Elisa D. Mekler | Lightnews

Light up
your news

Create account Sign in

About Privacy Terms Help

Elisa Mekler

Elisa Mekler

@elisamekler.bsky.social

900 followers 690 following 100 posts

sullen assoc prof @itu.dk
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Games, Theory;
ERC StG Theorycraft (2022 - 2027);
I like weird games and JRPGs (header image: Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor)

Psychology 36%

Computer science 21%

more

Posts Replies Media Videos

Pinned

Elisa Mekler @elisamekler.bsky.social · Oct 10

Don't usually care for my papers' download numbers and don't fully trust the ACM metrics. But hey, I'm v proud of this one and it would've annoyed April to see me brag about it.

1000 downloads on ACM DL. let's gooo!

(pls also actually read the paper. it's pretty good)
doi.org/10.1145/3673...

The paper "Self-Determination Theory and HCI Games Research: Unfulfilled Promises and Unquestioned Paradigms" was downloaded 1000 times.

Reposted by Elisa D. Mekler

Miguel Sicart @miguelsicart.bsky.social · 23h

Florence is both a game scholar and a game developer, and their work on archaeology and game worlds is a must for anybody interested in world building, or the culture of videogames and how to study it.

(If you’re a game developer or game scholar interested in game worlds, this talk is for you)

Reposted by Elisa D. Mekler

Miguel Sicart @miguelsicart.bsky.social · 23h

Why should you attend this talk? Florence is one of the most interesting game scholars working on how videogames can be studied as culture, and how to expand the vocabulary we have for analyzing and making games.

Reposted by Elisa D. Mekler, Stefano Gualeni

Miguel Sicart @miguelsicart.bsky.social · 23h

Friends! On November 19th at 16:00, in Auditorium 3 at the ITU, we are hosting a talk by Florence Smith Nicholls. The talk is titled How to be a video game archaeologist. You can read about it here: digitalplay.itu.dk/event/floren...

How To Be A Video Game Archaeologist - A talk by Florence Smith Nicholls | Center for Digital Play

How To Be A Video Game Archaeologist - A talk by Florence Smith Nicholls

digitalplay.itu.dk

Elisa Mekler @elisamekler.bsky.social · 4d

Randomly remembered GamingSymmetry and the featured article series "The JRPG: An Intricate Genre".

Sad to see the site down. But at least the articles are still accessible (sin screenshots)
web.archive.org/web/20210412...

Conclusion | Gaming Symmetry

web.archive.org

Reposted by Elisa D. Mekler

Rascal News @rascal.news · 4d

"It's not a tomb. It's a town. And it will always be."

Czech larp group, Rolling, are based out of a former Nazi concentration camp hospital. Their performances embrace the complications and pain of that history.

A Czech larp group wrestles with Nazi history by roleplaying in its bones

Exploring Disco Elysium and the power of art in a former concentration camp.

www.rascal.news

Reposted by Elisa D. Mekler

VGDensetsu @vgdensetsu.bsky.social · 8d

An overview of the status of women in the video game industry in Japan and in Japanese society more generally
(+ a focus on the career of Miki Morimoto, the second known woman to have directed a game at Sega)
vgdensetsu.net/riekokodama6
dispo en VF
vgdensetsu.net/riekokodamavf6

Black and white photograph of several people seen from behind in Shimbashi, one of Tokyo's business districts, in 1955. All are walking with their eyes fixed ahead, except for a woman on the right who is looking back.

Reposted by Elisa D. Mekler

Felix A. Epp @felix.science · 21d

Back from my hiatus on here to announce our first study on Digital Ideologies. With @jhaapj.bsky.social and @matnel.bsky.social we explored connections between the affordances of social media and political ideologies.
There are differences… 🧵

📄 Get the #CSCW paper at dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...

Affordances and Design Principles of The Political Left and Right | Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction

Like any form of technology, social media services embed values. To examine how societal values may be present in these systems, we focus on exploring political ideology as a value system. We organise...

Reposted by Elisa D. Mekler

Design Room @designroom.bsky.social · 27d

For the Shadow of the Colossus story, we interviewed 14 people including project leads Fumito Ueda and Kenji Kaido, hired Gravity Rush concept artist Takeshi Oga to illustrate the cover, and put together a 10,000-word story with help from @milkman.bsky.social @shmuplations.bsky.social and others.

Shadow of the Colossus: An oral history

Celebrate the 20th anniversary of Team Ico’s masterpiece by looking back with 11 people who worked on it (and three who didn’t).

www.designroom.site

Reposted by Elisa D. Mekler

MIT Press @mitpress.bsky.social · 28d

👀 We heard Nintendo is bringing the Virtual Boy back to gamers. While we can't get you the new add-on, the story behind this unique platform is completely free!

