iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin @astridensslin.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

Great to see "folk mechanics" catching on as an inspiration for game development! Thanks, Sebastian Richter, for the pic taken at CEEGS 2025. Can't wait to see and play a game inspired by Hungarian folklore and cultural heritage, developed by Barnabás Springer and Pietro Noceti (UMalta).

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Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin @astridensslin.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

The website of the DFG Network "Knowledges of Digital Literature" (Das Wissen der digitalen Literatur) is now live. Updates will follow. digitale-burg.de/studio/das-w... @eliterature.bsky.social

digitale-burg.de

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Kübra @mostlyindie.com · 23/06/2025

📣New publication: “The Name of the Reader” Constructing the Bookish Player in Pentiment A collaborative effort in the fullest sense, with @astridensslin.bsky.social, Simone Blessing, Sebastian R. Richter, Fiona S. Schönberg www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/oa-...

taylorfrancis.com

“The Name of the Reader” | 10 | Constructing the Bookish Player in Pen

In this chapter, we explore how Pentiment (2022) serves as an example of a metareferential medium par excellence by remediating the paradigm shift from medieval

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Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin @astridensslin.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

@URegensburg students: We're hiring a pre-doc RA (SHK) for Equal Opportunities: www.uni-regensburg.de/universitaet/stellenausschreibungen/hilfskraefte/index.html

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Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin @astridensslin.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

I couldn't agree more, and recent narrative games like Disco Elysium and Pentiment have shown a similarly vast cast of rounded characters, set in paradigm-shifting times and fraught societal environments.

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Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin @astridensslin.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

Just released in our DAS|LAB video series: Sonia Fizek's "Videogames as Folkworlds" talk on "Materiality of Digitality: The Politics and Ethics of Making Videogames", addressing questions and dilemmas of green game design and production. @uniregensburg.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB5e...

youtube.com

Sonia Fizek - Materiality of Digitality. The Politics and Ethics of Making Videogames

YouTube video by DASLAB

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Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin @astridensslin.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

This special issue explores the transformative potential of games, spanning analogue and digital forms and showcasing new perspectives on how games and play can be used for personal and existential development through transformative experiences. www.gamejournal.it/g-a-m-e-issu...

gamejournal.it

G|A|M|E Issue 12, 2024 – Transformative Games « G|A|M|E

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Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin @astridensslin.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

After a lengthy but productive/creative break, we're happy to announce the release of the latest DAS|LAB video in the "Videogames as Folkworlds" series: Kwabena Opoku-Agyemang's talk on "Decolonizing Sweave: African Tradition and Alternative Cultural Pedagogies". www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nv4E...

youtube.com

Kwabena Opoku-Agyemang - Decolonizing Sweave: African Tradition and Alternative Cultural Pedagogies

YouTube video by DASLAB

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Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin @astridensslin.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

Just a reminder that the deadline for this RA position in my lab is immediately forthcoming!

uni-regensburg.de

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Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin @astridensslin.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

Come and work with me and my team at DIMAS! We're advertising for a research associate to join an international team of interdisciplinary researchers on the DFG/AHRC "Project StoryMachine: Exploring Implications of Recommender Based Spatial Hypertext Systems for Folklore and the Humanities".

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Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin @astridensslin.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

Folkore is in the air, folks! This project by our DFG/AHRC "Project StoryMachine" Co-PIs Owen Davies and Ceri Houlbrook just got serious AHRC funding to conduct contemporary folklore research in the UK. Huge congrats! www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024...

theguardian.com

Robin Hood, morris dances and UFOs: English folklore survey gets post-Brexit reboot

A fresh look at cultural identity will follow outline of 60-year-old Survey of Language and Folklore, conducted by two academics driving a red Mini

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Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin @astridensslin.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

It's official: Our "Project StoryMachine" is one of 16 projects funded by the DFG/AHRC (German/UK) bilateral grant programme! More info / press releases to come soon! www.dfg.de/en/news/news... @eliterature.bsky.social

dfg.de

UK-German Research Projects in the Arts and Humanities

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Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin @astridensslin.bsky.social · 12/11/2024

Big congrats to Brian McHale – 2025 winner of the Wayne C. Booth Lifetime Achievement Award! More than deserved!

