@article{Meriläinen2023b,

title = {The Light, the Dark, and Everything Else: Making Sense of Young People's Digital Gaming},

author = {Mikko Meriläinen and Maria Ruotsalainen },

url = {https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1164992

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1164992/full},

doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1164992},

year  = {2023},

date = {2023-06-12},

urldate = {2023-06-12},

journal = {Frontiers in Psychology},

volume = {14},

abstract = {Whether gaming has a beneficial or detrimental effect on young people's lives is a defining feature in both the research and the public discussion of youth digital gaming. In this qualitative study, we draw from a thematic analysis of the experiences of 180 game players in Finland, aged 15–25 years. Utilizing the digital gaming relationship (DGR) theory, we explore how different aspects of gaming actualize in their lives, and how different features of gaming culture participation come together to form their experience. We contend that framing gaming as a balancing act between beneficial and detrimental obscures much of the complexity of young people's gaming, reinforces a partially false dichotomy, and overlooks young people's agency. Based on our results, we suggest alternative approaches that help reduce and avoid these problems.},

keywords = {Digital gaming, Digital gaming relationship, Everyday life, Social worlds, Thematic analysis, Transmedia, Young people},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Meriläinen2022b,

title = {Pandemic Rhythms: Adults' Gaming in Finland During the Spring 2020 COVID-19 Restrictions},

author = {Mikko Meriläinen},

url = {https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202203232696},

doi = {10.1177/13548565221077582},

issn = {1354-8565},

year  = {2022},

date = {2022-03-02},

journal = {Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies},

volume = {Pre-print},

abstract = {This qualitative study examines how the spring 2020 COVID-19 restriction measures impacted adults’ gaming in Finland. The study draws on a thematic analysis of qualitative data (N = 201) collected in April 2020, which is explored through the lens of Apperley’s (2010) theory of gaming rhythms. The results illuminate the ways in which gaming was situated in everyday life both during and before the COVID-19 restrictions, and how the pandemic and its associated restrictions disrupted, reinforced, and reconfigured the everyday rhythms of gaming. The situation impacted individuals and families differently, being beneficial to some and detrimental to others, contingent on other aspects of respondents’ lives. The results underline how an individual’s gaming does not happen in isolation, but takes place in the confines of everyday life, shaped by factors outside the individual’s control. Developing Apperley’s theory, the results show that gaming can be a very resilient activity, given the right circumstances.},

keywords = {Coping, COVID-19, Digital gaming, Everyday life, Family, Non-digital gaming, Rhythm analysis, Situated gaming, Thematic analysis},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}