Video Game and Memory

Call for Book Chapters



"To live an age, yet remember so little…

Perhaps I should be thankful?”

Quirrel, NPC in Hollow Knight (2017)



The past three decades have witnessed the rapid expansion of memory studies and the consolidation of game studies. Throughout the past century, the field of memory studies has yielded a rich corpus of conceptual frameworks for the practices of remembering and forgetting (Rossington & Whitehead; Rani & Raj). Brimming with novel ideas, the field of game studies has also produced a large body of interdisciplinary research on technological, sociological, and philosophical aspects of video games (Wolf & Perron). On the one hand, topics such as trauma, amnesia, and collective memory have become mainstream themes across video game genres. On the other hand, mnemonic discourses have increasingly turned to ludified theories and gamified methodologies. Yet, the interrelation between memory and video games has not yet been explored extensively.

Not only can we visualize an interactive past in video games (e.g., Assassin's Creed, Kingdom Come, Civilization, Pentiment), but we can also reminisce about past gaming experiences in the present (e.g., playing retro games, arcade classics, and emulations). In many cases, we use video games as “mediated nostalgias” (Bowman & Wulf) or as “vehicles of nostalgic remembrance” (Makai) whereby we can “play the past” at will (Whalen & Taylor). Video game platforms (e.g., Steam, Nintendo Switch, Sony’s PlayStation, Microsoft’s Xbox) have also left their permanent trace in our collective memory, either by using their popularity as a proxy (Mendes et al.) or by serving as technological mediations of cultural memory (Matei). Video games do not just present an interactive past; they orchestrate the individual reception and obscure the collective perception of memories. This tendency is evident in how commercially successful action games (e.g., Call of Duty & Battlefield) complicate our relationship between a verifiable and an unverifiable past. It is true that video games can falsify a real memory or authenticate a false one, but they can also enhance cognitive functioning in visual short-term memory (McDermott et al.) and improve visuospatial and episodic memory in adults (Toril et al.). While some players carry memories of games through nostalgia or experience memories in games as narratives, others may consider the entire game as an “intermedial” or “plurmedial” mode of memory-making (Pötzsch).

Since its inception in the late 20th century, the field of memory studies has explored the cultural, political, and social processes of memory, thereby posing critical questions about contested representations of the past in the present. This impetus was initially sparked by the development of “cultural memory” (Assmann), “collective memory” (Halbwachs & Olick), and “sites of memory” (Nora). These ideas were further expanded through discussions of “media memory” (Erll), “multidirectional memory” (Rothberg), “prosthetic memory” (Landsberg), and “postmemory” (Hirsch). Due to the acceleration of climate change, the exacerbation of geopolitics, the irreversibility of migration crises, the exponential expansion of AI models, and our ever-increasing hyperconnectivity, the field of memory studies is currently witnessing a “fourth wave” (Craps). This has led to a plethora of new concepts that look into the transcultural, transnational, and transmedial aspects of memory, such as notions of “archipelagic memory” (Kabir & Raimondi), “digital memory” (Hoskins), “cosmopolitan memory” (Levy), “pluriversal memory” (Antweiler), “jumping memory (Arps), “folkloric memory” (Gülüm), and “cyborgian remembrance” (Merrill). Not only have such concepts shown the urgency of remembering or the necessity of forgetting, but they also laid bare the kaleidoscopic possibilities of approaching memory across new media today.

Outside academia, many of these notions have already been materialized, and at times interrogated, in video games. For example: Disco Elysium (2019) investigates amnesia and memory loss; What Remains of Edith Finch (2017) narrates a familial mode of survival remembrance; A Plague Tale (2019&2022)looks into transgenerational trauma; Hellblade (2017 & 2024) visualizes PTSD and re-enactment; Through the Darkest Times (2020) depicts operations of multidirectional memory; The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (2003) exhibits the traversal of archipelagic memories in its game loop; Cyberpunk 2077 (2022) showcases a cyborgian mode of remembrance; BioShock Infinite (2013) features a gamified reconciliation of trauma with reality—and the list goes on.

