CFP: Videogames and the Alien/Other
Via Academic Gamers, there is a call for papers for Second Annual University of Florida Game Studies Conference. The topic is Videogames and the Alien / Other. Suggested themes and topics:
Presenters should focus their submissions on one of several key themes:
* Player-Characters and the function of the outsider
* Gaming cultures and subcultures
* Portraying gender, race, religion and the avatar
* Monstrosity, bodies and avatars
* Otherness and online societies (e.g. MMORPG’s)
* Xenophobia and alterity in representations of ‘enemies.’
* Designing the Alien/Other through AI and NPCs
* Video game villains and anti-heroesPossible topics include but are not limited to:
* The Other and the industry — the role of independent game developers.
* Localization and the alleged erasure of cultural difference through video games.
* Marketing and approaching new demographics.
* Becoming the Other in online role-playing communities.
* Colonialism and Orientalism within historical simulations.
* The representation (or lack) of religious pluralism in video games.
* Representations of race, gender, and/or sexual preference in games.
* The Evolution of the Alien/Other in games.
* Becoming Other — choosing a moral path inKOTOR or Black and White.
* Subversive game play.* Psychoanalysis, video games and the other/Other.
* Becoming Alien/Other in online games.
* Alien/Other and the differences inherent in console or interface configurations.
* Close studies of specific Alien/Others and tropes of Alien/Otherness.
I look forward to seeing what papers are produced, and hope women as the other in video games will be explored.
Abstracts are due March 1, 2006.
