Introduction to Expanding Universes : Exploring Games and Transmedial Ways of World-building

Transmedia is a wide concept, as by definition, it is a network of various media forms. It includes also games, both digital and more traditional forms of games. Transmedia productions are often built around a certain television series, but in some cases a digital game has been the core production as well. Games, however, have not been looked at in detail in their role as a part of a transmedia whole. It is important to pay attention to the specificity of games as a media form, to their product-audience relation, and to the way how they incorporate playfulness into that relation. Even in cases where games are just a minor part of the production, the playfulness involved in transmedia user p…