We are happy to share that the Foundation for Economic Education (Liikesivistysrahasto) has granted funding for MA Aasa Timonen for her doctoral research project Transmedia worldbuilding in massive game franchises.
Description of the dissertation study:
This research builds on the fields of transmedia studies by looking at how different transmedia products are used in the process of world-building in game franchises. What I’m especially interested in is how game-centered transmedia universes are constructed over long periods of time. This central question is applied to the main subject of this study, the miniature wargame franchise Warhammer. The cultural impact, longitude and the wide reach of Warhammer and its transmedia universe provides ample opportunity to study how the world has been constructed over 40 years. This project is centered around four articles, in which I approach the topic from various perspectives, such as how different Warhammer transmedia have influenced the game towards competitive play, and how transmedia universes can calcify worldbuilding ideas in time and simultaneously spread them to a wider audience. My research is done through reflexive thematic analysis, using the ideas of transmedia storytelling and critical worldbuilding to analyse a selected transmedia material throughout Warhammer’s history. The aim of this project is to create new avenues for approaching worldbuilding and transmedia strategies in game environments critically, and providing insight into how these widely successful transmedia universes are crafted. This project also provides new research on the emerging field of studies concerning Warhammer.
Photo: Doctoral Researcher Timonen immersed in a game of Warhammer. Photo by Santeri Sarkola.