The Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Research at the University of Winchester presents The Seventh Middle Ages in Modern Games Asynchronous Conference (@MidAgesModGames, #MAMG26) on 5 to 7 October 2026. The central themes of this year’s event are ‘Possible Worlds’ and ‘Possible Pasts’.
In a time of growing political and environmental anxieties, the Middle Ages are often sought as a source of inspiration for alternative futures. Ecologically-minded games like Of Life and Land look to the medieval past to explore alternative, non-exploitative engagements with nature. Medievalist RPGs have long served as possibility spaces for players to interrogate and experiment with notions of sexuality, gender, and identity more broadly. Games like Scriptorium and Traveller’s Rest imagine medieval pasts divorced from the logics of violence often associated with the period. Medievalist fantasy games like Metaphor: ReFantazio openly engage with utopian thinking and our capacities to imagine possible worlds.
This conference considers the Middle Ages and Medievalism in Modern Games. We invite analytical ‘papers’ (comprising 400-500 words of text or 5-minute videos) and sessions of 3 to 5 papers which address any aspects of the medieval period or medievalism in any and all forms of modern games. We particularly welcome papers addressing the central conference themes of ‘Possible Worlds’ and ‘Possible Pasts’. The conference will be conducted remotely and there will be no registration fee. To promote accessibility and inclusivity, the event runs asynchronously across time zones.
Topics may include (but are not restricted to):
•Medievalism in utopian and dystopian games
•Medievalism and eco-games
•Cozy games and the medieval past
•Possible pasts in modding and counterplay
•Fantasy and speculation in medievalist games
•Queer temporalities and chronormativity
•Gender and intentional anachronism
•Counterfactual histories
•Subaltern futurisms and medievalism
•Stereotypes, racism and xenophobia in medievalist fantasy
•Activism in games and playing communities
•Historical change in games
•Progress, determinism, and inevitability in history games
•Notions of indigeneity in medievalist fantasy games
•Technofuturism and medievalism
We encourage submissions from medievalists, games scholars and developers at any point in their career— especially those from Postgraduate Students, Early Career Researchers and members of any groups under-represented within the academy and industry. We welcome pieces addressing any region globally, and within a broad definition of ‘medieval’ and ‘medievalism’.
We are able to accept papers in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.
Please send abstracts of no more than 200 words, brief biographies, and indications of time zone and availability as attachments in Word to midagesmodgames@gmail.com by Sunday 3 August.