The Ludosemiotics Conference invites researchers, scholars, and practitioners to explore the meaning-making, interpretative, and cultural processes of play, games, and gamification through a semiotic lens. Ludosemiotics, as an interdisciplinary field, brings together perspectives from semiotics, game studies, philosophy, media studies, and cognitive sciences to examine how meaning emerges through play.

While classical semiotics has engaged with games, toys, and playfulness since its early days, a more focused exploration of games through a semiotic perspective has gained traction in the past two decades. With the publication of several recent books and a growing body of research, ludosemiotics has reached a critical mass, making it the perfect time to bring together established scholars and emerging researchers to share insights, foster collaboration, and build a global community.

Submission Guidelines

We encourage submissions that emphasize strong analytical approaches, including case studies and demonstrations, that showcase the application of semiotic methods to the study of play and games. While theoretical discussions are welcome, we particularly seek contributions that illustrate how semiotics can be actively applied in this field.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

• Game and Play Forms: Analog vs. digital games, AI and automated play, childhood vs. adult play
• Cultural and Social Dimensions: Cross-cultural differences in play, ideologies and stereotypes in gaming, player communities
• Media and Narrative: Games as narratives, transmedia adaptations, internet culture and gaming
• Methodologies and Frameworks: Semiotic approaches to analyzing games, multimodality in meaning-making, the rhetoric of games
• Technology and Embodiment: VR/AR experiences, embodiment in digital play, gaming and sensory perception
• Education and Gamification: Learning through play, gamification in contemporary culture, edusemiotics and ludosemiotics

Key Dates

Abstract submission deadline: March 15, 2025
Notification of acceptance: Mid-April 2025

For more information and to submit your abstract (max. 300 words), visit our website.

Join us in shaping the future of ludosemiotics and exploring the profound connections between games, play, and meaning-making!