Frans Mäyrä
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fransmayra.bsky.social
Frans Mäyrä
@fransmayra.bsky.social

A professor, Tampere University, Finland. Nature photographer. Fan of fantasy, science fiction, new media and old ideas.

www.unet.fi
www.fransmayra.fi (personal blog)

Computer science 28%
Sociology 21%

Reposted by Frans Mäyrä

We have published our first report on larp festivals and conventions, explaining the foundations of the work we are doing in Larpocracy: Larp Festivals as Democratic Spaces.

zenodo.org/records/1841...
Larp Festivals as Democratic Spaces
This report is the first deliverable from Work Package 5: Design of Spaces for Human Encounter in the Horizon Europe funded research project Larpocracy. It lays the foundations for our research on lar...
zenodo.org

Kiitoksia - kylmäähän tuolla on, mutta kaunista. 😊❄️🦉

Lauantain talvisissa lintukuvissa: viirupöllö (Ural owl) ja varpuspöllöt (Eurasian pygmy owl). Pöllöjä kuvattu matkan päästä 800mm:n teleobjektiivilla. #luontokuvaus #naturephotography #linnut #birds #pöllöt #owls

Perjantain petolintu: kanahaukka. #luontokuvaus #naturephotography

Reposted by Frans Mäyrä

🇫🇮 Meta sulki Digitaalinen itsenäisyys -aloitteen Threads-tilin. Mitä seuraavaksi? 🤔

Kansalaisaloitteemme, joka ajaa digitaalista itsenäisyyttä, sai juuri karun esimerkin siitä, mitä riippuvuus ulkomaisista alustoista tarkoittaa.

#DigitaalinenItsenäisyys #Meta #Threads #Sananvapaus #Suomi

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Kiitos - ja totta: tuossa on kyllä maisemallisuutta, ainakin kun hieman silmiä siristää. :-)

Kiitos - aika hankala oli huomata tuolta, kannon sisästä ja lumen alta. :-)

Viikonlopun luontokuvia: lehtopöllö, lumisessa pesässään. (Strix aluco / Tawny Owl.) #luontokuvaus #naturephotography

I delivered again today my "Textual Analysis and Interpretation of Games" guest lecture in the methodology course. I emphasised eg the methodological freedom in our field and productive and even subversive potentials in employing multiple analytical perspectives. Thanks for the invite and interest!

Kiitos! Vähän sääliksi käy aina kun hienoja eläimiä pidetään eläintarhoissa, mutta sillä on toki oma roolinsa myös suojelutyössä.

A collage of my black and white photography, from over the years. I like to visit parks, zoos, castles, libraries and museums, when I have a chance.

Reposted by Frans Mäyrä

Our PEGASUS project team investigated how different types of (digital) game cultural organisations in Finland understand DEI in their own activities, and what kind of guidelines and practices they have for promoting DEI. The publication is openly available: revistas.ulusofona.pt/index.php/ij... 1/7
‘Cornerstones for Creativity and Success’ | The International Journal of Games and Social Impact
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are value-based principles that are widely utilised in building more socially and culturally sustainable environments that are experienced as welcoming and fair for all – also in diverse game cultural contexts. In this study, we investigate how different types of game cultural organisations in Finland understand DEI in the context of their own activities, and what kind of guidelines and practices they have for promoting DEI. The results are based on a reflexive content analysis on 18 public DEI documents from 11 Finnish game cultural organisations focusing on digital games and gaming. Based on our analysis, it seems that Finnish game cultural organisations view DEI as a pathway for their continuous success as well as for building better game culture for everyone. The examined organisations were actively expressing their commitment to promoting DEI both by working to prevent discrimination and harassment and by utilising practices to build safer and more inclusive environments. However, it was not always clear if these organisations had set specific goals for their DEI work and if they were following their progress in this area. Importantly, our investigation illustrates that a wide range of different types of organisations can contribute to the cultural ecosystem in which digital games are created, consumed, and utilised in various ways, and that inspecting this variety of organisations operating on different sectors of game culture may reveal more widely shared cultural values and practices within this environment.
revistas.ulusofona.pt

"Events and Communities", the 22nd Annual Tampere University Game Research Lab Spring Seminar, 5-6 May, 2026: the abstract submission deadline has been extended until 21 January 2026. See the CFP: springseminar.org/2026-call-fo...
2026 | Call for Papers
Events are at the heart of game and play cultures. They are organized for many reasons and purposes, bringing people together to play, socialize, compete, learn and teach, network, sell, perform, c…
springseminar.org

