J Tuomas Harviainen
Biographic Data
| ID | 122126 |
|---|---|
| NAME | J Tuomas Harviainen |
| GIVEN NAMES | J Tuomas |
| FAMILY NAME | Harviainen |
| SIGNATURE | HARVIAINEN J T |
| AFFILIATIONS | Tampere University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6085-5663 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 20 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 21 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Gaming Capital on Overwatch's Official Forums
This study uses the public discussion boards of Overwatch to see how context-based gaming capital is present, accumulated and expended through the messages. The data consists of a 1-month snapshot from which 50 most viewed threads were analyzed. The following aspects were recorded from each thread and first 10 replies: views, number of comments, users’ role in forums, has the developer replied to thread, topic, date, whether there are types of ca…
Digital drug trading ecologies in context
Rather than attributing differences solely to local, transnational, or design factors in isolation, we argue that darknet drug trading ecologies emerge from the intersection of platform architecture, localization (geographic scope), and language. Our findings underscore the importance of considering these factors when conducting digital ethnography in illicit economies and providing concrete entry points for tailoring harm reduction interventions…
Gamification for Sustainable Development
Suomalaisten peliyhtiöiden vastuullisuusviestintä 2010-luvulta 2020-luvulle
Analyysiartikkeli
Platform-produced Heteronormativity
This article examines the prominent role of Patreon in the rapidly growing sector of crowdfunded pornographic games. Recent research has indicated that, on average, more people (patrons) are funding pornographic digital games on Patreon than other (non-adult) digital games ( Lankoski & Dymek, 2020 ). Graphtreon’s ‘Top Patreon Creators’ list from 9 June 2021 includes six NSFW game projects among the top 50 projects (ranked by number of Patrons). 1…
From the ethnographers' side
Purpose This paper presents a model for organizational ethnographers that wish to find new methodological approaches for the study of swingers and other marginalized groups that deal with potential social stigma and form communities around the lifestyles of swingers and other groups. Design/methodology/approach An ethnographic, qualitative study was conducted by (first author) in Spain and France using the methods of participant observation and i…
Design Gaming for Learning Systems Intelligence in Socio‐Emotional Systems
Peer reviewed
Speaking with Swingers in Spain and France
CryptoKitties and the New Ludic Economy
This article analyzes specific characteristics of value created through digital scarcity and blockchain-proven ownership in cryptogames. Our object of study is CryptoKitties, the first instance of a blockchain-based game that has garnered media recognition and financial interest. The objective of this article is to demonstrate the limits of scarcity in value construction for owners of CryptoKitties tokens, manifested as breedable virtual cats. Ou…
Resilient Values in Game Industry Formation
With the proliferation of technologies and digital platforms, contemporary game development firms’ value propositions have become more complex. While on a global scale a considerable share of the game industry’s revenue is captured by a few dozen firms, we are also witnessing the emergence of local and regional hotspots. In this context, legitimacy is of utmost importance if new competitive advantages are to become institutionalized as an industr…
Usernames on a Finnish Online Marketplace for Illegal Drugs
Usernames play a major role in online communication by providing a vital first impression and including clues about the identities and personal characteristics of users. Usernames are extremely important in the online trade of illegal drugs, which carries several risks and therefore requires a high degree of trust between the transaction parties. This study examines how sellers and buyers of illegal drugs represent themselves in their usernames. …
Roles, Plays, and the Roles We Play While Playing Games
Real, Half-Real, Irreal, Unreal
“My Games are … Unconventional”
This article examines connections between games and BDSM (consensual bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, and sadism and masochism), theoretically speaking (in their respective research areas) as well as in practice. A common grounding behind these connections is the consideration of play as a foundational component in games and game studies as well as in BDSM practices and the studies of BDSM as a cultural phenomenon. We identify fi…
Comics as an Introduction to Media Technology
This article deals with the relationship between television – a new form of media technology in 1950s Finland – and the introduction of the Donald Duck comic book. The article analyses the three most essential imaginary perspectives on the uses of media technology: interactivity, publicity seeking and tinkering with a television. On one hand, the article introduces the various ways in which the comic book represented and introduced the media form…
Smelling Machine History
This article analyses users' olfactory recollections of computers, based on large-scale, online inquiry material collected between 2002 and 2003 and in 2013. It discusses how olfactory experiences and recollections can be classified based on narration and the causes of odors. Furthermore, it explores the changes of olfactory recollections over the course of ten years, and deals with age and gender in these recollections and in their representatio…
Group Sex as Play
Drawing on ethnographic and interview data collected from the United States and Finland on lifestyle ("swinging") events, this article explores the implicit and explicit rules influencing negotiations for group sex as a type of play. Participants maintain a sense of freedom and spontaneity while acting within situational constraints-ethical expectations, preexplicated rules, implicit rules, and complex negotiations that occur during the play itse…
