Jan Švelch
Biographic Data
| ID | 156750 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jan Švelch |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jan |
| FAMILY NAME | Švelch |
| SIGNATURE | ŠVELCH J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Tampere University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9295-4554 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 13 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 10 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2019 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Game Production Studies
Video games have entered the cultural mainstream and now rival established forms of entertainment such as film or television in terms of economic profits. As careers in video game development become more common, so do the stories about precarious working conditions and structural inequalities within the industry. In Game Production Studies, an international group of researchers takes a closer look at the everyday realities of video game productio…
Never Good Enough”
In this article, we examine the position of women in Czech video game journalism and the strategies they use to cope with sexism. To this end, we conducted eight in-depth interviews with currently active women journalists. According to our respondents, their work is judged more harshly because they are women and they have to deal with gender boundaries and stereotypes, sometimes conforming to them to prevent further harassment. In this regard, ou…
Mediatization of tabletop role-playing
Tabletop role-playing has grown from a niche of analog gaming into a mainstay of popular culture. The original face-to-face way of playing has been complemented by online play using dedicated digital tools, and play itself has become spectator entertainment. In this article, I explore the process of mediatization of tabletop role-playing on the example of Critical Role – the most successful ‘actual play’ show, in which performers broadcast tablet…
Developer Credit
Developer credit has been a contested issue in the video game industry since the 1970–80s, when Atari prevented its programmers from publicly claiming authorship for games they had developed. The negotiations over what constitutes a noteworthy contribution to video game development are ongoing and play out in the unregulated space of in-game credits. Here, some creators get top billing akin to film and television credits, while others struggle to…
Normalizing player surveillance through video game infographics
As video game production is becoming increasingly data-driven, player surveillance shapes the everyday realities of users and developers. Remote online tracking and the resulting optimization and governance of in-game activity subscribe to the Big Data methodology as a way of accounting for entire player populations. By design, player surveillance serves the interests of developers and publishers, who have exclusive access to this proprietary dat…
Redefining screenshots
With the help of screenshots, human and nonhuman actors alike document their professional and leisure encounters with screen-based technologies. In this article, I investigate how and why screenshots have come to be understood as faithful visual records of digital culture. By tracing screenshot’s origins to photographic techniques used for capturing medical imaging, oscillograms, and first applications of computer-aided design, I show a lineage o…
Game Production Studies
In the introduction, the editors of this collection argue for the importance of game production studies at a point when the public awareness about the production context of video games has, arguably, never been higher.With so many accounts of video game development permeating player and developer communities, the task of game production studies is to uncover the economic, cultural, and political structures that influence the final form of games b…
Recasting Life Is Strange
Video game voice acting does not rank among the core roles of video game production, yet actors in leading roles sometimes achieve wide recognition despite their contingent employment. In this article, we explore the role of voice actors in the video game culture using the specific case of the recasting of the video game series Life Is Strange, which was caused by the 2016 to 2017 SAG-AFTRA strike against video game companies. Our qualitative emp…
Definitive playthrough”
Commented gameplay video is an established form of online media content, attracting millions of viewers on YouTube and Twitch and usually created by fans and players. This article, however, brings attention to video game voice actors who use their involvement in game production to create a new genre of gameplay video. Using a mixed-method approach that combines quantitative content analysis and qualitative thematic analysis, we explore three case…
Mediatization of a card game
Magic: The Gathering is a household name among analog games. Its publisher, Wizards of the Coast, has experimented with digital adaptations since the late 1990s, however, it was only in 2018–2019 when the company announced a more radical push for the video game market, including a strategy for streaming and esports. By analyzing streaming content, paratextual elements, and online discussions leading up to the first major digital tournament, I exp…
Resisting the perpetual update
