Happy to have been part of this conference. I had a blast! Thank you for organising gachacon, @leonxiao.com and team!

If any journalists want to know about the parallel development of BL and slash fandom, i.e. fujoshi vs media fans, I wrote about this at length in my book to drive the point home that they aren't the same thing. You can read Manga's First Century, or you can talk to me! bookshop.org/p/books/mang...

Next week Monday (2.3.'26) I'll give an Open Class lecture on the Monetisation of characters in gacha games. Expect some rambling about Love and Deepspace. It'll take place at at Universidade do Porto, and is open to all. Really excited to be there and give a talk! sigarra.up.pt/fbaup/pt/NOT...

Please be free to download and read the PhD dissertation of Elisa Wiik on “lapsed players”. The public defence will take place on Friday March 20 at noon (Finnish time) in Tampere, and an online stream will also be available. trepo.tuni.fi/handle/10024...

It's out! Check out my article, "From Analog to Interactive Haunting: Fake Documentary 'Q' and the Remediation of Japanese Horror" in JCMS. If you don't have access to JCMS message me here or email me and I'll happily send you a copy. quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jcms/issues/

Publication announcement! I can now retire in peace: together with my friend Bo Kampmann Walther, I have written a book about football (aka soccer, fodbold, or fútbol). The book is out i April 15 from Routledge/CRC Press: www.routledge.com/The-Laws-of-... (1/5)

Hi! I have a new, quirky article out on how games use and represent the dead, but also on deadpool games, & the strange case of the #Fantamorto (an Italian fantasy sport). >> gamestudies.org/2601/article... << 🚨WARNING🚨: it might contain traces of @ckunzelman.bsky.social and @maurovanetti.itch.io

As you may know, we are running a conference on games, play, and climate futures in May at the ITU Copenhagen: playingfutures.today Some news: the deadline for abstracts has been extended to February 20th. Now you have no excuses left not to submit!

Something for the fellow Arts+Tech crowd: NordiCHI 2026 will host the track "Art-Based Approaches in HCI"! We welcome artistic and art-based practice-forward approaches to Human-Computer Interactions under the broad umbrella term of "energy". More information here: sites.uwasa.fi/nordichi2026...

Do you ever wonder about game fandom and different types of fans? I was reflecting a lot on gatekeeping and different play styles lately, thanks to Silksong. I thought I'd bundle my ideas in a blog, and made a typology to go along with it! (Shaw!) #gamestudies nicollelamerichs.com/2026/01/28/s...

SCHOLAR'S CODEX - preorders now launched! A collection of essays on Souls games written by academics from at least three continents. Each chapter takes it starting point from an item in one of the Souls games to talk about existentialism, humanity, irony, disempowerment, time and more.

New CfP by @pachuki.bsky.social and me! We'll be editing a special issue at gamevironments and are looking for contributions focused on DIY print publications like fanzines, newsletters and even DIY aspects of commercial gaming magazines. #GameStudies journals.suub.uni-bremen.de/index.php/ga...

📡 Signal blasting for new followers: I wanna do a lil intro abt ROMchip: A Journal of Game Histories @romchip.bsky.social b/c we got an important fundraiser coming up in a few weeks. It's a free, open-access journal dedicated to game history, and if you love games, here's why you should care 🕹️🎲🀄🎯

A thread on ZEN AND SLOW GAMES (MIT Press, 2026)

I just discovered that our book PERSPECTIVES ON THE EUROPEAN VIDEOGAME has been released in paperback with a much more affordable price: 42€ (instead of the 120€ of the hardback) Good moment to give it a chance and think about what the European videogame is! www.routledge.com/.../Navarr.....

Here’s a friendly reminder about the conference we are running at the ITU in May: playingfutures.today Deadline for abstracts is February 16th, and the conference will take place May 20th to 22nd in Copenhagen. Look at our call for papers for more details: playingfutures.today/call-for-pap...

Animal Crossing: New Horizons' 3.0 version update is now out. I want to use it as an opportunity to briefly reflect on my 2022 article on New Horizons' character trade. cris.tuni.fi/ws/portalfil... (1/7)

Nieuwe publicatie in Tijdschrift voor Communicatiewetenschap! We onderzochten de rol van gamemotieven in het voorspellen van problematisch gamegedrag bij adolescenten, aan de hand van een survey bij 619 Vlaamse gamende adolescenten (11-19 jaar oud, 53% jongens), afgenomen op twee meetmomenten.

ZEN AND SLOW GAMES will be out in 11 days! You can already pre-order it, ask your favourite bookshop to do so, or save the url for the open access pdf. If you have a podcast, website, fanzine, or any other space where you want to ask me about it, you know where to find me :)

One more week to submit to this wonderful event - gogogogogogogo!

The article by @gutierrezcarrera.bsky.social and me is now out! Julián has created an entire thread to summarize our argument in the article (below). The article is open access, freely available in the journal Thanatos: journal.fi/thanatos/art...

Eludamos has a new CFP for a Special issue: New Perspectives on Men and Masculinity in Gaming Eludamos invites scholars in game studies and beyond to submit full papers for a special issue on men and masculinity in gaming, with deadline March 15, 2026.

Call for Papers Scream@30 An in-person academic conference hosted by The Centre for Film, Television and Screen Studies, Bangor University, UK 16th December 2026 The deadline to submit abstracts is 1st June 2026. www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa-j...