Three Waves of Awkwardness
This article critically evaluates and questions the growth and maturity of game studies as a scholarly set of related approaches to the study of games, by providing an account of studies of sexuality in (mostly digital) games from 1978 to present. The main goal of this article is to highlight overarching themes and patterns in the literature, with a focus on theories and methodologies commonly used and the way game studies is still risk aware, ev…
Stigma avoidance through visual contextualization
While the benefits of play have been widely recognized, carrying out activities with toys at adult age is still often seen as stigmatizing behaviour. Some adults solve this issue by referring to their toy activities as either hobbies or collecting. Yet, the primary purpose of toys is play. People may therefore utilize their toys for new kinds of play. One popular decision is the utilization of toys in photographs and videos aiming at personalizat…
Digital Make-Believe
First dose is always freemium
In this paper we look at three different groups of games. The traditional payment methods for games, although they do have their problems, are typically less problematic from ethical perspective than their more modern counterparts. Payment methods such as lure-to-pay use psychological tricks to lock the player to the game. Whereas pay to pass boring parts or pay to win just use game-external mechanics to make the play easier, and thus intent to, …
Why Religion is Natural and Science is Not, by Robert N. McCauley
In Why Religion is Natural and Science is Not (2011), Robert N. McCauley seeks to explain why religious concepts seem to persist while scientific ideas require a community and control mechanism to support them. Religion and science are not exactly opposed per se, but conflicts between them do take place all around the world, especially in fundamentalism-influenced societies
Group Sex as Play
Drawing on ethnographic and interview data collected from the United States and Finland on lifestyle ("swinging") events, this article explores the implicit and explicit rules influencing negotiations for group sex as a type of play. Participants maintain a sense of freedom and spontaneity while acting within situational constraints-ethical expectations, preexplicated rules, implicit rules, and complex negotiations that occur during the play itse…
Three Waves of Awkwardness
This article critically evaluates and questions the growth and maturity of game studies as a scholarly set of related approaches to the study of games, by providing an account of studies of sexuality in (mostly digital) games from 1978 to present. The main goal of this article is to highlight overarching themes and patterns in the literature, with a focus on theories and methodologies commonly used and the way game studies is still risk aware, ev…
Stigma avoidance through visual contextualization
While the benefits of play have been widely recognized, carrying out activities with toys at adult age is still often seen as stigmatizing behaviour. Some adults solve this issue by referring to their toy activities as either hobbies or collecting. Yet, the primary purpose of toys is play. People may therefore utilize their toys for new kinds of play. One popular decision is the utilization of toys in photographs and videos aiming at personalizat…
Speaking with Swingers in Spain and France
Smelling Machine History
This article analyses users' olfactory recollections of computers, based on large-scale, online inquiry material collected between 2002 and 2003 and in 2013. It discusses how olfactory experiences and recollections can be classified based on narration and the causes of odors. Furthermore, it explores the changes of olfactory recollections over the course of ten years, and deals with age and gender in these recollections and in their representatio…
Why Religion is Natural and Science is Not, by Robert N. McCauley
In Why Religion is Natural and Science is Not (2011), Robert N. McCauley seeks to explain why religious concepts seem to persist while scientific ideas require a community and control mechanism to support them. Religion and science are not exactly opposed per se, but conflicts between them do take place all around the world, especially in fundamentalism-influenced societies
Digital Make-Believe
First dose is always freemium
In this paper we look at three different groups of games. The traditional payment methods for games, although they do have their problems, are typically less problematic from ethical perspective than their more modern counterparts. Payment methods such as lure-to-pay use psychological tricks to lock the player to the game. Whereas pay to pass boring parts or pay to win just use game-external mechanics to make the play easier, and thus intent to, …
Stigma avoidance through visual contextualization
While the benefits of play have been widely recognized, carrying out activities with toys at adult age is still often seen as stigmatizing behaviour. Some adults solve this issue by referring to their toy activities as either hobbies or collecting. Yet, the primary purpose of toys is play. People may therefore utilize their toys for new kinds of play. One popular decision is the utilization of toys in photographs and videos aiming at personalizat…
Smelling Machine History
This article analyses users' olfactory recollections of computers, based on large-scale, online inquiry material collected between 2002 and 2003 and in 2013. It discusses how olfactory experiences and recollections can be classified based on narration and the causes of odors. Furthermore, it explores the changes of olfactory recollections over the course of ten years, and deals with age and gender in these recollections and in their representatio…
Group Sex as Play
