On the 11th and 12th of April 2024 a diverse group of researchers, all engaged with video games in one way or another, met at the University of Regensburg, generously funded by the Vielberth Foundation and sponsored by the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies as well as the Department of Interdisciplinary and Multiscalar Area Studies at the University of Regensburg. The researcher’s joint objective: firstly, exploring the role of computer games as transregional, nationalistic propaganda machines as well as critical and prosocial media experiences and, secondly, developing a systematic transdisciplinary research program in video games as folk worlds and as tools for transcultural understanding.
Twelve lectures showcasing different components of this topic area provided a basis for the final discussion concerning opportunities for prospective research, funding and publications. After two introductory talks the lectures were thematically split up into three blocks: “Folk and Folklore in Games” and “Tradition, Nationalism, Essentialism” on day one, followed by “Sustainable Politics and Pedagogies” on day two.
After a greeting from the organiser Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin (Professor for the Dynamics of Virtual Communication Spaces, University of Regensburg) and the opening address held by Prof. Dr. Maria Selig, Dean of the Faculty of Linguistics, Literature and Cultural Studies at the University of Regensburg, Astrid Ensslin started the symposium with her talk “Folk Mechanic as Transregional Anthropocene Criticism in Indigenous Video Games”, in which she explored how Indigenous knowledge organisation influences game design in the form of – what she calls – folk mechanics. Video games transport assumptions about the world and mirror existing societies. This portrayal is informed by underlying structures of knowledge organisation. Indigenous knowledge organisation is cosmo-centric and relational. Respect, responsibility and reciprocity are its core values and safeguard future generations (Littletree et al. 2020). Astrid Ensslin showcased how Indigenous knowledge organisation underlies video game mechanics in three case studies. She coined these game mechanics as folk mechanics, which can serve as pedagogies for relationality and decolonial perspective (see also Ensslin 2024).
Dr. Dom Ford (postdoctoral researcher at the ZeMKI Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research, University of Bremen) discussed value representation in video games and how that might lead to a desire to mentally separate video games from the real world in “A world to escape to: Gameworlds as otherworlds in datafied society”. Dom Ford defines otherworlds as realms of cultural otherness, which allow us to explore different values, but are also integrated into and linked with the real world. While datafication normally results in a quantification and consequently a simplification of values, digital games are one of the few cases where datafication adds to our values. In order to protect video games from alienating forms of datafication like microtransactions and ensure further value exploration, one might be tempted to construe a fictional seperation of video game and real world.
Folk and Folklore in Games
Ass. Prof. Dr. Kristian Bjørkelo (University of Bergen, Nord University) investigated the concept of folk and folklore in “Who Are the Folk in 2024?”. He critically explored the role of the folk concept as a justification and driving factor for racism in National Socialistic rethoric, before redefining folk as a “group of people who share at least one common factor” (Dundes 1965), which allows an inclusive usage of the term. The social interaction of a folk constitutes its folklore. This definition allows for a folkloristic approach to internet phenomena such as memes and an understanding of
video games as part of a feedback loop of folklore.
In the talk “Popular Heritage in Chinese Gameworlds: From a Tripartite Schema to Straightening” Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bjarke Liboriussen (Associate Professor in Digital and Creative Media, University of Nottingham, Ningbo China) discussed how the power the Chinese Communist Party has on media production takes influence on the portrayal of Chinese histories and mythologies. During online public discussions regarding the representation of historical figures in a video game users argumented that corporations have the same obligation in education as the state and its people (e.g. parents towards their children) forming a tripartite schema to enforce cultural security. In Bjarke Liboriussen’s second example a mobile game which used the bishōnen aesthetic, highlighting the attractiveness of androgynous young men, was adapted into a film. The film drops the bishōnen aesthetic and instead associates queerness with excess and selfishness. This process is coined by Bjarke Liboriussen as straightening.
Ass. Prof. Souvik Mukherjee (Assistant Professor in Cultural Studies, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta) argues that a transregional approach to (digital) games is instrumental when viewing games as products of contact zones. Folktales are interfaces between different traditions, for example Rudyard Kinpling’s Jungle Book is a colonial narrative which draws on Indian stories. When video games adapt folk narratives another layer is added. The constant change in and renarration of folk cultures in the form of (digital) games is better captured by transregional game studies (Ensslin 2025) since the games are not understood as regionally bound entities.
Tradition, Nationalism, Essentialism
In “Games and Invented Traditions” Prof. Dr. Tomasz Majkowski (Associate Professor at Jagiellonian University of Kraków, head of Jagiellonian Game Research Centre) explored games as traditions as well as propagators for traditions. Invented Traditions are certain practices that evoke the past in order to legitimize the present. This does not imply that a divide between invented and true traditions exists, but instead highlights how traditions are created with the goal of group cohesion, power legitimisation and social pedagogy. Games can be invented traditions themselves, for example when Jewishness is imposed on chess. But they can also invent traditions like the Leshy in The Witcher franchise. A Polish Leshy did not exist before the video games. Its visual portrayal in the video games is similar to modern depictions of the North American wendigo, and while a deity of the forests does exist in polish mythology, its name is Borowy; the name Leshy is Russian.
