In the 21st century, “play is a dominant way of expression in our First World societies” (Sicart 2014, p. 15). Play and games have been foundational to both the formation of the internet and its ascendence in everyday life. Social media platforms vie for our attention, making us players in their algorithmic economies of visibility and, in turn, these platforms are “gamed” by communities (Merriam-Pigg 2021; Massanari 2024). Many previous AoIR conferences have celebrated the digital and internet-based work that are happening in game studies, with games studies scholars serving in leadership positions within the organization. Game studies and internet research were seemingly entwined.

Yet recently there has been a rupture – and the presence of game studies work at AoIR has decreased over time as a result. In this roundtable, we discuss AoIR’s gaming past and future as well as why games and gaming culture are critical components in helping us understand internet studies in this fraught political moment. Taking seriously Aaron Trammell’s (2023) call to “repair play,” and utilizing Boluk and LeMieux’s 2017 concept of “metagaming” (playing games about games) we seek to explore not just the joy of incorporating play and game studies at AoIR, but the torturous schisms between play, game studies, and internet research. It is only through a thorough discussion of the joys and the tortures that this rupture may be repaired.

Join us, Adrienne Massanari (game studies scholar, former AoIR leadership), Ailea Merriam-Pigg (National Communication Association’s Game Studies Division Chair), E. Brooke Phipps (game studies scholar), Andrew Lowe (game studies graduate student), and Alison Harvey (game studies scholar, president of the Canadian Game Studies Association) in repairing the rupture of internet research and game studies.