Ropecon 2024 Academic Seminar

Important dates:
Abstract deadline: May 14, 2024
Notification of acceptance: May 24, 2024
Paper deadline: July 9, 2024
Academic Seminar: July 19, 2024

Monsters have been with us since the earliest tales told in the darkness of the night. They have fought our heroes in epics and folk tales, haunted literature as long as literature has existed, been a staple of movies and cartoons – and now inhabit our games. 

No longer satisfied as pure antagonists, monsters have for decades woven themselves into protagonists and anti-heroes for decades. Monsters have been deconstructed, their viewpoints examined, and their motives brought into the forefront. What makes a monster? What is the role of the monster? What does “monster” mean through the viewpoint of game studies? 

The topic of Ropecon 2024’s academic seminar, “Monsters!”, reflects the theme of Ropecon 2024. Whether about the monsters in games or games’ texts and paratexts, about monster trends that can be identified via research, or anything else related to monstrous in tabletop, miniature, and board gaming, we welcome all paper submissions by scholars of all levels, from younger scholars and PhD candidates to more established researchers.

The seminar focuses on working papers, and the aim is to provide gaming scholars with tools and peer-to-peer discussion for developing and refining their papers further. Every paper will be presented for 10 minutes and discussed for 20 minutes. The sessions will be open for all Academic Seminar ticket holders, but the presentations should be drafted with an academic audience in mind.

Submission guidelines

The papers to be presented will be chosen based on extended abstract review. The abstracts should be a maximum of 500 words (plus references). Abstracts should be delivered in PDF format. In order to facilitate discussion, full papers are distributed prior to the event to all participants. Though the majority of the seminar and discussion will be in English, paper submissions are also accepted in Finnish.

As per the main focus on Ropecon itself, the academic seminar accepts papers on inherently non-digital gaming: papers that discuss games, gaming, and the cultures around these on tabletop games, card games, miniature games are welcome, while papers discussing inherently digital games and gaming are not in the scope of this seminar. 

The aim is that all participants can familiarize themselves with the papers in advance. Therefore, the maximum length for a full paper is 5000 words (plus references). The seminar presentations should encourage discussion instead of repeating the information presented in the papers.

Submissions should be sent to: academic.program@ropecon.fi