The World Hobbit Project in Finland : Audience responses and transmedial user practices
This article examines audience engagement with The Hobbit fantasy film trilogy as a participatory and transmedial experience. To do so, we use the data collected by The World Hobbit Project in order to investigate the transmedial user practices of the Finnish audience of the trilogy. We will, firstly, look at what kinds of transmedial user practices – and transmedia users – emerge from our data. Secondly, we will ask the following questions: How do transmedia users receive and experience the films? What are the meanings assigned to The Hobbit films and the fantasy texts and user practices related to them, and what do these meanings tell of the broader meanings and uses of fantasy? Doing so,…
Johdanto : Fantasiasta
Fantasia ja transmedia
Fantastinen fanius
Fans and Videogames : Histories, Fandom, Archives
Kirja-arvio teoksesta Melanie Swalwell, Helen Stuckey ja Angela Ndalianis, toim. (2017). Fans and Videogames. Histories, Fandom, Archives. New York: Routledge. nonPeerReviewed
Muistettu ja unohdettu musiikki
Nuorten 1980-luvun musiikkikulttuureja ovat leimanneet mielikuvat kaupallisuudesta, pinnallisuudesta ja värikkäistä musiikkivideoista. Tutkimuksellisen kiinnostuksen kohteena ovat puolestaan olleet erityisesti erilaiset musiikilliset alakulttuurit. 1980-luvun nuoriso- ja musiikkikulttuurien suuret linjat ovat kuitenkin jääneet vielä tutkimukselliseen paitsioon. Tässä artikkelissa aikakauden nuorisomusiikkikulttuurien keskeisiä piirteitä hahmotellaan ristiinvalottamalla aikakautta kahden eri aineistokokonaisuuden, muistelukirjoitusten ja levymyyntitilastojen kautta. Aikakaudella nuoruuttaan eläneiden muistoja kerättiin Niin kasaria! -muistitietokeruulla yhteistyössä Suomalaisen Kirjallisuude…
"I never gave up"
Esports phenomena have grown rapidly in recent years, and so has research on the topic. Some of the research has also addressed esports fandom (see e.g. Taylor 2012). Nevertheless, studies comparing and contrasting how players and fans engage with the game and the esports based on that game are scarce. This study compares and contrasts how players and fans engage with playable game characters and esports players. The paper draws on previous research in fan studies, sports fandom and esports to examine the relationships of players and fans of the videogame Overwatch (Blizzard Entertainment 2016) with the fictional heroes of the game as well as with their favorite professional players in the …
Player Reception of Change and Stability in Character Mechanics
AbstractChange is a constant element of online games, and Overwatch as well as its playable characters have been through multiple changes since the launch of the game in 2016. In this chapter, we examine the relationships players have with the playable characters of Overwatch and specifically the role that character mechanics have in these relationships. Changes to game characters are a topic of avid discussion in Overwatch communities and evoke articulations of the meaning of game characters for the players.
A Book Review: Colin B. Harvey – Fantastic Transmedia: Narrative, Play and Memory Across Science Fiction and Fantasy Storyworlds
Player perceptions of informal learning in non-educational games
The potential of non-educational games in learning is well-established, but there have been relatively few empirical studies attempting to explore the kinds of informal learning take place in non-educational games outside of formal education. Simultaneously, student motivation is known to have a connection to learning outcomes, but there is a lack of research on the relationship between gaming motivations and informal learning in games. This paper aims to fill the gap in research by, firstly, forming an empirically-based understanding of what players perceive they are learning from playing non-educational games, and secondly, exploring the potential connections of self-articulated learning …
Constructing a Transmedia Universe : The Case of Battlestar Galactica
In this article, we define a ‘transmedia universe’ as encompassing the complexity of transmedia storytelling, production and consumption. In doing so, we use the popular science fiction television series Battlestar Galactica as a case study, including both the original and reimagined versions of the series and their various intramedia and transmedia, narrative and non-narrative, and diegetic and non-diegetic expansions. Moreover, we look beyond the official productions of the Battlestar Galactica franchise and include, for example, user-generated content within its transmedia universe. peerReviewed
“Overwatch is anime” : Exploring an alternative interpretational framework for competitive gaming
Esports has often been likened and compared to traditional sports. This paper suggests an alternative interpretative framework for competitive gaming by focusing on the team-based first-person shooter game Overwatch. We explore Overwatch esports using multi-sited ethnography and demonstrate how the fans and viewers use a rich spectrum of cultural products to enrich and explain their relationship with esports. In the case of Overwatch, anime is particularly prominent, used not only to enrich and explain, but also to challenge ‘sports normativity’, which is visible in the media discussions on Overwatch as well as in the production choices of the esports tournament organizer. This also has con…
Abigail De Kosnik: Rogue Archives : Digital Cultural Memory and Media Fandom [book review]
Itse tehty fandom
Nörttikulttuurin identiteettikriisi
Nörttikulttuuri on identiteettikriisissä. Perinteisesti nörttimäisinä pidetyt käytänteet ja kulttuurituotteet ovat siirtyneet lähemmäs valtavirtaa, mikä on häivyttänyt rajaa nörttien ja muiden median ja teknologian käyttäjien välillä. Nörttikulttuurin sisälle tämä on heijastunut kiistaksi siitä, kuka saa osallistua nörttikulttuurin kuluttamiseen, tuottamiseen ja määrittelyyn, ja millä tavoin. Stereotypia nörttikulttuurista valkoisten heteromiesten maskuliinisena kenttänä ei koskaan ole pitänyt täysin paikkansa, mutta 2000-luvulla väitteen totuudellisuus on murentunut entisestään.
 Tässä artikkelissa tarkastelemme nörttiyden kriisiä kolmen tapaustutkimuksen kautta ja analysoimme, mitä G…
“Sexuality does not belong to the game” : Discourses in Overwatch Community and the Privilege of Belonging
Players can experience a sense of belonging to videogames and the transmedial worlds surrounding them. There nevertheless exist ongoing negotiations over who has the right to belong to these spaces. Multiple works addressing related issues have highlighted that white heterosexual men still maintain the position of power in the majority of game communities (e.g., Consalvo, 2012; Paul, 2018). This position can translate into an ease of belonging while others can find themselves struggling for the right to belong. We examine the transmedial world of Overwatch, an online game, as a place of belonging and non-belonging. Since the game’s launch, two characters have been revealed as queer. In cont…
Engaging with film characters : Empirical study on the reception of characters in The Hobbit films
Characters are important for the audience reception of films, but little empirical research on actual audiences has been conducted on the topic of character reception. Are characters important for all audiences, and if not, what are the possible reasons and implications? How do audiences construct their engagement with characters? I argue that in addition to elements in Murray Smith’s classic model, structure of sympathy, other elements should be included when studying character engagement. This article presents an empirical study on the reception of characters using the Nordic responses (4,879 total) drawn from the global audience survey on The Hobbit fantasy film trilogy (Jackson, An Unex…
A Pilot Study on Developing Newsgames in Collaboration between Journalism and Computer Science Students
Abstract Producing digital and interactive journalistic products offers unique and important new learning opportunities for journalism education. This study analysed the experiences of two pilot courses on so-called ‘newsgames’ in a Finnish university in 2015 and 2017. The data consisted of the newsgames and other materials produced by the students, student feedback concerning the course and observations of teachers throughout the project. Our analysis demonstrates how producing newsgames in the context of higher education may foster project-based learning experiences, something that has been relatively rare in traditional journalism education. Collaboration with media companies also offere…