process for abstracts will be complete by mid-December.

Please send expressions of interest that address the above criteria, or any queries, to the DiGRA Australia President, Brendan Keogh (brendan.keogh@qut.edu.au).

DiGRA Australia 2016 Queensland Symposium: Programme

Posted on by Posted in DiGRAA2016 Qld .

(Programme pdf) 

10:00am Opening remarks
10:15am Finding Spaces & Play

The Growing Pervasiveness of Games and Play – Hugh Davies (pdf)

Finding Ways of Being: Psychogeography in Urban Codemaking – Troy Innocent and Steven Conway (pdf)

Travelling with Giuliana Bruno to the Videogame – Dan Golding (pdf)
11.15am Morning Tea
11.30am Ways of Design

Punctuate a Moving Picture: David Sudnow’s Pilgrim in the Microworld and an Alternative History of the Study of Videogames – Brendan Keogh (pdf)

Finding a Way: Reducing Design Schema Friction in Narrative Design – Christy Dena (pdf)

Positive Psychology in Game Design: A Framework for Collaboration – Matthew Lee (pdf)
12.30pm Lunch
1.30pm Huizinga & Play – truna
1.45pm Alternative Paths

Wing Commander and the Enduring Impact of Live-Action Video – Jakub Majewski and Scott Knight (pdf)

No Heroes: The Erasure of Chronic Health Conditions from Videogames – Dakoda Barker (pdf)

‘Adam Smith Hates Your Guts’: Horror, Survival, and the In-Game Economy in Pathologic – Julian Novitz (pdf)
2.45pm Finding Communities

Broadcasting Play: Articulating Roles of Materialities and Bodies – Ben Egliston (pdf)

Tapping into the Gaming Community for Roguelikes – Xavier Ho (pdf)

Adolescents as Game Designers: What can be Learned from Young People? – Pilar Lacasa, Sara Cortés, María Ruth Garcia-Pernía, Laura Méndez (pdf)
3.45pm Afternoon Tea
4.00pm Australasia & Games

We Still Make Games Here: A Sustainable Australian Videogames Industry? – John Banks and Stuart Cunningham (pdf)

Indigenous Depictions in Strategy Games: An Argument for Flavour – Rhett Loban (pdf)

New Wave Australiana and Making a Game about Australia – Terry Burdak (pdf)
5.00pm Roundtable discussion and closing remarks.
5.30pm Refreshments.