<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(14,16,26)">Games and Persona - <i>Persona Studies</i> Journal Theme Issue</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(14,16,26)">Editors: Christopher Moore and Katja Lee</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(14,16,26)">Games have provided players with many opportunities to experiment with
identity in ways that have fundamentally shaped social media platforms. As
Apperley and Clemens (2017) have argued, networked digital media have embraced
the avatar as the predominant form for the presentation of the public self
online. Games also have a vibrant role in the performance of the self that is
affectively charged. Because of this, games and persona interconnect beyond the
virtual self of the avatar, through esports, cosplay, wikis, criticism and
review and many other mediated forms of expression. The interaction between
games and persona represent agency in the negotiation of complex personal,
public and intimate selves which collapse the remnant distinctions between the
online and off. Game developers, for example, from mainstream legends to
‘indie’ heroes and aspiring innovators, like most workers in the creative
industries, must maintain online personas as part of their professional lives.
The demand for such personas results in complex interactions and micro-publics
between peers, colleagues, fans and consumers that are now routine to the
firmament of participatory culture, with serious potential for success and
controversy. </span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(14,16,26)">We are inviting authors and scholars to contribute to this themed issue
of <i>Persona Studies</i> on games and persona. The issue is seeking
interdisciplinary papers that consider the conceptual and theoretical
dimensions of games and persona and the broader phenomenological experiences
and ontological implications of games and play for persona studies. The
following list is a general, and non-definitive guide to topics that we
consider would be a valuable addition to exploring the relations between games
and persona:</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span></p>
<ul style="margin-top:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color:rgb(14,16,26);vertical-align:baseline;margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Avatars and identity</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color:rgb(14,16,26);vertical-align:baseline;margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Developer and designer persona</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color:rgb(14,16,26);vertical-align:baseline;margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Participatory persona</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color:rgb(14,16,26);vertical-align:baseline;margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Player performances: live streaming, criticism
and review, esports, cosplay and beyond</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color:rgb(14,16,26);vertical-align:baseline;margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Player communities and micro-publics</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color:rgb(14,16,26);vertical-align:baseline;margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Game platforms and personas: Steam, Itch.io
and others</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color:rgb(14,16,26);vertical-align:baseline;margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Persona as celebrity/micro-celebrity</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color:rgb(14,16,26);vertical-align:baseline;margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">The persona of game franchises</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color:rgb(14,16,26);vertical-align:baseline;margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Persona in the advertising and marketing of
games</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color:rgb(14,16,26);vertical-align:baseline;margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Emerging technologies in games and the
performance of the self</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color:rgb(14,16,26);vertical-align:baseline;margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Object/subject relations: virtual and physical
personas</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color:rgb(14,16,26);vertical-align:baseline;margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Memorabilia, merchandise, collections -
presentation of a passionate persona</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color:rgb(14,16,26);vertical-align:baseline;margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Affect and agency</span></li>
</ul>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(14,16,26)">Apperley, Thomas and Clemens, Justin. 2017. ‘Flipping out: avatars and
identity’. Boundaries of self and reality online: implications of digitally
constructed realities. Jayne Gackenbach and Johnathan Bown eds. Elsevier,
London. pp.41-56, doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-804157-4.00003-7. </span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(14,16,26)">Key Dates</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(14,16,26)">EOI: March 29</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(14,16,26)">ABSTRACTS AND/PAPERS: June 15</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(14,16,26)">FULL PAPERS: September 1</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(14,16,26)">PUBLICATION: November 30</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(14,16,26)"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(14,16,26)">Please send expressions of interest and abstracts of 150-200 words to: </span><a href="mailto:katja.lee@uwa.edu.au"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">katja.lee@uwa.edu.au</span></a><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(14,16,26);background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">
or </span><a href="mailto:chrism@uow.edu.au"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">chrism@uow.edu.au</span></a><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></p></div>