Dr. Kwabena Opoku-Agyemang (University of Ghana, academic director at the School for International Training Ghana) proposed the use of mobile games as educational tool for learning in the context of failure in his talk “Decolonizing Sweave: African Tradition and Alternative Cultural Pedagogies”. Kwabena Opoku-Agyemang noticed an association of exceptional grades with success and associated anxiety and fear of failure in his students. The quantification of results and focus on (capitalistic) success is posed as colonial. The mobile game Sweave (Leti Arts) only allows learning in the case of failing. One has to avoid African symbols to win. When one comes in contact with one of the symbols, the run is lost, but the game provides an opportunity to gain knowledge about the meaning of the symbol. Kwabena Opoku-Agyemang wants to employ this decolonial perspective in order to promote an understanding in his students of learning from failures.
An argument for a regional approach to video games while keeping global aspects in mind, is provided by Prof. Dr. Victor Navarro-Remesal (game scholar from Tecnocampus, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona). Victor Navarro-Remesal believes in international structures of collaboration but also inquires in local realities such as regional lockouts, corporate divisions, institutions and cultural policies. When games are dissociated from region and nationality, only games, which fit certain pre-existing formulas, receive recognition and it leads to a plurality of sameness. On the other hand, too much focus on the regional leads to tourism, mass-consumption and exploitation of regional phenomena. A regional approach should always be global, while a global approach should always account for the regional.
Sustainable Politics and Pedagogies
Prof. Dr. Sonia Fizek (Professor in Media and Game Studies, TH Köln, Cologne Game Lab) contrasted the efforts of players and game developers to raise awareness for climate change and environmental catastrophes with the actual impact of video games and video game consoles on natural resources in her talk “Materiality of Digitality. The Politics and Ethics of Making Videogames”. Video games can potentially shift cultural values, educate and leave a positive impact. But they are also material media and rely on resources, energy and manual labour, as well as slave labour. Video games in the context of climate crisis have to be investigated in regards to their sustainability. Repair as a video game dynamic is discussed by Prof. Dr. Sebastian Möring (Professor of Game Design, Macromedia University, Berlin) in the presentation “On the Representation of Repair and Maintenance Cultures in Computer Games”. Repair knowledge is valuable, cultural knowledge which is necessary for survival in the face of resource scarcity and planned obsolescence. In video games the concept of repair takes form in different mechanics. Often, repairing an object is the first action a player has to take to further interact with the game. Some games feature items which continually deteriorate but can be repaired. In other games the ability to repair is limited to specific character classes. These mechanics could be starting points for understanding how (over-)consumption cultures can be modified into maintaining cultures.
Prof. Dr. Xenia Zeiler (Professor of South Asian Studies, University Helsinki) explored in her talk “The Awareness-Creating Potential of Educational Video Games: Supporting Crosscultural Understanding and Sustainability Awareness” how Asian indie video games approach environmental problems. Tea Garden Simulator (Flying Robot Studios) and Little Witch in the Woods (Sunny Side Up) are not educational games by definition or because they were supposed to be educational. Instead they focus on nature values and translate them into a non-confrontational gameplay experience. Both feature a research aspect and invite players to reflect on the involvement of human actors.
Prof. Dr. Holger Plötzsch (Professor in Media Studies, UiT The Arctic University of Norway) led with “Re-Configuring Petrified Politics: Folk Games as Tools for Progressive Utopian Populism” to the closing discussion. In the current political climate exists a need for communal utopias (next to individual escape possibilities, which most video games at the moment cater to) in order to gain back democratic control. Holger Plötzsch proposes a progressive utopianism which is directed against both capitalist realism and petrified politics. Folk games can be understood as an expression of as well as distributor of progressive utopianism. They are derived from folk tales, folk art, etc. and are popular expressions of vernacular or counter culture united by a progressive political outlook. This kind of game design should enable exploration of values and unite to reach a common political goal. In the closing discussion future research topics, possible funding and relevant platforms for publications were determined. After splitting up into small groups the researchers designed concrete research projects on the basis of the knowledge which was collated during the symposium.
“Videogames as Folkworlds” was an inspirational symposium packed with ideas for future research opportunities as well as plenty deliberation on which approaches, methods and concepts are applicable and advantageous. It became apparent during the symposium that the titular folk and its associated terms like folkworlds, folklore, etc. cannot be used without proper reflection on the history of the word, its implied meanings, and careful handling. Otherwise one risks catering to nationalist ideologies even if not intended.
Personally I resonated most with the idea, that video games can be perceived as otherworlds (Dom Ford), and the concept of invented traditions (Tomasz Majkowski). My impression is, that both fit with my current research interest, Warhammer 40k and its associated media, spanning table-top games, video games, books, videos and fan-created content. Although, at the time, I cannot tell in what capacity, I am excited to explore these trajectories.
Works Cited
Dundes, Alan (1965), “The Study of Folklore”. London: Pearson College Div. Ensslin, Astrid, “Das politische Potenzial der Folk-Mechanic in indigenen Videospielen”, in Holger Pötzsch, Şeyda Kurt and Thomas Spies (eds), Spiel*Kritik: Kritische Perspektiven auf Videospiele im Kapitalismus. Bielefeld: transcript, pp. 251-272.
Ensslin, Astrid (forthcoming, 2025), “Folk Mechanic as Transregional Anthropocene Criticism in Indigenous Video Games“, in Ann de Leon et al (eds) Indigenous Peoples in/and Video Games. Berlin: de Gruyter.
Littletree, Sandra, Miranda Belarde-Lewis and Marisa Duarte (2020) “Centering Relationality: A Conceptual Model to Advance Indigenous Knowledge Organization Practices”. Knowledge Organization, 47(5), 410-426.