Joleen Blom
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jjol33n.bsky.social
Joleen Blom
@jjol33n.bsky.social
|Ph.D. in Games |Postdoctoral Researcher @CoEGameCult |Editor @Eludamos |Author of Video Game Characters and Transmedia Storytelling |(she/her)
Reposted by Joleen Blom
DiGRA deadline extended until 8th December for abstracts and full papers.

www.digraconference2026.com
DiGRA 2026 Conference | Maynooth University, Ireland
Join the DiGRA 2026 conference at Maynooth University, 14–18 June 2026. Theme “Intersectional Pleasures.” A global hybrid event for game research, culture, design, and industry.
www.digraconference2026.com
November 27, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Reposted by Joleen Blom
The full Special Issue of Celebrity Studies on Celebrity Crises and Conflicts is now out!

www.tandfonline.com/toc/rcel20/1...
November 25, 2025 at 2:55 PM
Reposted by Joleen Blom
Darshana Jayemanne and my 2012 article "Game Studies Material Turn" from Westminster Papers In Communication just hit 200 citations on google scholar

www.westminsterpapers.org/article/id/1...

#gamestudies
November 25, 2025 at 5:33 PM
Reposted by Joleen Blom
CFP for a special issue of Eludamos. What are antifascist games? Proposal deadline is December 19.
eludamos.org/index.php/el...
Special Issue: WHAT ARE ANTIFASCIST GAMES? | Eludamos: Journal for Computer Game Culture
eludamos.org
November 17, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Reposted by Joleen Blom
I'm delighted to announce that my new book, Artgames after Gamergate, is out now with Palgrave: link.springer.com/book/10.1007...
Artgames after GamerGate
This book explores how artgame designers respond to Gamergate, challenging perceptions of gaming and its place in culture and politics
link.springer.com
November 24, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Reposted by Joleen Blom
New article on larp, activism and deliberation in this collection, out in December!
Education and Analog Role-Playing Games: Theory and Pedagogy, Volume 1
Education and Analog Role-Playing Games: Theory and Pedagogy brings together scholars and educators who explore the educational potential of analog role-playing games (tabletop role-playing games and ...
www.routledge.com
November 24, 2025 at 8:39 AM
Reposted by Joleen Blom
The Edu-Larp Conference will happen again in 2026! On April 15th in Gothenbrg, Sweden! Registration and the call for program is now open. Sent in your program proposal before January 4th.

edularpconference.com
Edu-Larp Conference — Gothenburg
Edu-Larp Conference — Lindholmen Science Park, Gothenburg, Sweden. Wednesday 15th April 2026.
edularpconference.com
November 22, 2025 at 1:35 AM
Reposted by Joleen Blom
Since this article and its perspectives are generating a bit of buzz, I'd like to dig into what I find distasteful and, frankly, disingenous about it, particularly the ethical values it proclaims. 1/8
www.huffpost.com/entry/histor...
I Set A Trap To Catch My Students Cheating With AI. The Results Were Shocking.
"Students are not just undermining their ability to learn, but to someday lead."
www.huffpost.com
November 21, 2025 at 1:14 PM
Reposted by Joleen Blom
Tampere Game Research Lab Spring Seminar is on the horizon again. This will be out 22nd annual game studies work in progress seminar. The theme is different each year, this time it is Events and Communities.

Check out the CFP.
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
November 18, 2025 at 10:16 AM
This Wednesday I'll take a seat on Sebastian's flight to talk about transmedia storytelling and game characters!
Brief reminder: @jjol33n.bsky.social and I will take it to the virtual skies on Wed, Nov 19! Come and fly with us!
November 16, 2025 at 7:57 AM
Reposted by Joleen Blom
🚚🚚🚚New article alert! Part of a special issue on games + container technologies, it’s about truckers who play Truck Simulator in their trucks, but also simulation, battlestations, and the logistics of work and play. It's open access, so please take a look 🚚🚚🚚 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Truck simulator, trucker-simulators, and the containment of neoliberal capitalism
This paper discusses truckers who play games (including Truck Simulator) while on the road. Inspired by the concept of “container technologies” and more recent work which distinguishes between cont...
www.tandfonline.com
November 12, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Reposted by Joleen Blom
✨Hello friends, I'm launching #EmergentGenders @dukepress.bsky.social next month in Busan 🇰🇷 hosted by @thekpopprof.bsky.social at Pusan National University, Global Studies Department

📅 Dec 9 (Tues)
🕰️ 10:30am (GMT+9)
📍 PNU CEIT #203 & Zoom
📧 [email protected] (for Zoom link)
November 12, 2025 at 8:50 AM
Reposted by Joleen Blom
For the past decade, I've been slowly cooking a small and humble book.

