2025
Grasmo, Hanne
Reading Larps: The Larp Experience Through Larp Scripts Journal Article
In: Anatomy of Larp Thoughts: A Breathing Corpus, pp. 389-403, 2025, ISBN: 978-82-692633-2-9.
Links | Tags: Archives, Close reading, Larp
@article{nokey,
title = {Reading Larps: The Larp Experience Through Larp Scripts},
author = {Hanne Grasmo},
url = {https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202506167211},
isbn = {978-82-692633-2-9},
year = {2025},
date = {2025-03-11},
journal = {Anatomy of Larp Thoughts: A Breathing Corpus},
pages = {389-403},
keywords = {Archives, Close reading, Larp},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
2023
Blom, Joleen
Video Game Characters and Transmedia Storytelling: The Dynamic Game Character Book
Amsterdam University Press, 2023, ISBN: 9789048553495.
Abstract | Links | Tags: Close reading, Dynamic game character, Japanese narratology, Transmedia storytelling, Video game characters
@book{Blom2023,
title = {Video Game Characters and Transmedia Storytelling: The Dynamic Game Character},
author = {Joleen Blom },
url = {https://doi.org/10.1515/9789048553495
},
doi = {10.1515/9789048553495},
isbn = {9789048553495},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-10-30},
urldate = {2023-10-30},
volume = {9},
publisher = {Amsterdam University Press},
series = {Games and Play},
abstract = {Characters are a vital aspect of today’s transmedia practices. Combining theories on fictional persons from Japanese and Euro-American practices, this book discusses video game characters embedded in our popular media culture in which they are constantly produced and re-imagined.
This book introduces the dynamic game character, a type of game character with a development structure that consists of multiple outcomes in a game. Through their actions and choices, players can influence these game characters’ identities and affect their possible destinies.
Games subvert the idea that fictional persons must maintain a coherent identity. This book shows that dynamic game characters challenge strategies of top-down control through close readings of the Mass Effect series, Persona 5, Hades, Animal Crossing: New Horizons and more. It is directed to all scholars interested in the topics of transmedia storytelling, video games, characters, and Japanese narratology.},
keywords = {Close reading, Dynamic game character, Japanese narratology, Transmedia storytelling, Video game characters},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {book}
}
Characters are a vital aspect of today’s transmedia practices. Combining theories on fictional persons from Japanese and Euro-American practices, this book discusses video game characters embedded in our popular media culture in which they are constantly produced and re-imagined.
This book introduces the dynamic game character, a type of game character with a development structure that consists of multiple outcomes in a game. Through their actions and choices, players can influence these game characters’ identities and affect their possible destinies.
Games subvert the idea that fictional persons must maintain a coherent identity. This book shows that dynamic game characters challenge strategies of top-down control through close readings of the Mass Effect series, Persona 5, Hades, Animal Crossing: New Horizons and more. It is directed to all scholars interested in the topics of transmedia storytelling, video games, characters, and Japanese narratology.
This book introduces the dynamic game character, a type of game character with a development structure that consists of multiple outcomes in a game. Through their actions and choices, players can influence these game characters’ identities and affect their possible destinies.
Games subvert the idea that fictional persons must maintain a coherent identity. This book shows that dynamic game characters challenge strategies of top-down control through close readings of the Mass Effect series, Persona 5, Hades, Animal Crossing: New Horizons and more. It is directed to all scholars interested in the topics of transmedia storytelling, video games, characters, and Japanese narratology.
2022
Välisalo, Tanja; Ruotsalainen, Maria
Player Reception of Change and Stability in Character Mechanics Book Section
In: Ruotsalainen, Maria; Törhönen, Maria; Karhulahti, Veli-Matti (Ed.): Modes of Esports Engagement in Overwatch, pp. 67-86, Palgrave Macmillan, 2022, ISBN: 978-3-030-82766-3.
Abstract | Links | Tags: Close reading, Game characters, Overwatch, Transmedia
@incollection{Välisalo2022,
title = {Player Reception of Change and Stability in Character Mechanics},
author = {Tanja Välisalo and Maria Ruotsalainen},
editor = {Maria Ruotsalainen and Maria Törhönen and Veli-Matti Karhulahti},
url = {https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-82767-0},
doi = {https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82767-0_5},
isbn = {978-3-030-82766-3},
year = {2022},
date = {2022-03-10},
urldate = {2022-03-10},
booktitle = {Modes of Esports Engagement in Overwatch},
pages = {67-86},
publisher = {Palgrave Macmillan},
abstract = {Change 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.},
keywords = {Close reading, Game characters, Overwatch, Transmedia},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {incollection}
}
Change 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.
2021
Karhulahti, Veli-Matti; Giappone, Krista Bonello Rutter
Punchline Behind the Hotspot: Structures of Humor, Puzzle, and Sexuality in Adventure Games (with Leisure Suit Larry in Several Wrong Places) Journal Article
In: Journal of Popular Culture, vol. 54, iss. 2, pp. 341-364, 2021, ISSN: 1540-5931.
