Analog Game Studies (analoggamestudies.org) is a journal seeking short abstracts (250 words) or full pieces (1500-2000 words) for the special issues detailed below. Articles published online will likely appear in a yearly print anthology as well.

Gender and Sexuality in Analog Games

Through strategies of representation, game mechanics, and target audience, gender and sexuality inscribe what and how we play. This special issue will focus on teasing out dynamics often ignored in the analysis of many games’ content: how queerness, femininity, masculinity, heterosexuality and a host of other topoi are contested, packaged and projected through games. What role-playing games appeal most to certain demographics and why? How do abstract systems express or refute heteronormativity? What censorship procedures have been used around sexuality in board games? How might one queer Magic: The Gathering?

Performance and Play

As evidenced by the prevalence of the word “play” in theatrical vocabulary, performance and games have always shared a deep connection. We are interested in digging into the history of ways in which performance and games have intersected through the activity of play. In what ways are games used in the production of drama, music, dance or other performance traditions? Are there ways in which performance skills and techniques are evident in analog games, even outside of role-playing games? What do the similarities between theater and role-playing mean more broadly for scholars of culture, media, and education? Where is there still room for growth and development in connecting games and performance in unconventional or unexpected ways?

Materiality and Games

What do games do, and what are the parts, components, manuals, dice, and miniatures doing inside of games? We are soliciting submissions that deal specifically with the material affordances of games and play. Topics might include the political economy of meeples, cultural rituals around dice rolling, or Jenga and Object Oriented Ontology. Submissions should make a case for the ways that materiality and games interact in a fundamentally new way that challenges existing theory.

In addition to the calls above, AGS also always welcomes submissions on other topics relevant to analog game studies. We also welcome submissions for book or game reviews, or interviews (please see this and this for examples of the style we aim for).
Please email submissions to analoggamestudiesjournal@gmail.com by June 8, 2015 (and feel free to submit more than once!)