Whether it is made an explicit mechanic via countdown clocks and quick-time events, or is simply a natural part of the narrative, games are always already inherently concerned with the passage of time. While it is easy to think of mechanics as being about player control, the relationship of input to output, and how a game’s particular physics engine is encoded, every game has a unique relationship with temporality that players must learn to navigate in order to play successfully, whether that is perfecting the timing of their jumps in a platformer or remembering to log in to complete daily tasks in an MMO. These negotiations with game temporality also impact how players form ideas about time in other spheres of their life – what constitutes utilizing time well or productively? How do we value our ability to react quickly at work or at home?

            This edited collection seeks to further the work done by scholars such as Belmonte Avila and Encarnacion-Pinedo (2024) and Igarzabal (2019) who examine how the relationship between games and temporality impacts us within and beyond play. Many authors have theorized how time impacts our lives and our identities, from the queer time of Halberstam (2005) and Freeman (2010) to the crip time of Kafer (2013) and Samuels (2017). While important work has been started to bridge the concepts of identity and play as related to time (Ruberg, 2019) we seek to bring together a plurality of voices and perspectives to attempt to lay out a more comprehensive understanding of how temporality shapes our understanding of the games and play we engage in.

            For this collection, we seek texts (final length 5,000-7,000 words) that explore the relationship between temporality and play in many forms. Traditional theoretical and empirical work is welcomed, but we also encourage collaborative, experimental, innovative, or creative approaches, as long as those approaches remain grounded in scholarly conversations. While we love the idea of born-digital projects, this collection is not set up to support projects that rely heavily on video or audio elements. Including images and links/QR codes to supplemental multimodal materials are potential avenues we can explore in the editorial process.

Ideas for Exploration:

-          Time as Narrative Device. When time is a narrative or plot device (Pentiment, Slay the Princess, Deathloop). What does that do to our understanding of the other themes or concepts present?

-          Time as Directly Manipulable Mechanic. Games where manipulating (freezing, speeding up, slowing down) time is a part of play. What does this do? Why is it significant?

-          Time as Part of Game World. Many games have distinct relationships with time that are adjacent to “real-world” time – persistent-world games from World of Warcraft to Animal Crossing. Additionally, many games have “timed events” like seasons in Overwatch. How does this connection to real-world time incentivize or complicate play?

-          Time as Part of Player Skill. When you get down to it, most of the manual skill involved in playing any game is down to reaction time on the part of the player – if you can jump at the exact right time, beat the level in a certain number of seconds, or aim and shoot a target rapidly, you’re more likely to succeed. Why do we care, in this context, how fast someone does something? Or how precisely?

-          Time Outside the Game. Why do many people perceive the act of playing games as a “waste of time”? Why do some people devote socially or physically unhealthy amounts of time to play? How does play impact the way we value our time, how we allot time to play, and how we structure other components of our lives?

-          Time and Identity. Queer Time, Crip Time, and how time is understood across cultures. Do games reinforce traditional western notions of time (eg, Martin Heidegger)? Or can they/do they push back against hegemonic ideas of linear time?

Timeline:

Proposals Due: Friday, June 13th, 2025

Acceptances Sent Out: Monday, July 14th, 2025

Initial Drafts Due: Friday, December 12th, 2025

Revisions Sent Out: Friday, March 13th, 2026

Revisions Due: Friday, May 29th, 2026

Draft Sent to Publisher: circa August 1st, 2026

How to Submit:

Please send a 350-500 (including references) word abstract, outlining the main argument of your piece, the methods and major theories used, and the form of the final project (ie, experiment writeup, theoretical musing, interview/conversation, vignette) to both ekostopolus@valdosta.edu and jseibert@valdosta.edu. Please put “Time Trial Proposal_(Your Last Name)” as the subject line.

Works Cited

Belmonte Ávila, J.F., & Encarnación-Pinedo, E. (Eds.). (2024). Unbound Queer Time in Literature, Cinema, and Video Games (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003399957

Freeman, Elizabeth. Time Binds: Queer Temporalities, Queer Histories. North Carolina, Duke University Press, 2010.

Halberstam, Jack. In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Bodies. New York, New York University Press, 2005.

Igarzábal, Federico Alvarez. Time and Space in Video Games: A Cognitive-Formalist Approach. 1st ed., transcript Verlag, 2019. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv371brvc. Accessed 16 Apr. 2025.

Kafer, Alison. Feminist, Queer, Crip. Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 2013.

Ruberg, Bonnie. Video Games Have Always Been Queer. New York, New York University Press, 2019.

Samuels, Ellen. “Six Ways of Looking at Crip Time.” Disability Studies Quarterly, vol. 37, no. 3, 31 Aug. 2017, dsq-sds.org/index.php/dsq/article/view/5824/4684, https://doi.org/10.18061/dsq.v37i3.5824.