About the Workshop
In keeping with the fluidity of the concept of “queer”, “Queer Play” is a term we keep intentionally open to allow for a range of interpretations and contributions to the workshop. Being queer means consistently engaging in processes of reinterpreting, evolving, and restructuring the environments we navigate. Considering that existing world structures and disciplines are not built for catering to the needs of queer people, it becomes necessary for queer people to creatively navigate and explore beyond conventional narratives to include their own perspectives for time, place, life, form, and desire. Therefore, we aim to move beyond focusing on LGBTQ characters and representations inside games, and to actively explore and discuss queer forms, queer playing, and queer approaches to gameplay design.
Workshop Objectives
Our main objectives for this workshop are to bring together interdisciplinary scholars at FDG with shared interest in research around queer play. In particular we aim to:
- identify and nurture the community of queer play/game scholars attending FDG
- bring awareness to an area often overlooked by the FDG community
- highlight work in research fields underrepresented at FDG
- create a plan for ongoing support of queer play/game scholars for future FDG conference
Schedule
| Queer Play Workshop Schedule May 21st, 2024 Innovation Studio – 1965 Conference Room | |||
9:30 – 9:50a | Welcome | |||
| 9:00 | Room opens – organizers arrive | ||
| 9:30 | Welcome & Intros | ||
| 9:50 – 10:30a | Session 1 | |||
| 9:50 | full paper | Florence Smith Nicholls | Permalife of the Archive: Archaeogaming as Queergaming |
| 10:10 | presentation | Zihan Feng | Online Queer Resistance Extended from the Virtual World: A Study of a Chinese Gay Game Forum |
| 10:30 – 11:00a | Coffee Break (provided by conference) | |||
| 11:00a – 12:00p | Session 2 | |||
| 11:00 | presentation | Rachel Donley | Pulling Back the Curtains of Convention: Queering Puzzle Design in Red [Redacted] Theatre |
| 11:20 | presentation | Noah K Leiter | Unpacking Uncertainty About Fan-Generated Content |
| 11:40 | demo | Madison Schmalzer | Worlds Are Just Suggestions |
| 12:00 – 1:30p | Lunch Break (on our own) | |||
| 1:30 – 3:00p | Queering Play Activity | |||
| 1:30 | activity overview and group formation | ||
| 2:00 | group work time | ||
| 3:00 – 3:30p | Coffee Break (provided by conference) | |||
| 3:30 – 5:00p | Activity and Workshop Wrap-Up | |||
| 3:30 | group work time | ||
| 4:00 | share and discussion | ||
| 4:30 | workshop wrap-up and next steps | ||
| 5:00p | End of Workshop – group dinner plans? | |||
Organizers
Rachel Donley (she/her) is a PhD student in Digital Media at Georgia Tech. Before graduate school, she worked in the escape room industry where she designed, built and ran over 15 escape games across the US. Her research investigates the potential of puzzle games to encourage players to question dominant narratives and uncover stories that are often obscured or erased. One of her most recent projects is Red [Redacted] Theater, an escape room which uses multi-layered and queered puzzles which incorporate recreated historical artifacts to challenge hetero-normative understanding of history.
Shano Liang (she/her) is a doctoral student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, who studies critical cultural games studies, queer/trans game studies, and game design. She uses games and interactive media as research lenses to explore the intersections of game culture, marginalized identities, and queerness. She is also a proficient 2D/3D game artist, multi-skill game developer, and gameplay designer.
Ari Gass (they/them) is an Assistant Professor of Digital Media at Drexel University. Their research and creative work focuses on queer and feminist approaches to computational media. Their writing can be found in Media-N, Critical Inquiry, and Performance Research. They are also a worker-owner of Obvious Agency, an interactive, game-based live performance cooperative.
Anne Sullivan (she/they) is an Assistant Professor of Digital Media at Georgia Tech. Her research forges connections and creates bridges – between research fields, communities, and people – from a humanistic and technical perspective. Their work draws predominantly from the domains of critical game design and analysis, co-creative AI, and computational craft.
Important Dates
Submissions are past, but we have left this information here for archival purposes.
Proceedings and Participation-Based Submissions
Preliminary Abstract Deadline: March 11
Optional, but encouraged!