GOING BOX MODE 📦 Pleased to share the intro to our CSMC Special Issue on games + Sofia's theory of "container technologies." From solar gaming & trucking sims to hot tub streams & apocalypse bunkers, 13 articles square up for an expanded definition of gaming cultures: doi.org/10.1080/1529...

Re-upping the article I wrote a few years ago about how #StrangerThings typifies the nostalgia industry that has come to dominate popular culture. muse.jhu.edu/pub/105/arti...

Hi folks! I’m currently co-editing a special issue for GAME about queer and trans games studies. Find the full cfp here www.gamejournal.it/n-132025-bey..., deadline for abstract submission is 12 January 2026!

Call for Applications! Ways of Undoing invites videographic makers, scholars, and artists to apply to one of three intensive, week-long residential workshops (St Andrews 2026 | Vancouver 2027 | Tokyo 2028). Funded accommodation & board provided. Deadline: Feb 1, 2026 waysofdoing.com/ways-of-undo...

Finally made it to Bluesky so that I can share this awesome project with everyone!

Busy week for the CoE blog! Have a look at this blog post where Matilda Ståhl, Aska Mayer (@amayer.bsky.social), Robyn Hope, Rainforest Scully-Blaker (@rainforestsb.bsky.social) and Nick Taylor (@nickttaylor.bsky.social) discuss intersections between survival games and survivalism.

My paper "'Was Barbarossa Not German?!' Nation, History, and Identity in Civilization Players’ Online Discussions" has just been published in the new issue of Eludamos! Very happy to see this out in the world eludamos.org/index.php/el...

🚨 My new article 'Antagonistic Game Design: the Author as a Player' is out on #Eludamos (Journal for Computer Game Culture)! 🚨 >> septentrio.uit.no/index.php/el... << WARNING: might contains traces of @cloobot.bsky.social @doougle.net @jzagal.bsky.social @foddy.net and @add-hawk.bsky.social XD

The new yearly Eludamos issue has just dropped! It's massive: one editorial, 12 articles, 4 book reviews, and one commentary. It's well over 350 pages. Please find it here: eludamos.org/index.php/el...

MANGA'S FIRST CENTURY got a nice review in Buzz magazine! www.buzzmag.co.uk/mangas-first... In the US and Canada, you can get 30% off your copy of the book via UC Press with code HOLIDAY30! www.ucpress.edu/books/mangas... The book will be out in the UK and everywhere else on January 26, 2026!

New issue of East Asian Journal of Popular Culture ⬇️⬇️⬇️ Focuses on transnational circulation of East Asian popular culture, incl: K-drama fandom in Indonesia, K-pop & Japanese visual kei in Chile & the Blackpink concert in post-pandemic Hong Kong #FanStudies www.intellectbooks.com/east-asian-j...

And now, Writing Game Histories (2026) with cover art (courtesy of @murthynikhil.bsky.social’s Syphilisation) www.bloomsbury.com/uk/writing-g...

We explored a pathway model from gambling-like elements in and around video gaming to gambling in adolescents. Interacting with gambling-like elements in the first wave was predictive of gambling behavior at wave two, indirectly via gambling attitude and intention. doi.org/10.1080/1445...

Fun #CfP for a spicy issue of Celebrity Studies (Forum section)!! Let's close this year strong!! 📢 Short accessible readings of 1500 words 📆 Submit before 16 January Good luck! 🩷✨️ #celebritystudies #mediastudies

Abstract below:

📢 #CallForPapers for the Trans #Asian Transcultural #Fandom Symposium happening on May 28, 2026 prior to @mechademia.bsky.social in #Singapore🇸🇬 Deadline for 500-word abstract⏳Feb 1 Find out more ▶️ transasianfan.wordpress.com We welcome your submissions🫰 @berthac.bsky.social @profweiyu.bsky.social

Passend dazu werde ich übrigens in den nächsten Tagen hier nochmal ein bisschen die einzelnen Beiträge der Ausgabe vorstellen, behaltet also diesen Thread hier im Auge, falls euch das interessiert! 👀 (Oder schaut einfach direkt selbst über die unten verlinkte Einleitung vorher schon in die Beiträge)

In Memoriam: Marsha Kinder 1940-2025 It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Marsha Kinder, Emerita University Professor at the University of Southern California and a pioneering figure in film, television, and digital media studies.

The Center for Digital Play at the IT University of Copenhagen is organizing a new conference: Playing Futures. The conference will take place from May 20th to 22nd at the IT University of Copenhagen. You can read more about it here: playingfutures.today

DiGRA deadline extended until 8th December for abstracts and full papers. www.digraconference2026.com

The full Special Issue of Celebrity Studies on Celebrity Crises and Conflicts is now out! www.tandfonline.com/toc/rcel20/1...

Darshana Jayemanne and my 2012 article "Game Studies Material Turn" from Westminster Papers In Communication just hit 200 citations on google scholar www.westminsterpapers.org/article/id/1... #gamestudies

If you’re in Leiden www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/events/20...

CFP for a special issue of Eludamos. What are antifascist games? Proposal deadline is December 19. eludamos.org/index.php/el...

I'm delighted to announce that my new book, Artgames after Gamergate, is out now with Palgrave: link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

New article on larp, activism and deliberation in this collection, out in December!

The Edu-Larp Conference will happen again in 2026! On April 15th in Gothenbrg, Sweden! Registration and the call for program is now open. Sent in your program proposal before January 4th. edularpconference.com