Drawing on ethnographic and interview data collected from the United States and Finland on lifestyle ("swinging") events, this article explores the implicit and explicit rules influencing negotiations for group sex as a type of play. Participants maintain a sense of freedom and spontaneity while acting within situational constraints-ethical expectations, preexplicated rules, implicit rules, and complex negotiations that occur during the play itse…
Three Waves of Awkwardness
This article critically evaluates and questions the growth and maturity of game studies as a scholarly set of related approaches to the study of games, by providing an account of studies of sexuality in (mostly digital) games from 1978 to present. The main goal of this article is to highlight overarching themes and patterns in the literature, with a focus on theories and methodologies commonly used and the way game studies is still risk aware, ev…
Comics as an Introduction to Media Technology
This article deals with the relationship between television – a new form of media technology in 1950s Finland – and the introduction of the Donald Duck comic book. The article analyses the three most essential imaginary perspectives on the uses of media technology: interactivity, publicity seeking and tinkering with a television. On one hand, the article introduces the various ways in which the comic book represented and introduced the media form…
Roles, Plays, and the Roles We Play While Playing Games
Real, Half-Real, Irreal, Unreal
“My Games are … Unconventional”
This article examines connections between games and BDSM (consensual bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, and sadism and masochism), theoretically speaking (in their respective research areas) as well as in practice. A common grounding behind these connections is the consideration of play as a foundational component in games and game studies as well as in BDSM practices and the studies of BDSM as a cultural phenomenon. We identify fi…
CryptoKitties and the New Ludic Economy
This article analyzes specific characteristics of value created through digital scarcity and blockchain-proven ownership in cryptogames. Our object of study is CryptoKitties, the first instance of a blockchain-based game that has garnered media recognition and financial interest. The objective of this article is to demonstrate the limits of scarcity in value construction for owners of CryptoKitties tokens, manifested as breedable virtual cats. Ou…
Resilient Values in Game Industry Formation
With the proliferation of technologies and digital platforms, contemporary game development firms’ value propositions have become more complex. While on a global scale a considerable share of the game industry’s revenue is captured by a few dozen firms, we are also witnessing the emergence of local and regional hotspots. In this context, legitimacy is of utmost importance if new competitive advantages are to become institutionalized as an industr…
Usernames on a Finnish Online Marketplace for Illegal Drugs
Usernames play a major role in online communication by providing a vital first impression and including clues about the identities and personal characteristics of users. Usernames are extremely important in the online trade of illegal drugs, which carries several risks and therefore requires a high degree of trust between the transaction parties. This study examines how sellers and buyers of illegal drugs represent themselves in their usernames. …
Design Gaming for Learning Systems Intelligence in Socio‐Emotional Systems
Peer reviewed
Speaking with Swingers in Spain and France
Suomalaisten peliyhtiöiden vastuullisuusviestintä 2010-luvulta 2020-luvulle
Analyysiartikkeli
Platform-produced Heteronormativity
This article examines the prominent role of Patreon in the rapidly growing sector of crowdfunded pornographic games. Recent research has indicated that, on average, more people (patrons) are funding pornographic digital games on Patreon than other (non-adult) digital games ( Lankoski & Dymek, 2020 ). Graphtreon’s ‘Top Patreon Creators’ list from 9 June 2021 includes six NSFW game projects among the top 50 projects (ranked by number of Patrons). 1…
From the ethnographers' side
Purpose This paper presents a model for organizational ethnographers that wish to find new methodological approaches for the study of swingers and other marginalized groups that deal with potential social stigma and form communities around the lifestyles of swingers and other groups. Design/methodology/approach An ethnographic, qualitative study was conducted by (first author) in Spain and France using the methods of participant observation and i…
Gamification for Sustainable Development
Gaming Capital on Overwatch's Official Forums
This study uses the public discussion boards of Overwatch to see how context-based gaming capital is present, accumulated and expended through the messages. The data consists of a 1-month snapshot from which 50 most viewed threads were analyzed. The following aspects were recorded from each thread and first 10 replies: views, number of comments, users’ role in forums, has the developer replied to thread, topic, date, whether there are types of ca…
Digital drug trading ecologies in context
Rather than attributing differences solely to local, transnational, or design factors in isolation, we argue that darknet drug trading ecologies emerge from the intersection of platform architecture, localization (geographic scope), and language. Our findings underscore the importance of considering these factors when conducting digital ethnography in illicit economies and providing concrete entry points for tailoring harm reduction interventions…
Computer Science (13 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Psychology (9 works) · Digital Games and Media (7 works) · Political science (7 works) · Business (6 works) · Epistemology (6 works) · Advertising (5 works) · Media studies (5 works) · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology (5 works)