Frans Mäyrä fransmayra - Bluesky Statics

Pelialan opinnäytetyökilpailu 2026 – Pelitutkimus.fi

Pelialan opinnäytekilpailu / Game Studies Thesis Competition: www.pelitutkimus.fi/tiedotteet/p...

02.03.2026 10:47 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Viikonlopun luontokuvissa: pähkinänakkeli (Sitta europaea). Tämä hyönteissyöjä turvautuu talvisin siemeniin ja pähkinöihin joita se usein löytää ruokintapaikoilta. Punertavat kyljet kertovat tämän kuuluvan Baltian tai Etelä-Ruotsin nimialalajiin; myös vaaleampi S. e. asiatica -lintu vaeltaa Suomeen.

01.03.2026 07:43 — 👍 6 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

What Does It Mean to Be a Lapsed Player? : Fragmented play practices, player identity, and liminality of Finnish lapsed players - Trepo

Please be free to download and read the PhD dissertation of Elisa Wiik on “lapsed players”. The public defence will take place on Friday March 20 at noon (Finnish time) in Tampere, and an online stream will also be available.

trepo.tuni.fi/handle/10024...

20.02.2026 14:05 — 👍 7 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 1

2026 | Program Below you will find the program for the 2023 Tampere Spring Seminar. The organizing committee reserves the right to make changes to the program. Tuesday, May 5th 8:30 Registration opens 9:00-9:15 O…

The program for Tampere Spring Seminar of Game Studies 2026 "Events and Communities" is out. #gamestudies #gameculture #gamingcommunities #gamingevents
springseminar.org/2026-program/

13.02.2026 15:01 — 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Imagery from the Control.

The students in the games journalism course in our Game Studies Master's Degree Program have again published interesting new articles in the PlayLab Magazine. (Control: Resonant, Celeste, Hollow Knight: Silksong, Sonic Super Teams boardgame, and many others are discussed.) Link in the comments.

13.02.2026 14:54 — 👍 5 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research Vol. 12 No. 2/2025 (2025)

Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research, new issue 2/2025 is out: fafnir.journal.fi/issue/view/1...

12.02.2026 09:48 — 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

PORTTI Science Fiction - lehti science fictionin ja fantasian ystäville

Portin tilaus/Tampereen SF-seuraan liittymislinkki: www.porttisci.fi/index.php?si...

12.02.2026 09:45 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Ruutukaappaus artikkelista "Scifin ja fantasian sovellukset lautapeleissä".

Kannustan kaikkia scifin, fantasian ja pelikulttuurin yhtymäkohdista kiinnostuneita tutustumaan Markku Soikkelin laajaan artikkeliin Portti-lehden numerossa 4/2025. Portti on muutenkin hieno kulttuurilehti (joka toimii nykyään täysin ilman valtion kulttuurilehtitukea), tilauslinkki kommentissa.

12.02.2026 09:43 — 👍 15 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 0

Vanha jatkojohto, dymo-tekstillä: "KÄÄNTÄJÄNKOULUTUSLAITOS".

Historian siipien havinaa luokkahuoneessa. Mm. Juice Leskinen opiskeli 70-luvun alussa Tampereen kieli-instituutissa. Instituutit sulautettiin Tampereen yliopistoon vuonna 1981. 80-luvun jatkojohdosta riittää virtaa vielä näin uudelle vuosituhannellekin.

10.02.2026 14:29 — 👍 6 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

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...

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...

09.02.2026 09:12 — 👍 23 🔁 9 💬 1 📌 2

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

08.02.2026 10:43 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

🇫🇮 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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06.02.2026 16:00 — 👍 196 🔁 90 💬 2 📌 16

Viirupöllö lumisessa talvimaisemassa / Ural owl in a snowy landscape.

Eurasian pygmy owl on a snowy tree branch / Varpuspöllö lumisella oksalla.

Varpuspöllö lennossa / Flying Eurasian pygmy owl.

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

08.02.2026 06:53 — 👍 68 🔁 4 💬 1 📌 0

Perjantain petolintu: kanahaukka. #luontokuvaus #naturephotography

06.02.2026 17:44 — 👍 12 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0

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

26.01.2026 08:03 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

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

25.01.2026 19:38 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Lumeen hautautunut pöllö, katkenneen puuntyngän muodostamassa pesässään.

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

25.01.2026 18:49 — 👍 17 🔁 4 💬 2 📌 0

Screenshot from the lecture slides, titled "Methodological Orientations as Lenses".

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!

21.01.2026 09:37 — 👍 11 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

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

16.01.2026 09:14 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

A photo collage of assorted black and white photography by Frans Mäyrä, with a mixture of birds and animals (taken in zoos around the world), architectural details, and landscapes.

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.

16.01.2026 09:12 — 👍 6 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

‘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.

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

15.01.2026 14:21 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 3

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…

"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...

13.01.2026 10:00 — 👍 12 🔁 8 💬 0 📌 0

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...

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

ats.talentadore.com/apply/digita...

08.01.2026 15:19 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

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.

07.01.2026 15:10 — 👍 14 🔁 13 💬 1 📌 1

A photo of freezing soap bubble against a wintery landscape.

A freezing soap bubble experiment. #photography #winter

06.01.2026 19:04 — 👍 25 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0

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

06.01.2026 07:55 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

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)

06.01.2026 07:54 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

"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)

06.01.2026 07:53 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

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)

06.01.2026 07:52 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Image of the deluxe edition of "Katabasis" novel.

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)

06.01.2026 07:52 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Posts by Frans Mäyrä (@fransmayra.bsky.social)