This past year has been heart-wrenchingly defined by the pandemic, and it has impacted all of us in so many ways. We all are trying to do as well as we can, and many of us have found some solace playing games, as well as playing games in new ways (e.g. over videoconferencing, or through virtual tabletop services).
This challenging year marks the 10th anniversary of the Well Played Journal, and it has caused everything to go more slowly. So much so that for the first time the journal didn’t publish any issues for a year, although two issues are almost completed. That said, we are working on a retrospective to reflect on Well Played and what it is, how it has worked well (or could be better), and how it has helped share a sense of the value of games.
For a companion to the retrospective, we invite authors to submit essays that articulate how games have been a part of their pandemic experience, and the value and role games have had in their lives this past year. By analyzing these gameplay experiences, we hope to highlight how much games can matter.
ETC Press is accepting submissions due by 31 March 2021.
All submissions and questions should be sent to:
well-played (at) lists (dot) andrew (dot) cmu (dot) edu
The Well Played Journal is a forum for in-depth close readings of video games that parse out the various meanings to be found in the experience of playing a game. It is a reviewed journal open to submissions that will be released on a regular basis.
Contributors are encouraged to analyze sequences in a game in detail in order to illustrate and interpret how the various components of a game can come together to create a fulfilling playing experience unique to this medium. Through contributors, the journal will provide a variety of perspectives on the value of games.
The goal of the journal is to continue developing and defining a literacy of games as well as a sense of their value as an experience. Video games are a complex medium that merits careful interpretation and insightful analysis. By inviting contributors to look closely at video games and the experience of playing them, we hope to expand the discussion, and show how games are well played in a variety of ways.
The ETC Press is an academic and open-source publishing imprint that distributes its work in print, electronic and digital form. Inviting readers to contribute to and create versions of each publication, ETC Press fosters a community of collaborative authorship and dialogue across media. ETC Press represents an experiment and an evolution in publishing, bridging virtual and physical media to redefine the future of publication.
http://press.etc.cmu.edu/
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ISSN 2164-344X (Print)
ISSN 2164-3458 (Online)