The AKGWDS is accepting submissions for the second issue of their Elizabeth Magie Awards now. The award celebrates outstanding Bachelor's and Master's theses in the field of Game Studies.
Since 2025, the the Arbeitskreis Geisteswissenschaften und Digitale Spiele (AKGWDS; Working Group on the Humanities and Digital Games) accepts yearly submissions from students in the Elizabeth Magie Award Ceremony. Named after the inventor of the original Monopoly boardgame The Landlord's Game, the award celebrates Bachelor and Master theses from the field of Game Studies. Now, the submissions for the academic year 2025/2026 are now open and students can submit their theses here.
The papers must have been written and graded during the 2025–2026 academic year. Regardless of the discipline, the papers must focus on digital games. There are no application requirements other than that the papers must have received a passing grade.
The winners of last year were Nina Raffer with “Video Games for English Language Learning: The Potential of Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth” (English Education) and Alex Thallinger with “Maps in Games. A Transmedial Investigation of Narrative and Ludic Engagement in and through the Representation of Space” (English and American Studies) in the Bachelor's category and Danny Hinrichs with “Gamification of Labor, Laborification of Games – Approaches to the Relationship Between Paid Work and Video Games in the 21st Century” (Cultural Studies – Culture, Arts, and Media) as well as Antonia Imbeck with “Now I Will Share a Game with You. Agonal and Aleatory Narrative Logics in Stricker’s Daniel von dem Blühenden Tal” (Early German Literature and Language) in the Master's category.
