Other publication

Perceived Finnishess amongst four player groups through UnReal World




AuthorsWalliander Haron, Joelsson Tapani

Conference nameConference of Digital Games Research Association

PublisherDiGRA

Publication year2023

JournalConference of Digital Games Research Association

Book title Proceedings of DiGRA 2023

Series titleConference of Digital Games Research Association

eISSN2342-9666

Web address http://digra.org:9998/(external)


Abstract

This paper studies the perceived Finnishness among four player groups in the Finnish survival game UnReal World (Enormous Elk, 1992–, later URW). URW is a joint project of Sami Maaranen and Erkka Lehmus, initially released in 1992 as a fantasy roguelike game, but soon after, in 1996, the game began to transform into a realistic open-world survival game. The game takes place in pseudorealistic Iron Age Finland (Unrealworld.fi 2021). The game map is procedurally generated and does not represent the realistic map of Finland. Instead, it remodels the characteristics of Finnish flora, fauna, and geographics. As URW has been continuously developed and updated for over three decades, URW has attracted a broad and active player base who value its realistic survival elements and authenticity. Analyzing the players' perception of Finnishness in the game provides insights into its cultural representation and how the players receive it. Using qualitative interviews (Adams, Holman Jones, and Ellis 2015; Creswell and Creswell 2018; Creswell and Poth 2018), we explore the Finnishness concept represented in URW.



Last updated on 2024-26-11 at 16:46