Digital games have evolved into a medium that moves beyond basic toys for distraction and
pleasure towards platforms capable of and effective at instigating more serious, emotional …

This book brings together ideas about defamiliarization and poetic gameplay that I have
been exploring for some time but had not clearly grounded either historically or theoretically …

Maldaimonic game experiences occur when people engage in personally fulfilling play
through egocentric, destructive, and/or exploitative acts. Initial qualitative work verified this …

This paper analyzes the mechanisms of communication connecting different types of actant
during the moment of digital gameplay. The process of communication inside the videogame …

In debates concerning videogames and the freedom of expression, two lines of
argumentation have traditionally been put forward: That games express ideas and for this …

This chapter is a transdisciplinary study on the architectonics of open world games and has
a twofold aim. First, the game intrinsic space of open world games and their function as …

This article sets out to explore the playful poetics of recent indie games in terms of what
could be described as metareferential interfaces. Drawing on a range of theories from …

Maldaimonia is a new experiential concept that refers to self-actualization and self-
expression through egocentric, destructive, and/or exploitative activities. Still, it is unclear …

With the overhaul of Mercy, one of Overwatch's healer characters, in August 2017, Blizzard
Entertainment changed the healer's ultimate ability to resurrect all allies at once to one …

Existing scholarship on videogame fanfiction focuses on how these fictions transform game
characters and narrative settings. However, this misses out on an important trope in …