What exactly is it like to work as an academic publishing research? Today, researchers must contend with a cutthroat publishing world with conflicting demands from academic journals, funders and industry that shape how research is done.

Publish or Perish, a collaboration between Melbourne Megagames and Melbourne Academic Games, Play and Interactive Entertainment (MAGPIE), is a megagame that sees you and many other players take on the role of academics, companies and academic journals and play through the process of publishing research, submitting grant proposals and competing for journal endorsements. Megagames are large scale games that combine elements of board games, tabletop RPGs, live action roleplay and more. Publish or Perish ‘gamifies’ the modern day process of doing humanities research while also revealing more about the design and study of games at the same time.

Register your interest to play and more information about the rules and teams will be provided ahead of game day.

What to expect:

Publish or Perish is a megagame played over four hours, with approximately fifty players playing as either universities, industry bodies or academic journals.

Please note that you only need to attend one session to play and the second session on 7 November is a repeat.

Being Human 2026

This project was produced in collaboration with the 2026 Being Human Festival. Founded in the UK as the only national festival of the humanities, Being Human is now a global celebration dedicated to demonstrating the breadth, diversity and vitality of the humanities.

View the full Festival program here.

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