The Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Research at the University of Winchester is pleased to sponsor The Middle Ages in Modern Games (MAMG) strand at The Middle Ages in the Modern World (MAMO) conference. The conference will take place on 24 to 26 June 2025 at King’s College London. The theme of the Strand is ‘Temporalities’.
Time is a peculiar thing in both medievalism and gaming. The very notion of the Middle Ages is an arbitrary chronological construct with substantial baggage. Periodisation distinguishes the medieval from the modern or ancient and tropes such as millennia long medieval stasis or chronological kitchen sinks are rife. Games likewise play with time, often through basic elements such as pausing or reloading, but also through more complex mechanics and narratives around time travel or settings spanning generations or centuries. In combination, these medievalist and gaming trends can produce distinct representations of the period and can allow a new form of engagement with the Middle Ages.
This strand addresses the representation of time and temporalities within games. We invite papers of 20 minutes addressing any aspects of the medieval period or medievalism in any forms of digital or tabletop games, but we particularly welcome contributions which engage with ‘Temporalities’ broadly defined.
Topics may include (but are not restricted to):
•Teaching Medieval Chronologies through Games
•Time manipulation as counterplay
•Periodisation within Games
•Medieval Timekeeping and Calendars
•Global Chronological Perspectives
•Medievalism in Sci-Fi Games
•Alternative Timelines
•Medieval Time Travellers
•The ‘Middle Ages’ outside Europe
•Distinguishing the Medieval from the Modern
•Medievalist Memories of the Ancient World
•Time Skips in Stories and Mechanics
•Persistent Medieval Worlds
•Comparing Real Time and Turn Based Games
•The Evolution of Medievalist Games
•Medieval Lifecycles in Game Mechanics
•Subverting Medievalist Chronologies
•Mythical and Non-Historical Time in Games
•Multiverses and Multiple Temporalities
•Medievalist Games and Regimes of Historicity
We encourage submissions from medievalists or games and media scholars and professionals at any point in their career—Postgraduate Students, Early Career Researchers, Independent Scholars and members of any groups under-represented within the academy are particularly welcome. We also welcome pieces dealing with any region of the globe, and within a broad definition of ‘medieval’—including the fantasy genre.
Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words and brief biographies as attachments in Word to midagesmodgames@gmail.com by Friday 10 January 2025.