@jzagal.bsky.social & @benjedwards.com's "Seeing Red" is available #OpenAccess: mitpress.mit.edu/978026204506...

Hands holding a copy of "Seeing Red: Nintendo's Virtual Boy" by Jose P. Zagal and Benj Edwards. The cover depicts a Mario game in play in black and red pixels.

Reposted by Elisa D. Mekler

Dustyダスティ(Blue Bidya Game) @bluebidyagame.bsky.social · 28d

PS1 Stories - Abalaburn is up!

Oh man oh wow neato

I'm doing a premier watch now. Why not?

👇
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDVe...
👆

Reposted by Elisa D. Mekler

SKATE STORY @skatestory.com · Oct 9

SKATE STORY
Release Date Trailer - "Emptylands"

Skate Story | OUT DECEMBER 8 🛹

YouTube video by DevolverDigital

Reposted by Elisa D. Mekler

Kevin Marín Rubio @kevmarin.bsky.social · Oct 8

I'm giving a talk at @itu.dk on November 6th!

🎮 Play Utopia - Video Games for Critical Imagination in a Barcelona Youth Club 🔮

Thanks to @miguelsicart.bsky.social for organizing during my doctoral stay at the Center of Digital Play!

digitalplay.itu.dk/event/kevin-...

Play Utopia - Video Games for Critical Imagination in a Barcelona Youth Club | Center for Digital Play

Play Utopia - Video Games for Critical Imagination in a Barcelona Youth Club

digitalplay.itu.dk

Reposted by Elisa D. Mekler

Melissa Rogerson @melissainau.bsky.social · Oct 8

Do you teach boardgames? We have just launched a survey asking about your experience! It takes about ten minutes to complete - please share!
Survey link: go.unimelb.edu.au/45qp

Image text reads:
Do you teach board games?
We invite you to complete a short survey for academic research into people’s experiences of teaching boardgames, at home and elsewhere.
The survey takes about ten minutes to complete.

To find out more, please use the QR code,
visit go.unimelb.edu.au/45qp
or email hybrid-games@unimelb.edu.au

(University of Melbourne Human Research Ethics Approval 33778)

There is also a decorative image of game pawns and dice, with a magnifying glass on top, as well as a QR code which points to the given link.

Reposted by Elisa D. Mekler

Okomotive @okomotive.ch · Aug 21

Herdling is OUT NOW! We’re stoked to finally invite you on this journey 🐐🦬🐏⛰️
Get the game now on Steam, Epic Game Store, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S or Game Pass, links below!

We’ll give away 5 Steam keys among everyone who reposts this 🎉🎉🎉

Elisa Mekler @elisamekler.bsky.social · Aug 15

Happy birthday! Nice mug

Reposted by Elisa D. Mekler

RPGFan @rpgfan.bsky.social · Aug 14

OFF was hitting things off with the indie #RPG explosion of yesteryear, some of the most unique passion projects you could possibly play. A vocal fanbase has kept its spirit alive -- and even inspired new developers. 👻 It's good to go back!

Full Review: www.rpgfan.com/review/off-r...

Reposted by Elisa D. Mekler

Sean Seanson @seanseanson.bsky.social · Aug 13

In my time on YouTube, I've covered countless obscure hits, Japan-only hidden gems, and some of the most important and culturally relevant games of the PlayStation era.

This is not one of those videos.

Silly PS1 Licensed Games is out now!

youtu.be/sbwJeN1qrUk

thumbnail for the Youtube video 'Silly PS1 Licensed Games | Sean Seanson'

Features images of a smurf, Arthur the ardvark, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and Xena Warrior Princess on a purple background.

Text reads: A Sean Seson video about silly PS1 licensed games.
do not underestimate the power of the video game tie-in.

Reposted by Elisa D. Mekler

Nathalie Lawhead @alienmelon.bsky.social · Aug 12

under present day rampant online censorship, and the way it’s affecting queer art & games… it’s a good time to point out that there’s a lot of DIY ways to distribute your work that don’t rely on a third party… like…
github.com/9001/copyparty
“turn almost any device into a file server”

GitHub - 9001/copyparty: Portable file server with accelerated resumable uploads, dedup, WebDAV, FTP, TFTP, zeroconf, media indexer, thumbnails++ all in one file, no deps

Portable file server with accelerated resumable uploads, dedup, WebDAV, FTP, TFTP, zeroconf, media indexer, thumbnails++ all in one file, no deps - 9001/copyparty

Reposted by Jussi T. Eronen, Margot C. Finn, Elisa D. Mekler

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · Aug 12

8. This has been a short and honestly rather peevish thread, so if you want read more that has been written in a more equanimous tone, here's a short piece that I coauthored a few years ago, precisely about how we deal with this kind of duplicity.