This in Turku: Assistant/associate professor of Digital cultural heritage (tenure track).

ats.talentadore.com/apply/digita...
Assistant/Associate Professor of Digital Cultural Heritage (tenure track)
The University of Turku, Faculty of Humanities, invites applications for the position of Assistant or Associate Professor (tenure track) in Digital Cultural Heritage. The employment will begin by agre...
ats.talentadore.com
Eludamos has a new CFP for a Special issue: New Perspectives on Men and Masculinity in Gaming

Eludamos invites scholars in game studies and beyond to submit full papers for a special issue on men and masculinity in gaming, with deadline March 15, 2026.

A freezing soap bubble experiment. #photography #winter

One should note, though, that both novels end in some kind of romantic affirmation of love and life's meaningfulness. (5/4...)

One could take the Lodge's 1980s satirical, (largely Anglo-American, male-centred and women-chasing) romance and contrast it what Kuang has done, while exploring the misogynism, exploitation and unhealthy self-sacrifice of the fictional 1980s university life. (4/4)

"Katabasis" is - as the name says - a "journey into underworld" novel, which reworks elements from Orfeus, Odysseus, Dante's "Divine Comedy", etc., starting from the premise "university is hell". There is a nice comparative study waiting to be written here. (3/4)

Books with academic settings are very conductive for meta-literary, self-reflective and theory-inspired narrative devices. "Small World" was basically a romance that commented on the various conventions and theories of romances. (2/4)

While reading "Katabasis" by R. F. Kuang during this vacation, I was reminded of David Lodge's "Small World" (1984), another university novel, and one that I read at the time when I started my studies of comparative literature. (1/4)

New year, new nature photos. (An Ural Owl, from this morning.)

Let's remember there has also been bright moments this year. - To a better one! 🥂

Pelitutkimuksen vuosikirja 2025, the Finnish yearbook of game research now available: pelitutkimus.journal.fi/issue/view/1...
Pelitutkimuksen vuosikirja Pelitutkimuksen vuosikirja 2025
pelitutkimus.journal.fi

Reposted by Frans Mäyrä

Busy week for the CoE blog! Have a look at this blog post where Matilda Ståhl, Aska Mayer (@amayer.bsky.social), Robyn Hope, Rainforest Scully-Blaker (@rainforestsb.bsky.social) and Nick Taylor (@nickttaylor.bsky.social) discuss intersections between survival games and survivalism.
Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies – Matilda Ståhl, Aska Mayer, Robyn Hope, Rainforest Scully-Blaker, Nick Taylor: Looking to the future? Intersections between survival games and survivalism...
This post introduces SURVIVE, a project that has been a site of collaborative inquiry since 2025, looking at the intersections of ideas and practices of survivalism and preparedness in digital game…
coe-gamecult.org

New issue of Eludamos is out (with eg review of the Monstrosity book, and many interesting articles) - septentrio.uit.no/index.php/el...
Vol. 16 No. 2 (2025) | Eludamos: Journal for Computer Game Culture
ISSN: 1866-6124
septentrio.uit.no

Reposted by Frans Mäyrä

We're delighted to share the news that the Foundation for Economic Education has granted funding for our Doctoral Researcher Aasa Timonen's dissertation study 'Transmedia worldbuilding in massive game franchises.' Read more about Aasa's project: gameresearchlab.tuni.fi/the-foundati...
The Foundation for Economic Education awards funding to Timonen’s doctoral research
We are happy to share that the Foundation for Economic Education has granted funding for MA Aasa Timonen for her doctoral research project Transmedia worldbuilding in massive game franchises. Descr…
gameresearchlab.tuni.fi

Our new professor, Usva Friman, @usvaf.bsky.social, and her research is introduced also in this video:

youtu.be/W-5MYNyIGic?...
Usva Friman
YouTube video by Tampere University
youtu.be

Reposted by Frans Mäyrä

We are very happy to announce that @koneensaatio.fi has granted funding for the ‘Against the stream of manhood’ project led by @merilainen.bsky.social for 2026–2027. Congratulations to Mikko and his team! You can read more about the project here: gameresearchlab.tuni.fi/new-project-...
New project funded by Kone Foundation
Photo: Project PI Mikko Meriläinen. Photo by Antti Yrjönen. We are happy to announce that Kone Foundation has granted funding for the ‘Against the stream of manhood’ project for 2026–20…
gameresearchlab.tuni.fi