Mobile Gaming in Asia: Politics, Culture and Emerging
Technologies
Edited by Dal Yong Jin, Ph.D., Simon Fraser University. To
be published by Springer in October 2016
The dramatic improvement of mobile phones, tablets, and game
consoles has fundamentally changed our daily lives. While the bite-sized
software programs people loaded onto their mobile phones seemed to be frivolous
games until several years ago, smartphones and their applications have recently
created new capital for information and communication technology corporations
and changed the way people communicate. While many countries have invested in
mobile industries since the early 21st century, several Asian countries have
become some of the centers for mobile technologies and culture with their
global smartphone manufacturers, such as Samsung and LG in Korea, HTC in
Taiwan, Huawei and Lenovo in China. Although these countries were once lagging
behind in the penetration of mobile phones, Asia exists as an interesting
test-bed for the future of mobile technology and culture because several Asian
countries advance several new mobile games based on their smartphones and
application. The recent emergence of the smartphone industry and mobile gaming
in Asia can be attributed to favorable information technology policies, severe
competition among IT corporations, and enthusiastic mobile game users in the
region. Equally important is the role of local smartphone applications, which
have provided convenient smartphone platforms for local game users. Asians’
engagement with smartphones and related mobile apps suggest that the smartphone
becomes a symbolic and material resource for people’s mobile game lifestyle.
SCOPE
Despite the significance of smartphones and mobile gaming in
both digital economy and youth culture across the globe, there has been a lack
of academic literature exploring how mobile phones are integrated into the
socio-economic and cultural landscapes of a particular local game context, and
how smartphone users engage in the process. This volume looks into a hitherto
neglected focus of inquiry, a localized mobile landscape emerging with the
smartphone and its apps, with particular reference to Asians’ engagement with
mobile gaming. This edited volume focuses on not only the celebratory
achievement of local mobile games, but also the significance of the social
milieu in the development of Asian mobile gaming culture. It also investigates
several dimensions in the growth of mobile game technologies and culture,
including government policy through the lens of globalization theory. Although
it seeks to identify factors for the growth of local mobile games, it will also
critically examine significant conflicts between global and the local forces.
Given that users are the primary actors propelling the smartphone era forward,
the volume analyzes how smartphones have taken shape within the context of
Asia’s particular mobile culture.
We welcome research by emerging Asia-focused or Asian-based
scholars whose work has not been published in English.
Possible topics for submissions include but are not limited
to:
- History of the growth of mobile gaming as a regional/global industry, discourse, and media product
- Critical interpretation of emerging local game industries in Asia
- Comparative mobile game studies
- Mobile games and globalization/regionalization
- Convergent technologies and the impact on established modes of mobile/social game play
- Government regulations and types of mobile game play
- Mobile game fandom and free labor
- Mobile gaming as social technology/media
- A culturally specific aesthetic to the production and consumption of mobile games
- New media and experimental mobile gaming
- Gendered consumption and production of mobile games
- Mobile gaming and the role of apps
- Moral panics about mobile gaming (especially among religious communities)
- Concerns about mobile gaming addiction and consequent policy changes
- Traditional dominance of the market by Asian developers
- Unique ways in which specific Asian countries have adopted mobile devices
- Intellectual property issues particular to the region
- Tendency for big developers to look to Asia for outsourcing and localization
- Case studies to gaming in places such as Korea (PC Bangs/StarCraft tournaments etc.)
SUBMISSION
Please submit proposals of up to 800 words, and a brief
(300-word) author bio in an e-mail attachment by 30 May, 2015, to Dal Yong Jin
(yongjin23@gmail.com). Authors of accepted
proposals will be notified by 15 July, 2015, and invited to submit a full paper
by 15 October, 2015. Manuscripts should be no more than 8,000 words, including
notes and references, and conform to APA style. All chapters will be subjected
to anonymous peer review following submission.
