Call for Papers and Article Contest on Video Games in Asia

The Dynamics of Digital Play in Asia

The peer-reviewed academic journal Asiascape: Digital Asia (DIAS) is now inviting contributions for its 2016 special issue, “The Dynamics of Digital Play in Asia”. We welcome submissions from researchers from the social sciences, computer sciences, and arts and humanities, as well as from multi- and interdisciplinary backgrounds, which explore the socio-political, economic, aesthetic, philosophical or cultural dimensions of digital play in contemporary Asian contexts.

A jury composed of the editorial team will award the annual DIAS “Best Research Article” prize to the most compelling submission, and a “Best Article by an Emerging Scholar” award to the most impressive submission by a junior researcher. In addition to a certificate, the laureate(s) will receive their prize in the form of book coupons from Brill Publishing.

The deadline for submission is: 1 August 2015.

Abstract:

Video gaming is one of the most popular past times of digital media, whether on the Internet, on smartphones, or on tablets, and it often outranks other digital activities such as reading online news, searching information, or streaming videos. This is certainly the case across Asia, where video games are a crucial sector of cultural industries and youth culture, though often in diverse ways: consoles are extremely popular in Japanese or Singaporean gaming, while online games still dominate China’s and Korea’s gaming landscape, and mobile gaming is sweeping across Southeast Asian societies like Indonesia or Malaysia with the rapid growth and use of smartphones.

Video gaming has also become so pervasive that, for many players, it is no longer a hobby. Whether it is video game tournaments, known as e-Sports, or the economy surrounding “Gold Farmers”– professional players who offer to play and upgrade other gamers’ characters for a fee – video games are often a serious affair. And gamers are not the only ones taking video games seriously: governments in the region regularly intervene in digital cultural industries, whether it is to regulate “harmful” content, produce propaganda games, or “cure” perceived gaming addictions.

In this special issue, we ask contributors to explore the dynamics of digital play in Asia. What social, political and ethical roles do video games play in the region? What factors shape their creation, content, and distribution? How do gamers interact with the medium, and how does the medium react to gamers? What happens when digital play becomes digital labour, or when it becomes professionalized in the form of e-Sports. Most importantly: where should we locate “Asia” in these dynamics, whether aesthetically, politically, socially, or economically? And what tools and methods should researchers deploy to analyse these issues in the Asian context?

Possible topics for submissions include but are not limited to:

• Convergent technologies and the impact on established modes of digital play.
• Government regulations and types of digital game play.
• Video game fandom and free labor.
• History of the growth of video games in Asia.
• Digital gaming as social technology/media.
• A culturally specific aesthetic to the production and consumption of video games.
• Gendered consumption and production of video games.
• Moral panics about video games and religion.
• Concerns about mobile gaming addiction and consequent policy changes.
• Critical interpretation of emerging local game industries in Asia.
• Unique ways in which specific Asian countries have adopted video game platforms.
• Case studies to gaming in places such as China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, etc.

Submission guidelines:

Submissions should be no more than 10,000 words, including notes and references, and should be submitted through the journal’s editorial management system by 1 August 2015. Please see the instructions for authors for further information on the in-house style requirements. For further questions, please contact the special issue editor, Dr. Dal Yong Jin, and the managing editor, Dr. Florian Schneider.

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