What I did this past academic year (2020–2021)

Like in 2019 and 2020, I wanted to start the academic year looking back and going through everything I had done (academia-wise) the previous 12 months, but then a lot of things got in the way and here I am doing that in December, trying not to busy-signal nor normalise being overworked. This is something I do mostly for myself, to keep track of everything, but this year it feels like a celebration of collaboration and community in the times of Zoom. Cheers, everyone!

THE BIG(GEST) STUFF

· Hey, we founded DiGRA Spain! After years and years of being and feeling disconnected and isolated, 15 scholars from many Spanish universities came together and, hopefully, got the ball rolling to bring the national community together, help each other, and provide international scholars and structures with a bridge to interact with us.

· We got a national project! The Ministry of Science and Innovation, within the framework of the “State R&D&I Program Oriented to the Challenges of Society”, favorably resolved the funding of “Myth and ideology in contemporary video games (LUDOMYTHOLOGIES)” — Anton Planells and I are the Principal Investigators and we have a fantastic team.

PUBLICATIONS

· The series Ludografías, published by Shangrila, was launched with a first volume titled Pensar el juego. 25 caminos para los game studies. I am the director of the series and the editor of that volume, which brings together 25 scholars from Spain to present a concept they consider important for the discipline. My own chapter was on “Meditations” (slow gaming and Zen modes). This year we also published the second book in the collection, Protestas interactivas, by César Antonio Moreno and Alberto Venegas, and the third one is on its way.

· I wrote the entries for “gêmu”, “Zen modes”, and “freedom” for the dictionary Diccionario de teorías narrativas 2. Narratología, cine, videojuego, medios, edited by Lorenzo Vilches.

· I also wrote the entry for “Zen Modes” for the 2nd edition of the Encyclopedia of Video Games. The Culture, Technology, and Art of Gaming, edited by Mark J.P. Wolf.

· I was the co-editor of the book Culture at Play: How Video Games Influence and Replicate Our World, published by Brill. Ignacio Bergillos and me wrote the chapter “Press x to Recognize the Other’s Suffering: Compassion and Recognition in Games”.

· Together with Marta Martín, I was the guest editor of a special issue of the journal L’Atalante on “Ludonarrative Complexity in Videogames”. We wrote an introduction titled “Ludonarrative Complexity in Videogames: A Double Boomerang” and interviewed Sam Barlow and a group of Spanish narrative designers: Adrián Castro, Tatiana Delgado, Josué Monchán, and Clara Pellejer. All the texts are in Spanish and English.

CONFERENCES

· Beatriz Pérez and I were the keynote speakers at the Game Studies Section of the 43º Brazilian Conference on Communication Sciences (Intercom 2020), held from 1–10 December 2020 at Universidade Federal da Bahia, in Brazil, with a talk titled “Jogos dos despossuídos: Avatares e focalização em videogames pós-coloniais e de refugiados”. We are very thankful to the chairs, Emmanoel Ferreira and Ivan Mussa!

· I participated in the “XIV Congreso nacional y V congreso internacional de la Asociación de Estudios Japoneses en España”, at Universidad de Zaragoza (online), with two talks: “Nostalgia, la mirada infantil y el redescubrimiento del anime en España”, co-authored with Susana Tosca, and “De taikos y bongos: la “la japonesidad paradójica” de Donkey Konga y Taiko no Tatsujin como videojuegos distribuidos en Europa”, co-authored with Beatriz Pérez.

· I participated in the History of Games 2020 conference held in Krakow (online) with two talks co-authored with Marçal Mora: “Step champs: a brief history and classification of foot controls and ‘foot gaming’” and “Unearthing the first European video game console: the Spanish Overkal”.

· Mateo Terrasa and I participated (online) in the 18th Annual Tampere University Game Research Lab Spring Seminar, focused on Monstrosity, with the talk “A world turned monstrous: Environment and (un)being in Death Stranding”.

· Finally, I participated in the Replaying Japan 2021 conference (online) with two talks: “Transnational Taikos: Donkey Konga and Taiko no Tatsujin as European Distributed (Hyper)Cultural Products”, co-authored with Beatriz Pérez, and “You must be tired after today. Let’s go to sleep.” Kawaii AI Companions in contemporary gêmu”, co-authored with Susana Tosca.

TALKS AND TRANSFERENCE

• I was invited to give a talk titled “Zen Modes & Slow Gaming: A History of the Idea and Mechanics of Calm in Video Games” at the Video Game Research Centre at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University (online). Thanks, Agata Waszkiewicz and colleagues!
• · I participated as a speaker in the 1st 1st Training Activity of the Erasmus+ project “Housing+: Bridging the gap in housing studies” with a talk titled ““Don’t leave the house” The ludofictional meanings and uses of homes in videogames”, co-written with Antonio José Planells. We want to thank the organisers for inviting us!
• Daniel Muriel invited me to the seminar “Una realidad videoludificada”, at Tabakalera (San Sebastián), where I participated with the talk “Slow Gaming: cómo la lentitud y la relajación conquistaron el videojuego”. Thanks, Daniel!
• Marta Martín and Antonio Loriguillo invited me to their seminar for the course on Hypermedia Narrative and Visual Culture & Mass Media at UJI; my talk was titled “¿Qué han hecho los Game Studies por nosotros?”. Thanks, Marta and Antonio!

• Finally, Fundación Japón (the Spanish branch of Japan Foundation) started a conference cycle titled “Gêmu. Perspectivas del videojuego japonés”, which I curate and opened with the talk “36 perspectivas del videojuego japonés”. The cycle is now in its second edition and all the talks can be accessed in the YouTube channel of the foundation — the first edition also included Susana Tosca, Marçal Mora, and Laura Montero Plata. I want to thank Alejandro Rodríguez and the whole team at Fundación Japón — this is the most fun I’ve done for the general public in a long time and our audiences have been amazing!

OTHER

· To celebrate the fifth anniversary of my book Libertad dirigida, I published “Notas sobre la libertad (dirigida) en el videojuego”, at Presura.

· I reviewed the book Virtual Existentialism: Meaning and Subjectivity in Virtual Worlds, by Stefano Gualeni and Daniel Vella, for New Media & Society.

· I also reviewed Playing Nature: Ecology in Video Games, by Alenda Y. Chang, for the American Journal of Play.

· I’ve peer-reviewed for Baltic Screen Media Review, Artnodes, Game Studies, the IEEE Conference of Games, Simulation & Gaming, and probably other conferences and journals that I’m forgetting now. Contrary to what I thought, it seems I like this — and I hope I have helped some authors.