This volume compiles papers from the Young Academics Workshop at the Clash of Realities conferences of 2017 and 2018. The 2017 workshop - Perceiving Video Games - explored the video game medium by focusing on perception and meaning-making processes. The 2018 workshop - Reframing the Violence and Video Games Debate - transcended misleading claims that link video games and violent behavior by offering a range of fresh topical perspectives. From BA students to postdoctoral researchers, the young academics of this anthology stem from a spectrum of backgrounds, including game studies, game design, and phenomenology. This volume also features an entry by renowned psychologist Christopher J. Ferguson.

Federico Alvarez Igarzábal (Dr.) works at the Cologne Game Lab of Technische Hochschule Köln as researcher and project coordinator for the ISEDA project. The goal of this project is to deliver a series of tools and strategies, including a serious game, to combat domestic violence in Europe. Previously, he was a postdoctoral researcher for the project VIRTUALTIMES, aimed at developing virtual environments to treat and diagnose psychopathologies like depression. He conducted his Ph.D. at Universität Köln and Technische Hochschule Köln on the topic of »Time and Space in Video Games«.Michael S. Debus is a postdoctoral researcher at the IT University of Copenhagen, entrepreneur, and industry expert. He obtained his PhD on game ontologies in 2019.Curtis L. Maughan holds a PhD in German Studies from Vanderbilt University, where he is currently a postdoctoral scholar.