New Games and Culture! I especially want to highlight Leland Masek's piece on identifying playfulness. His work on playfulness is foundational! (I'm his supervisor, so I may be slightly biased.)

#Cfp: Call for Book Chapters - #videogames, #gamedesign, game communities, & playthings that trouble what we mean by #nostalgia “ #Games and its Nostalgia for the Future” is edited by yours truly and likely published with Play Story Press. Abstracts due Nov 3, 2025 Full CfP: shorturl.at/NCkzU

Meet me next week in Bochum (Germany) speaking about the concept of virtuality from the perspective of my own research, somewhere inbetween virtual prototyping and sensing.

📍 CFP DHNB 2026: Lost in abundance: Encounters with the non-canonical Submission deadline: October 15th Conference date: March 9-13, 2026 Location: Aarhus, Denmark Please spread widely! 🎉 #digitalhumanities #glam #digitalculture

Reading the special issue on Fans in M/C Journal. The essays are very accessible and readable and diverse, do have a look! #fans #fandom journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mc...

I'm hiring a postdoc at ITU Copenhagen with experience in NLP, who is keen on improving citizens' experience of health emergency triage in an exciting project with the Danish emergency helpline and the University of Copenhagen. Knowledge of Danish is helpful. candidate.hr-manager.net/ApplicationI...

Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia: doi.org/10.5281/zeno... We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity. 1/n

BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT! @mahliann.bsky.social, @marcuscarter.com, and myself have combined our collective brains and written a wide-reaching introduction to the complex and interdisciplinary field of Game Studies in this forthcoming book for Polity. www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?b...

For my fellow colleagues working in the Dutch game sector and interested in game development & design, the Stimuleringsfonds has a call for funding proposals you might be interested in: www.stimuleringsfonds.nl/en/grants/op...

We are still looking for interviewees working on and with open-source software, especially from thus far underrepresented groups (people with little to medium experience working on OSS, those in mid-career stages (10–20 years on the job), women and nonbinary people, people over 45 years old).

📚💻💰📝 If you are thinking about applying for an ERC grant and want inspiration, I've updated my paper where I tell how I got mine. It now includes the application (B1+B2), the manuscript for the presentation I gave at my interview, the slides, and the nine peer reviews. pure.au.dk/portal/en/pu...

Who is really fueling your #AI? 🤔 It's not just code & algorithms. Behind every LLM are millions of people, often in invisible roles. Join us, @dataworkersinquiry.bsky.social, @milamiceli.bsky.social @superrrnetwork.bsky.social & on Sept. 17 to hear directly from data workers! 🔗 buff.ly/2ug32Bx

The Center for Islamic Theology and the Department of Religious Studies and Intercultural Theology are hosting the conference „The Role of Islam and Christianity in Public Space – Perspectives from Indonesia and Germany“ at @uni-muenster.de from 26 to 28 September. uni.ms/gkil1

Trying Out New Paths in Aesthetics, a book I edited with Zoltán Somhegyi for Brill, is OUT any moment! My article focuses on aesthetics of martial arts, but great authors from Saumya Suyal to Rodrigo Duarte, Myriam Ávila and Yvonne Förster discuss e g. virtues, AI & myths. brill.com/display/titl...

There's another very kind review of The Middle Ages in Computer Games out on @gamevironments.bsky.social from @markusmindrebo.bsky.social. There's also a bunch of important articles on peripheral religions in games in this issue which are well worth a look. doi.org/10.48783/gam...

We recently published a special issue on Peripheral Religions and Games, guest edited by @caroleinx.bsky.social, @amayer.bsky.social and Knut Wormstädt! Four brand new articles exploring the topic, one report, two reviews and, of course, an introduction.

Do you regularly work with or develop open-source software? Then we would love to talk to you! We are conducting research on how people think about OSS quality and how they evaluate OSS projects. We want to interview people to gather all kinds of perspectives. /1

Happy to let you know I'm one of the invited speakers to gachacon in February '26, organised at the CityU in Hong Kong. 🌸 This year's theme will be Genshin Impact. The event is free to attend, no registration fee!

The book Challenging Contemporary Thinking on Play came out yesterday. Edited by Victoria de Rijke and Rebecca Sinker the book explores play through a series of interviews/conversations. I'm one of the people who participated. link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

Happy to share that our Special Issue for @gamevironments.bsky.social is out now! Check below for the link and a brief run-through of the authors and topics!

Happy to share that our Special Issue for @gamevironments.bsky.social is out now! Check below for the link and a brief run-through of the authors and topics!

back in may i went on a little quest in tokyo to visit some game-themed cafés and the result is now on @debuff.de! a little piece on why these themed spaces are special and fun but also an extension of commercial franchise logic: debuff.de/kuchen-komme...

