Meet BGA: An Introduction to Board Game Academics
By Anthony Chatfield, Editor-in-Chief
Editor’s Note: NASAGA recently announced to its members the formation of a publishing partnership with Board Game Academics (BGA). We are pleased to now share that information more broadly, and provide you with some insights on BGA straight from its key leaders!
Who We Are
For more than a decade, myself, Christopher Carbone, and members of the Board Game Academics editorial board have been active participants in the board game industry, producing multiple podcasts, events, videos, and streams, speaking and writing extensively about the impact of games on society, and working with dozens of game publishers and content creators. Our investment in the board gaming culture has equally permeated our professional work outside of gaming as educators, counselors, practitioners, trainers, and more.
Christopher and I founded Board Gamers Anonymous in 2013 because of that love for games. Through that platform, we’ve explored the use of games to build communities through play, from teaching and training events to charity auctions and sponsorship of local clubs. In this work, we met practitioners eager to utilize tabletop games in non-traditional settings. Still, they needed greater academic research, professional development, and organized support to successfully pitch and integrate their ideas. This included the integration of games into course design, the use of games to explore potential career paths, tabletop game use in the memory ward, the hands-on use of tabletop role-playing games to facilitate therapy with college students, and many more applications. To support our work, we looked at how tabletop gaming is applied in academic settings: the pedagogical, practical, and hands-on use of games in the classroom, career center, therapist’s office, and beyond.
Board Game Academics (BGA) was launched in 2022 to formalize this work. The goal was not just to share the wonderful work everyone is doing in tabletop gaming but also to curate and highlight blueprints and research justification for using tabletop games in settings that might remain skeptical of letting students “play games” instead of doing work. As professors and counselors who have been tasked with writing our own justifications for the use of tabletop games in traditionally more rigorous settings, we were asked to show our work. How would letting students play games in the classroom instead of discussing readings help them learn how to write or better understand the Punic Wars? How would the purchase of dozens of games support the education and guidance of students toward their destined career path? By collecting the experiences and accompanying research from people who had done the hard work within their fields, we aimed to help the next wave of educators leverage games in their efforts.
BGA’s Vision
Over the last three years, we’ve narrowed our scope to focus on and support research that takes a critical approach to the discussion, analysis, creation, pedagogy, participation, and distribution of tabletop games. BGA seeks to elevate voices from across the spectrum of academic writing to discuss how board games, tabletop roleplaying games, and other analog gaming experiences can serve as tools to support specific outcomes in professional and academic settings.
In universities, corporate settings, and complex organizations, there is a greater need than ever to find unique, creative ways to engage people. We know that tabletop gaming can help based on the following evidence:
Within universities, tabletop games provide a shared, face-to-face activity that builds community and helps students form meaningful connections.
Tabletop games support career readiness and personal development goals by creating opportunities for experiential learning, improving key competencies, and offering a playful yet serious space for growth.
Tabletop games can simulate real-world scenarios in a low-stakes environment. Experiential training and education increase retention and comprehension by up to 30% over traditional methods.
A broad review of gamification studies shows the practice to have been positively effective in providing tangible benefits in both education and the workplace.
Board Game Academics aims to capture the stories that show how gaming can address these issues.
How to Get Involved
Board Game Academics publishes a journal annually in the spring. Volume II of the journal will be released on March 1, and the call for proposals is currently open for Volume III. We welcome submissions from all disciplines, fields, academic levels, and affiliations. We publish reviews (800 words), commentaries (2000 words), and papers (3500-5000 words) on a range of topics, including but not limited to:
tabletop games in the classroom
paratextual creation within tabletop gaming communities
the mediated depictions of race, gender, and sexuality in games
tabletop game use for therapeutic purposes, and
the usage and context of games in developmental processes.
Submissions for Volume III are being accepted through February 28, 2025, with a virtual conference to be held in the late summer or early fall.
In addition to our annual journal, Victory Points is a monthly column highlighting a scholar, professional, or enthusiast from diverse communities in tabletop gaming. We want your unique, unfiltered perspective on how gaming influences the world. You do not need to be an academic to submit an essay for consideration. We aim to open access to scholarship on tabletop gaming, not just to readers but to first-time authors and researchers with something to share.
Whether you are interested in submitting a proposal for a conference presentation and paper or have an idea for a shorter essay in Victory Points, we welcome all voices from both in and out of academia. If you have any questions or would like to learn more about any of our publications, contact info@boardgameacademics.com.