To Fight Misinformation, We Need to Teach That Science Is Dynamic

Science is a social process, and teaching students how researchers work in tandem to develop facts will make them less likely to be duped by falsehoods

www.scientificamerican.com

Reposted by Elisa D. Mekler

Raina 🇨🇦 @rainaelm.bsky.social · Aug 12

Mashina is very quickly becoming one my favourite things I’ve played this year! Everything in the game is physically handmade which gives it such a cozy, special, DIY feel when you see it in motion. Gameplay is tons of fun too, it reminds me of making weird little tunnels along the beach as a kid

A screenshot of mashina, a 2D game about digging. The player character is underground and conveyor belts are nearby

A screenshot of mashina. The overworld is 3D and an NPC is talking to the player character.

A photo of the real-life objects that appear in the game Mashina. A mix of materials are used, seemingly ranging from clay to bits of wire

Elisa Mekler @elisamekler.bsky.social · Aug 8

That's just off the top of my head. I'm sure there is tons more (and major apologies to mutuals whose work I didn't think of!!)

Elisa Mekler @elisamekler.bsky.social · Aug 8

And depending on whether you're also interested in purely conceptual contributions, you might also want to check out Dooley Murphy's work applying cognitive film theory to games, and several more papers on narrative engagement in VR doi.org/10.1007/978-...

Press X to Punch(line): The Design and Cognition of Interactive Gags

The chapter unpacks ‘interactive gags’: an approach to the design of discrete jokes in digital games. Where humorous scriptwriting can be appreciated without the player pressing buttons or...

Elisa Mekler @elisamekler.bsky.social · Aug 8

Matthew Whitby and Jaakko Väkevä both did several studies on perspective-challenging or transformative games. doi.org/10.1145/3611... doi.org/10.1145/3613...

“Conversations with pigeons”: Capturing Players’ Lived Experience of Perspective Challenging Games | Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction

Video games are increasingly designed to provoke reflection and challenge players’ perspectives. Yet we know little about how such perspective-challenging experiences come about in gameplay. In respon...

Elisa Mekler @elisamekler.bsky.social · Aug 8

@sevenfridays.bsky.social has co-authored some great studies on emotional challenge and player agency, and @nishadevasia.bsky.social has a really cool upcoming paper fleshing out some of the potential psych mechanisms underlying eudaimonic game experiences arxiv.org/abs/2507.18084

"I Would Not Be This Version of Myself Today": Elaborating on the Effects of Eudaimonic Gaming Experiences

While much of the research in digital games has emphasized hedonic experiences, such as flow, enjoyment, and positive affect, recent years have seen increased interest in eudaimonic gaming experiences...

Reposted by Elisa D. Mekler

Pieter Van den Heede @pietervdheede.bsky.social · Aug 6

Question to the BlueSky game studies-crowd!

What are some of the best studies you know about the psychological, emotional and cognitive engagement of players with game fictions?

I'm thinking of books by @kcisbister.bsky.social , Aubrey Anable and some others, but any other key recommendations?

Reposted by Elisa D. Mekler

Dan Bennett @comic-sans-soleil.bsky.social · Aug 4

CHI writing trip back to ITU Copenhagen - whiteboard scrawl in my old office still untouched and evergreen in relevance.

Reposted by Elisa D. Mekler

Talha - Mashina OUT NOW @taloketo.bsky.social · Jul 31

Mashina is OUT NOW.

Dig and mend the world in this chill stop-motion mining adventure.

store.steampowered.com/app/3395930/...

Reposted by Elisa D. Mekler

Dominic Tarason @dominictarason.com · Jul 31

I'm pretty sure some of you need to hear this:

Earthbound Doom

www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/...

Currently just three (big) levels, with more planned, but the foundation is all there.

Elisa Mekler @elisamekler.bsky.social · Jul 31

Played this years ago, didn't understand any Japanese. But the music always stuck with me: www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0If...

"Famicom Bunko: Hajimari no Mori" Music : 6 - Which Way's the Station

YouTube video by All Nintendo Music

www.youtube.com

Reposted by Elisa D. Mekler

Bruno de Figueiredo @dieubussy.bsky.social · Jul 31

Famicom Bunko: Hajimari no Mori was released 26 years ago by PaxSoftonica via Nintendo Power. It's one of SFC's best-told stories, up there with Ihatovo Monogatari or Gokinjo Boukentai, and the great forerunner to Boku No Natsuyasumi. An English translation is urgently needed.