CFP – Playing the War on Terror
Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference (SCMS)
Chicago Hilton, Chicago, IL
March 8-11, 2007

Over the past five years, a number of interactive entertainment firms have capitalized on the Bush Administration’s “Global War on Terror” by producing military-themed video games that allow gamers to “play military” from the safety of their living rooms, offices, and arcades. These post-9/11 wargames have been developed for a range of entertainment platforms (e.g., PS2, XBOX, PC), for a variety of genres (e.g., first person shooter, real time strategy, role playing games, action-adventure), for different social configurations and spaces (e.g., LAN parties, online, mobile), and have been designed to provide varying gameplay experiences -- from spectacular action phantasmagorias, to austere simulations used by the armed forces for training purposes.

This panel invites proposals that analyze post-9/11 video wargames from a wide variety of theoretical perspectives and methodologies. The following lists are suggestive and are not intended to be exhaustive or proscriptive.

Possible paper topics include:
-- Video Games and the Military-Entertainment Complex
-- Player-generated War Mods, Skins, and Game Assets
-- Representing/Simulating Soldiers, Terrorists, & Civilians
-- Wargames and Game Genres (e.g., FPS, RTS, RPG)
-- War and “Casual Games”
-- The US Department of Defense’s “Serious Games”
-- Networking Wargames (e.g., online, LAN parties)
-- Wargames and Post—Traumatic Stress Disorder
-- Mobile Wargames
-- Modeling Battlefield Tactics and Operations
-- “Playing Military,” Recruiting, and Youth

Relevant video games include:
-- America’s Army & America’s Army: Rise of a Soldier
-- Battlefield 2: Modern Combat
-- Close Combat: First to Fight
-- Conflict: Desert Storm II - Back to Baghdad
-- FA-18 Operation Desert Storm
-- Freedom Fighters
-- Full Spectrum Warrior & Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers
-- Ghost Recon 3: Advanced Warfighter
-- Operation Flashpoint: Resistance
-- Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield
-- Sniper Elite

To be considered for this panel, please email a short proposal (200-300 words) and bio (1-2 paragraphs) to Matt Payne (mattpayne@mail.utexas.edu) by August 15, 2006.

And for additional information about the conference, please see the SCMS website: http://www.cmstudies.org/