Abstracts should be <200 words, and allow us a chance to find appropriate reviewers
Published Papers Deadline: March 7 March 15
Decisions: March 22 April 4
Camera Ready: April 19
Demos Deadline: March 7 March 15
Decisions: March 22 April 4
Camera Ready: April 19
Participation Only Submissions
Works-in-Progress Roundtable Deadline: March 25 April 8
Conference Talks Deadline: March 25 April 8
Decisions: April 4 April 15
This is a non-blind process. Please email your submissions (and whether it’s a WiP or Conference Talk submission) to Anne Sullivan (unicorn@gatech.edu) and the workshop committee will review your submission!
Workshop: May 21, 2024
Note: You do not need to submit anything to participate in the workshop!
Submission Types
We are particularly interested in welcoming interdisciplinary game studies research from the humanities and social sciences. We also welcome Demos of new games or tools related to the workshop theme and Works in Progress.
For Proceedings and Participation (double-blind reviewer process*):
- Published Papers: Describe novel research related to the workshop’s themes as either full or short papers (full papers: 5-8 pages in two-column and up to 12 pages in one-column, excluding the references, short papers: 2-4 pages in two-column, and up to 7 pages in one-column). Papers can take on a range of forms within these constraints, from text-only to something akin to a pictorial (where visual elements play a greater role in conveying ideas and contributions). These papers will be published in the FDG proceedings and will be presented at the workshop.
- Demos: Exhibition pieces or in-progress work submitted as executable software or open-source library, with a 2-page extended abstract to support the submission. Demos will be shown during the session chaired for the workshop. We particularly invite developers and artists interested in sharing video games at any stage of development to apply. Demo papers will be included in FDG 2024 proceedings.
*Submissions for proceedings will have a double-blind review process. The Queer Play Workshop will be held in conjunction with FDG 2024 and will therefore follow their submission instructions:
“As was the case in the previous years, we aim to publish the FDG 2024 proceedings in the ACM Digital Library. FDG invites authors to submit short or full papers reporting new research. Both short and full papers need to be anonymized and submitted in the ACM SIGCONF version of the ACM Master Template to a paper track. All contributions should be submitted to EasyChair.”
Papers should be submitted through the FDG EasyChair website (to the “Workshop on Queer Play” track).
For Participation Only (non-blind review process):
- Works in Progress Roundtable: Research papers that are smaller in scope describing novel research related to workshop’s themes (between 2 and 8 pages in the two-column format, excluding references). These can include (but are not limited to) research work that is still in progress or work that has preliminary results. These essays will be circulated to workshop participants in advance of our meeting. Additionally, WIP presenters will have the opportunity to share a short, 10-minute presentation at the workshop and then participate in a roundtable discussion focused on developing the new work. We particularly invite first-time FDG attendees to submit work to the roundtable. This work will not be published in the FDG proceedings. Please note, these submissions do not need to follow a blind or double blind process.
- Conference Talks: Researchers interested in sharing papers, but prefer not to be included in the conference proceedings may submit conference talk abstracts to the workshop organizers. Accepted talks will run between 15-20 minutes. The workshop organizers will organize talks into panels, and panelists can anticipate time for Q&A after their presentations.Please note, these submissions do not need to follow a blind or double blind process.
Submissions for participation only (and what type of submission it is) should be emailed to Anne Sullivan (unicorn@gatech.edu) and will be reviewed by the workshop committee.
Potential Topics of Interest
Any and all submissions that fit the theme of the workshop are welcome! For those looking for more specificity to help inform their submission, the workshop organizers are particularly interested the following (non-exhaustive) list of topics:
- Intersectional perspectives on queer game design and/or player communities, particularly those that consider gender, racial, socio-economic, and other forms of difference
- The intersections and departures between queer theory, trans studies, and play/game studies
- Design or practice for inclusivity in games
- Autoethnography of queer practice in playing
- Close reading of queer and/or trans representations in games
- Perspective(s) of queerness as lens(es) for designing play and/or games
- Modding, speed running as “queer” or anti-normative play/development practices
- The productive misuse or repurposing of existing video game development tools and pipelines as a queer design practice
- Speculation or explorations towards game/play design tools and practices that embrace the queer experience as part of the design process
- Exploring queering structures (game or play space, puzzles, structured experiences) through co-creation with designers and players
- Play as a medium of expression, how do we design and/or engage with queer spaces, identities, histories
Contact
Questions? Please email Anne Sullivan at unicorn@gatech.edu