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Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin @astridensslin.bsky.social · 03/11/2024

Let's celebrate this wonderful new book! Tuesday, November 12, 4 pm UTC bit.ly/elo-salon “Reading #Instapoetry is a timely and topical exploration of a new literary phenomenon, edited by JuEunhae Knox and James Mackay." www.bloomsbury.com/us/reading-i...

bit.ly

Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting

Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile, desktop, and room systems. Zoom ...

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Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin @astridensslin.bsky.social · 15/09/2024

In the second video of the URegensburg DAS|LAB's "Videogames as Folk Worlds" Symposium series, @domford.bsky.social talks about "A world to escape to: Gameworlds as otherworlds in datafied society". Here's the link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hks...

youtube.com

Dom Ford - A world to escape to

YouTube video by DASLAB

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Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin @astridensslin.bsky.social · 12/09/2024

Thrilled to announce the publication of DAS|LAB's first article on how Pentiment constructs the Bookish Player - this one's in German, but an English sibling is in the pipeline - at copy-edit stage. Watch this space! mittelalter.hypotheses.org/32373

mittelalter.hypotheses.org

Zur Konstruktion des „Bookish Players“ in ‚Pentiment‘

Zusammenfassung: In unserem Beitrag möchten wir das Videospiel ‚Pentiment‘ als metareferienzielles Medium par excellence darstellen. Das im fiktiv-oberbayerischen Tassing angesiedelte Point-and-Click-...

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Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin @astridensslin.bsky.social · 05/09/2024

The video of the talk I gave at the "Videogames as Folkworlds" Symposium in April, on "Folk Mechanic as Transregional Anthropocene Criticism in Indigenous Video Games" is now online. daslab-ur.de/folkmechanics/

daslab-ur.de

FolkMechanics – DAS|LAB

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Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin @astridensslin.bsky.social · 19/07/2024

Here's a snapshot of the Obsidian creative digital writing environment workshop Christine Wilks and I just led (mostly Christine, actually) at #ELO2024

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Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin @astridensslin.bsky.social · 19/07/2024

Such a great keynote. Lots of stuff to take away for our femtech research.

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Reposted by Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin

Electronic Literature Organization @eliterature.bsky.social · 19/07/2024

Edmond Chang keynote for ELO 2024 starts now! Code/Queer Games/ Technonormativity @edmondchang.bsky.social

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Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin @astridensslin.bsky.social · 18/07/2024

Listening to Chris Klimas' keynote at the ELO 2024 Online conference. Great quote by Inform maker Graham Nelson: "An adventure game is a crossword at war with a narrative". Very true. I should have quoted him much sooner. #ELO2024

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Electronic Literature Organization @eliterature.bsky.social · 06/07/2024

Register for ELO 2024 the online conference by July 8. No additional costs! Just join ELO or renew your membership, and you will get access to all the content! stars.library.ucf.edu/elo2024/

stars.library.ucf.edu

ELO (un)linked 2024 | University of Central Florida

The 2024 iteration of the Electronic Literature Organization Conference and Media Arts Festival (ELO), hosted fully online July 18-21, 2024.

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Claus Atzenbeck 🇪🇺 @clausatz.bsky.social · 06/06/2024

Don't miss out on this amazing opportunity to join the hypertext research community at the 1st #ACM #Hypertext #SummerSchool. Deadline extended to 14 June 2024! Funding available! Hypertext scholars, please share this with your #PhD or #Master students. → ht.acm.org/ht2024/works...

ht.acm.org

INTR/HT Summer School – ACM Hypertext & Social Media 2024

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Reposted by Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin

Kübra @mostlyindie.com · 23/05/2024

I had a great time in Regensburg visiting the DAS|LAB in the past two days but I always forget to take pics during trips! I do have a photo from @astridensslin.bsky.social's inspiring lecture yesterday about (de)colonial mechanics and cartography in games, though. 🗺️

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Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin @astridensslin.bsky.social · 13/05/2024

Brilliant news: Christine Wilks' digital fiction for body image narrative therapy, Voices, has been shortlisted for the Chris Meade Main Prize and Social Good categories the New Media Writing Prize. writing-new-bodies.web.app/home Please vote here: newmediawritingprize.co.uk/opening-up-2...

writing-new-bodies.web.app

WnbVoices

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Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin @astridensslin.bsky.social · 08/05/2024

At DAS|LAB we're listening to a fascinating talk by @mostlyindie.com on Gentrification, food, gender and posthuman agency in Donut County. Think of it as reversing Katamari Damacy.