Recently, I was interviewed about my book for @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social by @janalena.bsky.social! If you want to hear me talk about games and myth for about an hour, please check it out. newbooksnetwork.com/mytholudics

This week we (@caroleinx.bsky.social, myself, and Knut V.M. Wormstädt) will introduce this Special Issue and its papers here a bit more, but obviously you'll get the most out of it, when reading it directly! @gamevironments.bsky.social

New book "Histriographies of Game Studies" #OA punctumbooks.com/titles/histo... Lots of good stuff, I'm excited about this chapter: ping @poppywilde.bsky.social @doktornick.bsky.social

From Labubu to Hello Kitty swarovski, cuteness is hot! Why do we like cute characters and things? And what's up with this economy around kawaii bling? Let's zoom into the cute, the weird, the blind boxes and the consumption of it all! Hope you enjoy this new short read! 🌸❤️✨ #cuteness #toys

RE: the recent targeting of LGBTQ+ content on Steam and itch.io (see following tweet), our #OA article "Platform Produced Heteronormativity" outlines the restrictive self-regulation of platform-based gender and sexuality of adult videogames on #Patreon journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

I am recruiting a postdoc to work with us on creative media and video game policy at the City University of Hong Kong. 🇭🇰🇨🇳 Come join our growing international, interdisciplinary team! 🌍🌏🌎 www.cityu.edu.hk/hro/en/job/c...

CfP: Beyond Game Mechanics at City University of Hong Kong Dates: 8–9 October 2025 (offline participation only) [Extended] Submission Deadline: 31 July 2025 www.scm.cityu.edu.hk/events/beyon...

CFP Hybrid Symposium: The UK Tabletop Role-Playing Game Scene – Histories, Cultures, and Legacies - 16th September, @coegamecult.bsky.social Tampere University, Finland (and online) Full details in attachments. #ttrpg #boardgames #wargames #minatures #gamebooks #videogames #history #gamestudies

🫠 A thread from @rainforestsb.bsky.social and my recent presentation at #ludo2025 (ludomusicology conference) which examines how nu metal and early 2000s gaming culture contributed to the reinforcement of white male anger (1/20).

Speaking next week at @imc-leeds.bsky.social about somatic activation as a concept for ideahistorical understandings of medieval arts and medievalist digital games, alongside some fantastic colleagues of IMAREAL Salzburg! If you are around, come by and share your favourite bloody medieval artworks!

My first paper, "Fictional Videogames as Framing Devices: Suicide Communication in MMOs," is out now on Eludamos. In the paper, I argue that the use of fictional MMOs as framing devices serves as a reflexive narrative tool that suggests MMOs as spaces with their own internal rules of communication.

🎮 #gamestudies 📣NEU und Open Access: Mein Beitrag "Not Salient Enough? Videogame-Specific Marker Failure of Implicit Metareference in Far Cry 2 and Far Cry 3" 👉 www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/oa-... Erschienen im wundervollen Sammelband "Videogames and Metareference" 🤩

Do you attend or organize events which are focused on (shared) bodily transformative experiences? Are you interested in supporting community-based research? Then please take part in our survey: forms.cloud.microsoft/e/CYYDjpnYn5

It's less than 2 weeks to submit your abstract for and secure your spot in **Video Games and Our Futures** - we are looking forward! CfP gamevironments 2025 Research Day "Video Games and Our Futures" journals.suub.uni-bremen.de/index.php/ga...

Do you attend or organize events which are focused on (shared) bodily transformative experiences? Are you interested in supporting community-based research? Then please take part in our survey: forms.cloud.microsoft/e/CYYDjpnYn5

Are you a man, at least 15 years old and either Finnish or living in Finland? Do you participate in game culture by e.g. playing video games, RPGs or miniature games, watching videos or through activities like cosplay? Take the questionnaire in Finnish or English at bit.ly/pelikulttuuri

Happy to present the start of a new project on wargame marketing in the light of geopolitical crises together with @vkankainen.bsky.social at this workshop, join us for the discussion!

«Error 417 Expectation Failed is looking for 10 scores against tech fascism. Artists, curators, and collectives worldwide are invited to apply with project ideas, instructions, how-tos, interventions and practices that engage with the contemporary condition» error417.expectation.fail/406/tech-fas...

Mechademia, el journal de referencia en estudios de cultura popular japonesa, está en acceso abierto durante un tiempo limitado! muse.jhu.edu/issue/53482

CfP: "Gotta Study ‘Em All: 30 Years of Pokémon!" The Pokémon franchise turns 30 years in 2026 🥳 To celebrate, we invite you to submit chapter proposals for an academic book prepared with Samuli Laato and Piotr Siuda. See the CfP: piotrsiuda.com/wp-content/u... Submission deadline: June 30, 2025.

The Northern Star Symposium 2025 went really well, and now that they all have left, I feel the loss. What I do not feel is Anger, but this is the topic of the Northern Star Symposium 2026, May 26th - 28th. So while you wait for the CFP, don't ragequit. We want your Anger. #NorthernStar2026

Having a brief and unexpected return to Art History this year: I will have the great pleasure to join my fantastic colleagues @nominiel.bsky.social and @thiliel.bsky.social alongside Rob Houghton and Blair Apgar to speak about digital games and medievalism at @imc-leeds.bsky.social!

Deadline end of May, don't forget to submit!

The call for an issue of JDMI on “Friction in Games and Computational Media” was extended until the end of June. If you're working on play and games studies, interaction, computational media, ludic design, etc. we'd love to receive your paper! proa.ua.pt/index.php/jd...

📢 🔨 Do you have something great you’re working on for CHI PLAY but it wasn’t quite ready for a full paper? Submit to the Works-in-Progress track and get feedback from the community to move your research forward or spark new ideas! Deadline: June 4! chiplay.acm.org/2025/work-in...

The University of Glasgow & the British Library have announced a fully funded PhD Studentship on "Fanfiction and Online Fan Communities: Collecting Practice and Inclusion in a National Collection" www.gla.ac.uk/scholarships...