Annual conference in Klagenfurt 2014

Fifth Annual Meeting of the Society for Fantasy Research eV

Fantastic Games:
Imaginary game worlds and their socio-cultural significance

at the Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt
September 11-14, 2014

In homo ludens (1938), his essential and seminal study, which is often seen as the beginning of Game Studies as we understand them today, Johan Huizinga postulated an ontological connection between culture as is essential human endeavor, and stake. Contrary to the repeated accusations that gaming is just a meaningless and escapist activity, Huizinga gave him one significant function, both in the metaphorical sense of the phrase (ie "it is important") and in its literal sense (ie "it means something") (1971: 1). Through its very own nature, the game opens up spaces and worlds beyond everyday primary reality and new reference systems, which, however, never remain without significant and meaningful interactions with it. Culture, according to Huizinga, needs the freedom that play generates, first and foremost in order to emerge, but also to change and adapt.

This intricate and complex network of cross-connections between playful otherworlds and the everyday life of individuals and groups forms the core interest of the fifth annual conference of the Society for Fantasy Research eV We have deliberately chosen the very open and inclusive formulation of the "imaginary game worlds" as the subject of the lectures, so that the spectrum of media that fits this description is as broad as possible: hypertext and other playful text forms, board and card games, pen and paper role-playing games, LARPs (live-action role-playing games), video and computer games, alternate reality Gaming and 'gamified' activities of all kinds are possible, although this list is by no means exhaustive. Whatever medium is chosen, what is important is that it exhibits the “freedom within a more rigid structure” that exists “because of and in spite of this rigid structure of a system” and that Eric Zimmerman sees as an essential part of the definition of the concept 'game ' identified (2004:159). The organizers would also like to send a clear message that the conflicts over interpretative sovereignty between ludologists and narratologists in playable media, which have prevented game studies from flourishing since the late 1990s, are a thing of the past, so presentations proposing possibilities suggest this separation to overcome are particularly welcome.

The second focus of the conference, as can be seen from its title, is on the possibilities of social and cultural exchange between the secondary or even tertiary realities that are created and the primary reality in which they are in turn created, played out and observed. Possible approaches to the corresponding media range from the implicit and explicit social and cultural politics of games and playable media on the content and structural level, to the existing representation and configuration regimes, the psychosocial phenomena surrounding the generated game experiences, to the political and social regulation of playful behavior, and beyond. According to Frans Mäyrä, game studies are necessarily “a multidisciplinary research and teaching field that has games and related phenomena as its subject” (2010: 6), so ideally theoretical perspectives from all academic disciplines as well as contributions from people with practical experience of design should be invited and the creation of playable spaces, come together to present a kaleidoscopic overview of the full range of possibilities, problems and future potentials of games and playable media at this fifth annual GFF meeting, mediating between fantastic worlds and everyday life.

As usual at GFF conferences, there will be an Open Track for all papers not directly related to the conference theme, to ensure a pluralism of perspectives in the exploration of the fantastic. We therefore explicitly invite you to lectures on all other aspects of the fantastic for this Open Track.
Likewise, the GFF is pleased to announce the availability of two student grants of €250 each to be used for the two most interesting submitted student projects to support travel expenses to the conference. Please send applications for these scholarships with an abstract and a short biography to the address below.

If you would like to contribute your voice to such a discussion of imaginary game worlds, we cordially invite you to send us an abstract of 350 words gff2014@aau.at in which you present your 20-minute presentation in English or German. Please do not forget to include your contact details and a short biography. The deadline for abstracts is the 31 January 2014.

Contact:
Rene Schallegger
Institute of English and American Studies
Alpen-Adria University of Klagenfurt
Universitätsstrasse 65-67
9020 Klagenfurt am Wörthersee / Austria

Literature references (all self-translated from English):
Huizinga, Johan. 1971. [1938] Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture. Boston/MA: The Beacon Press.
Maya, Frans. 2010. [2008] An Introduction to Game Studies: Games in Culture. Los Angeles/CA, London et al.: Sage.
Zimmerman, Eric. 2004. “Narrative, Interactivity, Play, and Games”. In: Noah Wardip-Fruin and Pat Harrigan [eds.]. 2004 First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game. Cambridge/MA and London: MIT Press. 154-164.