Part (alternative) history, part analysis, and part social critique, this is a look at what games also are and have always been.

ZEN AND SLOW GAMES
Out 20/1/2026 by MIT Press

mitpress.mit.edu/978026255356...
November 3, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Reposted by Joleen Blom
GREEN GAMING

An educational innovation project in which 55 of my students researched ecogames and ecogamemaking.

The result is a white paper that's meant to be accessible and useful for scholars, students, and the industry.

tinyurl.com/greengamingtcm

If you like it, please share it around!
March 14, 2025 at 10:08 AM
November 19th, I'll take a (virtual) seat in Dr. Sebastian Möring's plan from Lublin to Helsinki. I'll be talking during the flight about my book on Video Game Characters and Transmedia Storytelling, and about my experiences of having lived in Japan.

Find the link to the stream below!
October 24, 2025 at 11:57 AM
Reposted by Joleen Blom
Now it is official! The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Games is now, like, actually, surely, coming out! (This has been in the pipeline since 2018.) I have a piece here on this brand new thing called 'magic circle'. Everyone will be talking about it.
The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Games
Playing games is a basic human activity, and games raise a great number of fascinating philosophical questions. What, exactly, are we doing when we play a game? What is the value of games for human li...
www.routledge.com
October 23, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Reposted by Joleen Blom
Following multiple requests, we are publicly extending the deadline for the ACM Games: Research and Practice Special Issue on Game Advertising by two weeks to Sunday, 16 November 2025. We look forward to your submission.
October 21, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Reposted by Joleen Blom
Mark Maletska (@ markmaletska.bsky.social) will give an Oasis Lunchtime Talk on "Why being a Ukrainian game studies scholar is… complicated?” on Thursday 23 October at 12:00-13:00 EEST. Join us at Oasis, Tampere University, or follow online: www.youtube.com/live/EBRRynA...
OASIS Lunchtime Talk: Why being a Ukrainian game studies scholar is… complicated?
YouTube video by oasis_tuni
www.youtube.com
October 20, 2025 at 11:16 AM
Reposted by Joleen Blom
Since this article is making the rounds again, I guess this is a good moment as any to plug my book (despite me feeling super weird about self promotion), as I describe these dynamics in (some would argue) excruciating detail.
October 18, 2025 at 12:00 AM
Reposted by Joleen Blom
This weekend Cassandra Bookshop in Porto hosted the launch of the book Inteligências Entretecidas, which includes my essay “Imitation Aesthetics”. The book documents the workshop series organized by Earthsea Association and is edited by Ana Carvalho, Isabel Carvalho, and Vera Carmo.
October 13, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Just now I discovered that with the acquisition of Amsterdam University Press (AUP) by Taylor & Francis (TF), the eBook version of my book is sold for €41,95 on their website with no OAPEN link available. I hope that this is just a mistake on TF's part and I just contacted them for clarification.
October 7, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Reposted by Joleen Blom
We‘d all like to make Rowling and her franchise disappear, but her transphobia & large-scale political influence and the reboot TV show make it hard to ignore from a scholarly perspective. Cassie Brummitt has written a salient study on what became of Harry Potter post-book that I got to blurb:
October 4, 2025 at 10:31 AM
Reposted by Joleen Blom
Bryan Hikari Hartzheim will give an Oasis Lunchtime Talk on “Institutions of Play: Mapping Japan’s Indie Game Scene" on Thursday 2 October at 12:00-13:00 EEST. Join us at Oasis, Tampere University, or follow online: www.youtube.com/live/IuTUH27...
OASIS Lunchtime Talk: Institutions of Play: Mapping Japan’s Indie Game Scene
YouTube video by oasis_tuni
www.youtube.com
September 29, 2025 at 9:55 AM
Reposted by Joleen Blom
I am very pleased to see this super insightful piece by @jingwangnyu.bsky.social out in @platformsnsociety.bsky.social! It examines how the “productization of APIs allows Alipay+ to extend its platform logic into global financial infrastructures.

Read it here: doi.org/10.1177/2976...
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September 17, 2025 at 8:18 AM