The SCMS Video Game Studies Special Interest Group (VGSSIG) is proud to announce our 2026 Emerging Scholar Writing Award, particularly for work that extends, reimagines, or creatively contributes to the interdisciplinary field(s) of game studies.

Hello everyone! We hope you are all doing well! The VGSSIG board has two updates to share.

Introducing our VGSSIG grad student rep for this year, @kathrynfedchun.bsky.social! A PhD candidate at Carleton University, she is researching the queer indie game scene(s), game bundles, and queer survival on itch. She's played 1700+ hours (yikes) of League of Legends. Indie fave: Sword & Sworcery.

We look forward to welcoming you all to the SCMS Virtual Symposium, December 5-6, 2025. All current SCMS members will be granted access. There is no additional registration for this event; your membership dues allow you to attend and participate. More here: conta.cc/4o0axto

A warm welcome to one of our VGSSIG graduate student reps, Caleb Ward!! Caleb is a PhD student at Georgia State University interested in the political economy of game platforms. His most played video game is Marvel Rivals with 300 hours, and indie fave is Sorry We're Closed. Welcome aboard, Caleb!!

Next up is our VGSSIG Secretary, @guyintheblackhat.bsky.social. Evan is an assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati. His research interests include role-playing games as ideology, self-reflexivity, and adaptation. Over 200 hours on Cobalt Core(!!) and one of his fave indies is Itras By.

Meet our VGSSIG Co-Chair, @thejimfleury.bsky.social!! Jim is a senior lecturer @ Washington University interested in video game history, licensed video games, and retrogaming. Another big Legend of Zelda fan (Breath of the Wild, this time) and indie favourite It Takes Two 👯

Excited to introduce one of our VGSSIG Co-Chairs, @davidkocik.bsky.social!! David is an asst. prof at Quinnipiac University interested in discourses of identity in the circulation of Japanese video games to the US. Catch him playing The Legend of Zelda: TotK or maybe role-playing in Disco Elysium 👾

Looking for tips to sharpen (or start 😉) your SCMS proposal? Curious how proposals are processed? We are holding a VGSSIG workshop for submission to SCMS 2026 this Tuesday, August 5th at 3 pm EST -- Please join us if you're interested in learning more or if you have a CFP to pitch to the membership!

Hello and Welcome to the SCMS Video Game Studies SIG Bsky account! Please Pardon us while we get up and running here.