[Discussion] UPDATE: Playing the Past: Nostalgia in Video Games and Electronic Literature (1/1/05; 3/18/05)

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

*Call for Papers *
**Playing the Past: Nostalgia in Video Games and Electronic Literature**
March 18-19, 2005
University of Florida; Gainesville, FL
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: 1 January 2005
http://www.academic-gamers.org/gsg/

Keynote speakers:
*Mary Flanagan*, inventor-designer-activist. Projects include, /the
RAPUNSEL project/, "The Adventures of Josie True", founding techARTS and
/tiltfactor/.  Book projects include /Reload: Rethinking Women and
Cyberculture/, and /reskin/.

*Ian Bogost*, is an academic game researcher, game designer, and
educational publisher.  He is an Assistant Professor in the Information
Design & Technology program at Georgia Institute of Technology, and is
the founder of Persuasive Games.  Dr. Bogost edits and writes the weblog
WaterCoolerGames.org, where he discusses rhetorical games.

"Playing the Past: Nostalgia in Video Games and Electronic Literature"
will focus on revision, reversioning, and pastiche in video games and
electronic literature. As many scholars have noted, digital media texts
alter and adapt existing forms and narratives. While some scholars have
focused more closely on the way that media forms conflict and connect,
this conference will examine the ways in which new media forms
reconfigure and recontextualize narratives from older media while at the
same time suggesting a way of relating to the past through the media of
the present.

Games and electronic literature approach this general topic in a variety
of ways, from outright revisionist history to more subtle stylistic
pastiche. This conference seeks out the cultural impact of these
relationships and the general work of nostalgia in digital media.

For this, we invite papers that focus on:

     * Revisionist aspects of individual works or revisionist methods.

     * Multiple Versions (or reversioning), video games patches and mods,
     and how individual electronic literature and game versions are
     altered in minute yet significant ways.

     * Serialization, studying individual releases of individual works or
     games, and compilations.

     * Pastiche and collage in relation to video game and electonic
     literature narratives and formats.

     * Nostalgia as a mode of interaction between media.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:

     -- The relationship between film and video games that draw on but
     are not versions of films. (GTA: Vice City and Scarface; Survival
     Horror and George Romero's zombie films; No One Lives Forever and
     XIII and Spy-thrillers).

     -- The relationship between text and electronic literature like
     Shelley Jackson's Patchwork Girl in relation to the Wizard of Oz and
     Frankenstein.

     -- Implementations of narrative themes, tropes, and characters
     (Lovecraftian themes in games like Eternal Darkness, the role of the
     Samurai/Ninja in various games).

     -- Changes created with the character transition from 2D to 3D games
     (Mario, Sonic)

     -- Differences between works made in Story Space, in HTML, in Flash,
     and Shockwave, and the differences when works are transitioned from
     one form, to another, including the differences in HTML versions.

     -- Changes with Patches, updates, and expansions (Warcraft,
     Neverwinter Nights, MMORPGs).

     -- Changes with console to console ports, ports to PC's and
     handhelds, expanded versions on different systems (Resident
     Evil:Code Veronica -X- released on PS2 after original Code Veronica
     released on Dreamcast).

     -- Revisioning and pastiche of fairytales and Victorian literature
     and art (American McGee's Alice and forthcoming Oz).

     -- Changes with serialized works as they continue and alter the
     series both thematically, technologically, and narratively (Mario as
     a changing and growing character in an exapnding game world from the
     early games to newer releases like Super Mario Sunshine and Luigi's
     Mansion).

     -- The relationship of comics to electronic literature and video
     games (XIII, Viewtiful Joe, Spider Man games; Scott McCloud's
     arguments in Reinventing Comics).

     -- The relationship between the visuality and playfulness of
     children's literature and electronic literature and video games.

     -- Revisionist history in historical games and in pre-quel and
     sequels in game serials (Battlefield 1942, Vietnam, Dynasty Warriors
     3, Samurai Warriors).

     -- Historical-mythic characters (Robin Hood, Nobunaga) and their
     portrayal in video games. The portrayal of myth in Electronic
     Literature, including myths of closed texts.

     -- Understanding video game nostalgia. What is the work of nostalgia
     in video games? Who is video game nostalgia "for"?

     -- Fandom, fan culture, and fan fiction's relationship to revision,
     reversion, pastiche, and nostalgia for the texts they reference.

Please send an electronic copy of your abstract (300-500 words) to both
Zach Whalen (Zwhalen@english.ufl.edu) and Laurie Taylor
(Ltaylor@english.ufl.edu). Plain text submissions in the body of an
e-mail are encouraged.

While email correspondence is preferred, snail mail can be sent to:
Zach Whalen and Laurie Taylor
Department of English
University of Florida
4008 Turlington Hall
P.O. Box 117310
Gainesville, Florida 32611-7310


DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: 1 January 2005



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