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Elisa Mekler

@elisamekler.bsky.social

880 followers 680 following 99 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%

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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

SKATE STORY @skatestory.com · 2d

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 · 4d

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 · 4d

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.

Reposted by Elisa D. Mekler

Juno Menager @junomenager.bsky.social · Jul 26

They are not on bluesky, but you should totally check Fox Pierrot both tumblr and instagram, there are the best artist I know of.
Also, the link of the game:
juno-menager.itch.io/the-red-hous...

The Red House on the third hill of Mataperros by Juno Menager, FOX PIERROT <:0)

A Stop Motion fable about finding an old online friend

juno-menager.itch.io

Reposted by Elisa D. Mekler

Juno Menager @junomenager.bsky.social · Jul 26

🏠"The red House on the third hill of Mataperros"🏠
A Stop motion fable about finding an old online friend.
Made with Fox Pierrot and playable on Itchio.

Reposted by Elisa D. Mekler

Historical Games Network @historygamesnet.bsky.social · Jul 26

New on the HGN blog: Gender panel guest speaker @katexe.bsky.social explores the widespread lack of engagement with “women’s histories” in historical video games, & discusses some examples that do represent women’s stories more meaningfully:

www.historicalgames.net/womens-histo...

Women’s Histories in Historical Games | Historical Games Network

There are staggering problems with historical games’ representation of women. Based on an analysis of games with identifiable protagonists from the HistoriaGames database, less than 7% of historical g...

www.historicalgames.net

Reposted by Elisa D. Mekler

Beowolftone @beowolftone.bsky.social · Jul 26

I'm watching someone play Space Quest IV, and I realize we need more adult adventure games where puzzles are solved via licking things, with custom animation reactions.

Reposted by Elisa D. Mekler

Tom Apperley @t0mm7.bsky.social · Jul 25

RE: the recent targeting of LGBTQ+ content on Steam and itch.io (see following tweet), our #OA article "Platform Produced Heteronormativity" outlines the restrictive self-regulation of platform-based gender and sexuality of adult videogames on #Patreon journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Platform-produced Heteronormativity: A Content Analysis of Adult Videogames on Patreon - Petri Lankoski, Thomas Apperley, J. Tuomas Harviainen, 2023

This article examines the prominent role of Patreon in the rapidly growing sector of crowdfunded pornographic games. Recent research has indicated that, on aver...

journals.sagepub.com

Reposted by Elisa D. Mekler

Andrew McNutt @mcnuttandrew.bsky.social · Jul 23

Our two part CG&A issue on critical visualization has been published!! Critical vis considers the context of data and visualization; asking Qs about the way we use and understand data+vis (who is it for? who benefits?). A stellar group of article ime

www.computer.org/csdl/magazin...

CSDL | IEEE Computer Society

www.computer.org

Reposted by Elisa D. Mekler

Kristi (งツ)ว @husbandogoddess.bsky.social · Jul 24

Anyway, time to call and email Visa and Mastercard. I suggest you all do the same.

Additionally, sign this petition from the ACLU.

Info on contacting Visa/Mastercard: bsky.app/profile/iant...

ACLU Petition: action.aclu.org/petition/mas...

Reposted by Elisa D. Mekler

itch.io @itch.io · Jul 24

itch.io/updates/upda...

Update on NSFW content

We have “deindexed” all adult NSFW content from our browse and search pages. We understand this action is sudden and disruptive, and we are truly sorry for the frustration and confusion caused by...

Reposted by Timothy Burke, Elisa D. Mekler

Bob Whitaker @whitakeralmanac.bsky.social · Jul 21

I wrote something new for History Respawned today. It's a review of a new book about Red Dead, but it's really about academic writing and historical game studies as a field. Please read, but also know, I really really really really REALLY didn't want to write this review.

Reviewer 2's Review of Red Dead's History — History Respawned

I promised myself I would never write a negative book review. I promised my PhD advisor I would never write a negative book review. I promised I would always find a silver lining in any piece of aca...

www.historyrespawned.com

Elisa Mekler @elisamekler.bsky.social · Jun 3

I feel this more than I care to admit. I think I now enjoy the idea of playing (most) JRPGs more than the actual activity.