Analog Game Studies (analoggamestudies.org) is an online academic journal committed to increasing the visibility of analog games within the broader field of game studies by providing a periodically published platform for the critical analysis, discussion of design, and documentation of analog games. For more detail on what we do, see “Reinventing Analog Game Studies.” We are currently seeking submissions for three forthcoming issues in 2018 on the following themes. (Articles published online will likely appear in a yearly print anthology as well.)
DECEPTION GAMES
We have a cultural obsession with deception in games. Be it the politically charged critique of Secret Hitler, slips of paper being passed in Dungeons & Dragons, the plot of Clue, or the secret and lengthy character backgrounds written for players in larp, we are deceiving ourselves if we see secrecy anything other than central to most games today. Analog Game Studies is calling for abstracts and papers that interrogate deception of all kinds in games. How is deception implemented as a game mechanic? How does deception impact our understanding of the self and the psyche? Has our seeming comfort with deception led to the proliferation of discourse around fake news and conspiracy?
CRITICAL ALGORITHMS IN GAMES
The second decade of the 21st Century marks the ascension of the algorithm to a position of absolute dominance over human & non-human affairs. From Internet searches to political data-mining, from insurance to inventory management, complex operations process variables to model and predict just about every aspect of our existence. Critical Algorithm Studies has emerged as a field to confront the fact that the seeming “objectivity” of such data processing actually reproduces and exacerbates social inequalities. This special issue of Analog Game Studies concerns itself with the ways in which board, card, dice, role-playing, and live-action games present and/or critique algorithms in society. How does Amun-Re examine the tragedy of the commons? What visions of storytelling and game design are enshrined in the symmetrical probability curve of 2D6 so popular in the Powered by the Apocalypse games? Do specific card-game hacks change the societal metaphor at the center of the original game? Analog games offer players and designers a window into how equations and incentives affect us and our broader social systems.
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