The Manchester Game Centre has announced a symposium dedicated to Games Workshop’s games and fictions at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation in Manchester next month.
Games Workshop Research Day on Thursday 17th October 2024 offers talks and gaming that will cover Black Library’s fictions, transmedia in Warhammer 40,000, Ancient Egypt in the Warhammer’s Old World, and a cultural history of Jervis Johnson’s fantasy football game Blood Bowl.
The Manchester Game Centre promotes game studies across a number of disciplines at local, national, and international levels. They deliver knowledge via our public-facing events, workshops, and teaching at Manchester Metropolitan University.
The event speakers are Jenny Cromwell, a Reader in Ancient History at MMU, science fiction and fantasy book publisher Marc Gascoigne, Mikko Meriläinen, an Academy Research Fellow at Tampere University, Aasa Timonen, a PhD researcher from Tampere University Game Research Lab, and Paul Wake, Professor of Game Studies at Manchester Metropolitan University.
This event is free and is open to everyone, but places are limited.
Jenny Cromwell (Dr Jennifer Cromwell) is a Reader in Ancient History at MMU, specialising in ancient Egyptian history. Increasingly, her research focusses on the reception of ancient Egypt in games (both analogue and digital) and what this says about popular understanding of Egyptian history
Marc Gascoigne is a science fiction and fantasy book publisher. He is the author of more than fifty novels, including numerous Fighting Fantasy gamebooks and the original Games Workshop Judge Dredd role-playing game. As Head of Black Library Publishing, he established the fiction wing of fantasy giant Games Workshop, before going on to launch the science fiction and fantasy imprint Angry Robot at HarperCollins, and Aconyte Books, the book publishing arm of the Asmodee Group of games companies.
Mikko Meriläinen is an Academy Research Fellow at Tampere University. His research focuses on gaming as part of everyday life, and he is currently conducting the research project “Beyond hegemony: Rethinking men and masculinities in game culture”. In his previous work, he has extensively addressed young people’s gaming, miniaturing, and online gaming conduct.
Aasa Timonen is a PhD researcher from Tampere University Game Research Lab. Her research is focused on the transmedia practises of analogue games. Aasa’s upcoming dissertation work is about transmedia worldbuilding of Warhammer 40,000, how it has changed over the decades and how players navigate in the ever-changing and shifting worlds of the grim darkness of far future, both on the tabletop and outside of it.
Paul Wake is Professor of Game Studies at Manchester Metropolitan University. His research interests include games and culture, games and communication, and, more recently, games and the climate crisis. He is currently working on a book-length study of Games Workshop’s Blood Bowl, which will be published by The University of Michigan Press in 2025.
• Games Workshop Research Day, Manchester Game Centre, 9.00am – 5.00pm Thursday 17th October 2024, International Anthony Burgess Foundation, 3 Cambridge Street Manchester M1 5BY | This event is free and is open to everyone, but places are limited | Book Tickets through EventBrite
SCHEDULE
9:00-9:30 Registration
9:30-10:10 Mikko Meriläinen, ‘Plastic Crack and Fifty Shelves of Frey: The Pile of Shame Phenomenon in Miniaturing’
10:10-10:50 Paul Wake, ‘Blood Bowl: A Cultural History’
10:50-1110 BREAK
11:10-11:50 Jenny Cromwell, ‘Tomb Kings, Necrons, and Horus: Games Workshop’s Use of Ancient Egyptian Imagery’
11:50-12:30 Aasa Timonen, ‘Transmedia Worldbuilding in Warhammer 40,000’
12:30-13:15 LUNCH
13:15-14:15 Marc Gascoigne, ‘The Black Library’
14:15-17:00 Gaming. A selection of Games Workshop games will be on hand on hand for those who’d like to stay and play
• Manchester Game Centre is online at manchestergamecentre.org
With thanks to Matt Badham
The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: downthetubes News, Events, Games, Other Worlds
Related Articles
-
Sir Ian Livingstone “Magic Realms” Launch Party at Barnes Bookshop, Signing at Forbidden Planet London
-
Fighting Fantasy Fest returns in September, celebrating 40th anniversary of “Deathtrap Dungeon”
-
Comic artist Vivian Truong is this year’s World Book Day illustrator
-
RapidEyeMovers announce brand-new games festival, ‘Humanise’, in Kendal