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Mareike Schumacher @mkschumacher.bsky.social · 29/04/2024

Was geht derzeit eigentlich in der Forschung zu Videospielen? Unsere Stuttgarter DH-Studentin Hanna Weimann hat das Symposium "Videogames as Folkworlds" von @astridensslin.bsky.social an der Uni Regensburg besucht und berichtet hier davon: www.ilw.uni-stuttgar... #DHStuttgart

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Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin @astridensslin.bsky.social · 25/04/2024

Hello Game Studies friends: if you're working on a topic related to Transformative Games, please consider submitting to this special issue CfP, led by Kristine Jørgensen Doris Carmen Rusch and yours truly: www.gamejournal.it/n122024-tran...

gamejournal.it

n.12/2024 – Transformative Games Revisited « G|A|M|E

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Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin @astridensslin.bsky.social · 25/04/2024

A detailed conference report of our recent "Videogames as Folk Worlds" symposium is now online. Big thanks to Hanna Weimann for putting it together! www.ilw.uni-stuttgart.de/institut/akt...

ilw.uni-stuttgart.de

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Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin @astridensslin.bsky.social · 24/04/2024

At DAS|LAB we just heard a really interesting and thought-provoking talk by Zahra Rizvi on "Ludic Making of Spectral Minorities: Indian Muslim Representation and Other Ghost Stories“.

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Arno Görgen @pachuki.bsky.social · 11/04/2024

as a fan of @astridensslin.bsky.social‘s work, that‘s quite the honour!

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Reposted by Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin

Eugen Pfister 🇪🇺 @eugenpfister.bsky.social · 10/04/2024

Letztes Beispiel: @astridensslin.bsky.social zum „politischen Potenzial der Folk Mechanic in indigenen Videospielen“. #GameStudies 5/

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Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin @astridensslin.bsky.social · 10/04/2024

We're ready to kick off this week's Symposium, "Videogames As Folk Worlds: Nationalism - Democracy - Sustainability", here at Universität Regensburg. Check it out. daslab-ur.de/events/

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Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin @astridensslin.bsky.social · 03/04/2024

Today's DAS|LAB speaker is Samya Brata Roy from IIT Jodhpur, with a talk titled "“Sahitya Akademi and Electronic LiteratureS: Disciplines, Institutions and Disciplining” - fascinating to draw links with European literary/regulatory bodies.

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Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin @astridensslin.bsky.social · 12/03/2024

At the ELO Salon we're being treated to a sneak preview of the Worlding Difference Knowledge Platform (not live yet, but soon to be available at worldingdifference.ca. Thanks to Elizabeth Harrison for the demo. I'm loving the accessibility features, the content, the looks, everything!

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Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin @astridensslin.bsky.social · 06/03/2024

At DAS|LAB we're listening to Filip Jankowski, who's giving a fascinating talk on "A Second Chance for the Auteur Category in Digital Games: An Intersectional Perspective". Bringing together Muriel Tramis, Beth LaPensée, Christine Love and Meg Jayanth is such a treat to decolonial game scholars!

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Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin @astridensslin.bsky.social · 22/02/2024

Look what I just found on our Bloomsbury "Electronic Literature" book series website: our next OA title is up and will be published in September! Huge congrats in advance to James Mackay and JuEunhae Ruth Knox! www.bloomsbury.com/uk/reading-i...

bloomsbury.com

Reading #Instapoetry

This open access collection is the first to investigate the poetry of Instagram. Alongside academic essays from a variety of theoretical perspectives, it also i…

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Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin @astridensslin.bsky.social · 30/01/2024

Submissions are invited to a special issue of G|A|M|E, on "Transformative Games Revisited". Guest edited by Kristine Jørgensen, Doris Rusch and myself: www.gamejournal.it/n122024-tran...

