No sure, feels pretty anecdotal and more and more self-referential; I always wonder how to go beyond the niche, and I have made the experience that it works better when not attending game-studies-specific conferences, but rather conferences of "other disciplines".

Hmm maybe it depends: Are games the main focus of the research, so we apply other methods on games, hoping it tells us sth new about games? Or are games just one of various examples/case studies for other discipline's research questions, hoping that games shed a light on these topics?