Abstract | Links | Tags: Adventure games, Close reading, Humour, Leisure Suit Larry, Puzzles, Sexuality
@article{Karhulahti2021c,
title = {Punchline Behind the Hotspot: Structures of Humor, Puzzle, and Sexuality in Adventure Games (with Leisure Suit Larry in Several Wrong Places)},
author = {Veli-Matti Karhulahti and Krista Bonello Rutter Giappone},
url = {http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:jyu-202005153223
},
doi = {10.1111/jpcu.13011},
issn = {1540-5931},
year = {2021},
date = {2021-04-01},
journal = {Journal of Popular Culture},
volume = {54},
issue = {2},
pages = {341-364},
abstract = {Through the wide‐ranging catalog of text‐based titles in the 1980s, the graphic adventure boom in the 1990s, and ultimately the re‐popularization of the genre by recent independent developers, the comic element has always been central to the adventure game (Bonello Rutter Giappone). Nowadays, the premise also stands on empirical evidence; for instance, Anne‐Marie Grönroos’s study of videogame humor analyzed 659 gaming magazine reviews written between 2010 and 2012 and found that a quarter of the reviewed titles contained explicit humor. Of those, the adventure game genre was clearly the most humorous one, as almost “all of the adventure games were primarily comedic, and the quality of their jokes was often scrutinized in the review” (Grönroos 18). For further evidence, the present study commenced with a systematic review of the “Top 100 Adventure Games” list assembled by a leading community, Adventure Gamers. Despite the fact that high‐status critical rankings like this typically favor “serious” works over those with “comic” appeal (to employ a problematic cultural binary), more than half of the titles were explicitly humorous. For context, many of these titles belong to popular series such as Monkey Island (Lucasfilm Games, since 1990), Simon the Sorcerer (Adventure Soft, since 1993), and Discworld (Perfect 10 Productions, since 1995).2 With the above as a starting‐point, the goal of this study is to solve the persistent meta‐puzzle that has troubled critics, scholars, and popular culture experts within the field since Buckles: Why do adventure games, as a literary form with a history extending over seven decades, make use of humor as their means of expression to such a remarkable extent? Answers to the above are sought via a comparative analysis of two conceptual trajectories, humor and puzzles, that synthesize in the adventure game to a degree that has nowadays reached the status of substantial cultural convention. An argument is set forth as follows: humor and puzzles operate on similar structural principles and thus run on explicit enigmatic synergy that functions as one (yet not the sole) explanation for the adventure game’s inclination to treat its diverse themes through the comic. Methodologically, the argument relies on an analytical close reading of a well‐known adventure game series, Leisure Suit Larry (1987–97), selected for its clear thematic frame of sexuality, which resonates with humor and puzzles. The analysis maps out how Leisure Suit Larry’s humor and puzzles operate together and serve its thematics, thus exemplifying the mechanisms of enigmatic synergy that govern adventure game design in general.},
keywords = {Adventure games, Close reading, Humour, Leisure Suit Larry, Puzzles, Sexuality},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Through the wide‐ranging catalog of text‐based titles in the 1980s, the graphic adventure boom in the 1990s, and ultimately the re‐popularization of the genre by recent independent developers, the comic element has always been central to the adventure game (Bonello Rutter Giappone). Nowadays, the premise also stands on empirical evidence; for instance, Anne‐Marie Grönroos’s study of videogame humor analyzed 659 gaming magazine reviews written between 2010 and 2012 and found that a quarter of the reviewed titles contained explicit humor. Of those, the adventure game genre was clearly the most humorous one, as almost “all of the adventure games were primarily comedic, and the quality of their jokes was often scrutinized in the review” (Grönroos 18). For further evidence, the present study commenced with a systematic review of the “Top 100 Adventure Games” list assembled by a leading community, Adventure Gamers. Despite the fact that high‐status critical rankings like this typically favor “serious” works over those with “comic” appeal (to employ a problematic cultural binary), more than half of the titles were explicitly humorous. For context, many of these titles belong to popular series such as Monkey Island (Lucasfilm Games, since 1990), Simon the Sorcerer (Adventure Soft, since 1993), and Discworld (Perfect 10 Productions, since 1995).2 With the above as a starting‐point, the goal of this study is to solve the persistent meta‐puzzle that has troubled critics, scholars, and popular culture experts within the field since Buckles: Why do adventure games, as a literary form with a history extending over seven decades, make use of humor as their means of expression to such a remarkable extent? Answers to the above are sought via a comparative analysis of two conceptual trajectories, humor and puzzles, that synthesize in the adventure game to a degree that has nowadays reached the status of substantial cultural convention. An argument is set forth as follows: humor and puzzles operate on similar structural principles and thus run on explicit enigmatic synergy that functions as one (yet not the sole) explanation for the adventure game’s inclination to treat its diverse themes through the comic. Methodologically, the argument relies on an analytical close reading of a well‐known adventure game series, Leisure Suit Larry (1987–97), selected for its clear thematic frame of sexuality, which resonates with humor and puzzles. The analysis maps out how Leisure Suit Larry’s humor and puzzles operate together and serve its thematics, thus exemplifying the mechanisms of enigmatic synergy that govern adventure game design in general.