Beyond the narrative, specific game elements (e.g., NPCs, checkpoints, liminal spaces) and genres (e.g., metroidvania, platformer, survival, RPG, soulslike, sims) have innate mnemonic functions and arrangements. In other words, they do not simply visualize or operationalize memories; they essentially serve as aides-mémoire and mnemotechnics. Although different “waves” (Erll) of memory studies have given ample attention to a selected number of media – such as photography (Hirsch), animation (Gageldonk, et al.), architecture (Baseta), and cinema (Tota & Hagen) – they have not yet examined possible nexuses between memory and video games comprehensively. This is precisely the scholarly lacuna that Video Game and Memory aspires to fill in.

To cross-fertilize the theories and methods of memory studies with game studies, Video Game and Memory inquiries:



What are the ontological and epistemological applications and implications of video games for our conception, perception, and reception of memory?



To this end, Video Game & Memory invites scholars of memory & games studies to submit analytical abstracts on the intersection of memory and video games. The proposed topics may include, but are not limited to:



Memory &

Game design (non-linear, interconnected, core loop, MDA, magic circle, backtracking)
Game narrative (embedded, emergent, enacted, procedural, epistolary, evocative)
Game functions (modding, encoding, spatial mapping, pattern recognition)
Game elements (bonfire, NPC, respawn point, diegetic/non-diegetic camera)
Game platforms (Steam, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo, cloud gaming)
Game modes (single player, multiplayer, campaign, deathmatch, speedrun)
Game genres (RPG, FPS, RTS/TBS, simulation, metroidvania, soulslike, indie)
Game culture (inclusivity, cross-platform, monetization, sustainability)
Game player (cognitive function, spatial recognition, addiction, gambling)
Extended reality games (VR, AR, MR)
Games as intermedial/plurmedial/crossmedial networks
Game-induced trauma, nostalgia, and melancholia


Video Game &

Aide mémoire & lieux de mémoire
Trauma & reenactment
Cultural & collective memory
Prosthetic memory & cyborgian remembrance
Real & imagined pasts
Forgetting & amnesia
Tabooed & repressed pasts
Media memory & AI
Materiality of memory
Performance of memory
Multidirectional memory
Postmemory
Pluriversal memory
Archipelagic memory
Abstracts:

Video Game and Memory welcomes 400-500-word abstracts in English. The abstract should engage with and reflect on the theories/methods of memory studies and game studies by analyzing a specific video game, genre, or a game-related discourse/phenomenon. Short, fragmented, or incohesive abstracts will not be considered.

Please send your abstract & a short biography (including affiliation & latest publications) to:

s.a.shobeiri@hum.leidenuniv.nl

A selected number of abstracts will be invited to submit a full chapter of 4,000 to 6,000 words.

*Video Game and Memory will be published with an academic publisher in 2027.



Schedules & Deadlines:

Submission of abstracts: April 12th, 2026

Communication of acceptance/rejection: April 20th, 2026

Submission of the full chapters: August 20th, 2026

Provisional publication date: Mid 2027

Editor:

--Dr. Ali Shobeiri, Assistant Professor of Visual Culture, Leiden University, NL.



Bibliography

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Arps, A. “Memory Melompat (jumping memory): The mnemonic motion of Indonesian popular culture and the need for a local reframing”, Memory Studies, vol,. 16: 1423-1435. (2023).

Assmann, A. “Communicative and Cultural Memory”, in Cultural Memory Studies: An Interdisciplinary Handbook, ed. Erll, A & Nunning, A. 109-118 (2010).

Bastea, E. Memory & Architecture (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2004).

Bowman, D. & Wulf, T. “Nostalgia in Video Games”, vol. 49, Current Opinion in Psychology: 1-6 (2023).

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