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Kübra @mostlyindie.com · 27/01/2024

Online workshop on Feb 13 delving into collection, archiving, and canon debates in game studies. Organized by @dilan-c.bsky.social, @annakinder.bsky.social and Andreas Rauscher, with talks by @astridensslin.bsky.social @mariodonick.bsky.social @gamestudies.bsky.social and more ❤️

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Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin @astridensslin.bsky.social · 29/12/2023

Loving the new butterfly logo for this platform. It was having the blues for way too long. So now let's bring back that bird too.

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Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin @astridensslin.bsky.social · 20/12/2023

Wer mehr zum Thema Folk Mechanic, indigene Videospiele dem Begriff der transregionalen Game Studies erfahren möchte, der für das Verständnis indigener Epistemologien unabdingbar ist, darf gerne in dieses neue OA-Werk hineinschnuppern. www.transcript-verlag.de/detail/index...

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Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin @astridensslin.bsky.social · 19/12/2023

The Electronic Literature Organization's UnConference will discuss ways to access literature that uses a digital element like games, navigation, images, etc, Jan. 18-19, 2024 with events across all time zones, so come and have fun when you are awake! Get the details at dtc-wsuv.org/projects/acc....

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Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin @astridensslin.bsky.social · 18/12/2023

Interested in why people read digital fiction as opposed to other literary media? Our new PACA article, led by Dr. Cristina Loi, uncovers the motivations between eudaimonic and hedonic reading across platforms and genres. psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...

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Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin @astridensslin.bsky.social · 14/12/2023

In my recent research, I've been looking at readers of literary VR fiction to find out how they construct feelings of empathy to the characters. The results have helped me debunk the Empathy Machine Hypothesis and derive a new Narrative Empthy Spectrum - read more here: tinyurl.com/2ndf293x

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Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin @astridensslin.bsky.social · 22/11/2023

For anyone working on self-reflexivity and metareference, here's an exciting CFP coming out of Brussels/Leuven: forms2024.wixsite.com/conference

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Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin @astridensslin.bsky.social · 06/11/2023

Alice Bell's and my new book, Reading Digital Fiction: Narrative, Cognition, Mediality now has a cover and a website. Preorders from March 2024. Yes, I do hope and expect that the price will come down and that special offers will become available closer to the date. www.routledge.com/Reading-Digi...

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The Video Game Library 📚 @thevideogamelibrary.org · 02/10/2023

Volunteers Wanted 🙏 🔴 Join THE VIDEO GAME LIBRARY project today! 📚 🔴Apply here: discord.gg/4JqJUs2s2n Please share with any fellow READERS/GAMERS More details below 👇

A screenshot of a Discord message:
Hey @everyone! Tons of new members, so as we move into the Fall, wanted to resurface this call for help 🙏

The Video Game Library continues to grow at a great pace - more than doubling its content in the last 12 months! ♥️ This is thanks to the likes of @Autrach_Sejanoz @Silverblue @MMOFolklorist @bayan_kod.exe and the countless others who've helped over in ⁠❗-contribution-corner and beyond!

I'd like to open the doors to a few more volunteers who are passionate about video games and reading. As the site continues to be a non-profit, free resource, it won't be a paid position, but will be infinitely appreciated.

Looking for 4 roles:

2 x Content Admins
1 x Accessibility Liaison
1 x Reddit Manager

If this sounds like a passion project you'd like to be a part of; please DM me.

Thank you ALL for helping make that possible, and for being such a positive and uplifting community! ♥️

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Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin @astridensslin.bsky.social · 17/10/2023

My new book, co-authored with Alice Bell, is now in production: Reading Digital Fiction synthesizes our year-long qualitative, empirical research into readers of digital fiction, featuring key experiences like immersion, empathy and multisequential agency and inducing a theory of medial reading.

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