Announcement: Journal of Games Criticism Special Issue

Announcement: Journal of Games Criticism Special Issue

The Journal of Games Criticism is proud to announce the publication of
its first special issue, edited by Aaron Trammell and Zack Lischer-Katz.
Adapted from the Extending Play: The Sequel conference held at Rutgers
University in 2015, this issue considers matters surrounding sequels and
repetition in the world of video games and their study. The issue is
available at http://gamescriticism.org/ and the full list of articles is
listed below.

Considering the Sequel to Game Studies... by A. Trammell & Z.
Lischer-Katz

The Extending Play conference at Rutgers University in 2015 underlined
the importance of sequels and repetition to games and their study. Here
the editors discuss these themes and introduce the interviews and
articles that were adapted from the conference for this bonus issue.

The Replication of Ideology: An Interview with Adrienne Shaw and Marcus
Boon by Melissa Aronczyk

Shaw and Boon examine the iterative and repeating forces of ideology
that work within games as a culture industry and play as a cultural
practice. They discuss the importance for scholars to take these visible
and invisible forces of power into account within the study of games.
Liberating Play: An Interview with Anna Anthropy and Miguel Sicart by A.
Gilbert

Anthropy and Sicart discuss the centrality of games within the
discipline of game studies and consider how lessons learned from play
studies might curb stagnation in the field.

Hanging in the Video Arcade by S. Tobin

This paper decenters play and the player in the arcade by exploring
another subject I call hangers. It explores the genealogies of player
control, engagement and the policing of play practices in the American
video arcade in the 1980s.

Assessing Mass Effect 2 and Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: Using Collaborative
Criteria for Player Agency in Interactive Narratives by L. Joyce

This paper first establishes the criteria necessary to construct a
digital interactive narrative game that contains both narrative agency
and ludic agency before considering those criteria against two
interactive narrative games: Mass Effect 2 and Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Imperialism in the Worlds and Mechanics of First-Person Shooters by A.
Patel

This paper focuses on two highly popular first-person shooter games, Far
Cry 2 and Far Cry 3, and examines how elements of their game worlds and
mechanics reinforce (and disrupt) imperialist narratives.

Ludic Spolia in Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth by E. McNeil

Using the art historical term spolia as a launching point, McNeil
explores the reuse of gaming mechanics and visuals from Sid Meier's
Civilization V in Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth. She argues
that this reuse was both practical and perhaps unintentionally
subversive.

A Proceduralist View on Diversity in Games by G. Smith

Looking at diversity and inclusion through a proceduralist lens allows
us to more deeply analyze current games, as well as prompt new questions
and avenues for technical and design research.

JGC (ISSN: 2374-202X) is currently seeking submissions from game
developers, designers, bloggers, journalists, and scholars for its
Summer/Fall 2016 issue. This issue's submission deadline is August 1,
2016 and will be published on October 8, 2016. We accept articles, book
reviews, experimental game reviews, and letters to the editor for
review. Our submission guidelines are available at
http://gamescriticism.org/submissions/.

Questions or comments can be directed to gamescriticism@gmail.com.

Nicholas A. Hanford
Editor-in-Chief
Journal of Games Criticism