O2 Muu julkaisu
Perceived Finnishess amongst four player groups through UnReal World
Tekijät: Walliander Haron, Joelsson Tapani
Konferenssin vakiintunut nimi: Conference of Digital Games Research Association
Kustantaja: DiGRA
Julkaisuvuosi: 2023
Journal: Conference of Digital Games Research Association
Kokoomateoksen nimi: Proceedings of DiGRA 2023
Sarjan nimi: Conference of Digital Games Research Association
eISSN: 2342-9666
Verkko-osoite: http://digra.org:9998/
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.