This article explores the evolution of video game updates and patches from a mechanism of customer support to a tool of control over the way games are played in the ecosystem of digital gaming platforms. It charts a historical trajectory across various cultural industries, including literary publishing, screen industries, and music, to show a shift from multiplicity of editions to one perpetually updated contingent commodity. Focusing on the issu…
Resisting the perpetual update
This article explores the evolution of video game updates and patches from a mechanism of customer support to a tool of control over the way games are played in the ecosystem of digital gaming platforms. It charts a historical trajectory across various cultural industries, including literary publishing, screen industries, and music, to show a shift from multiplicity of editions to one perpetually updated contingent commodity. Focusing on the issu…
Mediatization of a card game
Magic: The Gathering is a household name among analog games. Its publisher, Wizards of the Coast, has experimented with digital adaptations since the late 1990s, however, it was only in 2018–2019 when the company announced a more radical push for the video game market, including a strategy for streaming and esports. By analyzing streaming content, paratextual elements, and online discussions leading up to the first major digital tournament, I exp…
Never Good Enough”
In this article, we examine the position of women in Czech video game journalism and the strategies they use to cope with sexism. To this end, we conducted eight in-depth interviews with currently active women journalists. According to our respondents, their work is judged more harshly because they are women and they have to deal with gender boundaries and stereotypes, sometimes conforming to them to prevent further harassment. In this regard, ou…
Definitive playthrough”
Commented gameplay video is an established form of online media content, attracting millions of viewers on YouTube and Twitch and usually created by fans and players. This article, however, brings attention to video game voice actors who use their involvement in game production to create a new genre of gameplay video. Using a mixed-method approach that combines quantitative content analysis and qualitative thematic analysis, we explore three case…
Resisting the perpetual update
This article explores the evolution of video game updates and patches from a mechanism of customer support to a tool of control over the way games are played in the ecosystem of digital gaming platforms. It charts a historical trajectory across various cultural industries, including literary publishing, screen industries, and music, to show a shift from multiplicity of editions to one perpetually updated contingent commodity. Focusing on the issu…
Recasting Life Is Strange
Video game voice acting does not rank among the core roles of video game production, yet actors in leading roles sometimes achieve wide recognition despite their contingent employment. In this article, we explore the role of voice actors in the video game culture using the specific case of the recasting of the video game series Life Is Strange, which was caused by the 2016 to 2017 SAG-AFTRA strike against video game companies. Our qualitative emp…
Definitive playthrough”
Commented gameplay video is an established form of online media content, attracting millions of viewers on YouTube and Twitch and usually created by fans and players. This article, however, brings attention to video game voice actors who use their involvement in game production to create a new genre of gameplay video. Using a mixed-method approach that combines quantitative content analysis and qualitative thematic analysis, we explore three case…
Mediatization of a card game
Magic: The Gathering is a household name among analog games. Its publisher, Wizards of the Coast, has experimented with digital adaptations since the late 1990s, however, it was only in 2018–2019 when the company announced a more radical push for the video game market, including a strategy for streaming and esports. By analyzing streaming content, paratextual elements, and online discussions leading up to the first major digital tournament, I exp…
Redefining screenshots
With the help of screenshots, human and nonhuman actors alike document their professional and leisure encounters with screen-based technologies. In this article, I investigate how and why screenshots have come to be understood as faithful visual records of digital culture. By tracing screenshot’s origins to photographic techniques used for capturing medical imaging, oscillograms, and first applications of computer-aided design, I show a lineage o…
Game Production Studies
In the introduction, the editors of this collection argue for the importance of game production studies at a point when the public awareness about the production context of video games has, arguably, never been higher.With so many accounts of video game development permeating player and developer communities, the task of game production studies is to uncover the economic, cultural, and political structures that influence the final form of games b…
Mediatization of tabletop role-playing
Tabletop role-playing has grown from a niche of analog gaming into a mainstay of popular culture. The original face-to-face way of playing has been complemented by online play using dedicated digital tools, and play itself has become spectator entertainment. In this article, I explore the process of mediatization of tabletop role-playing on the example of Critical Role – the most successful ‘actual play’ show, in which performers broadcast tablet…
Developer Credit
Developer credit has been a contested issue in the video game industry since the 1970–80s, when Atari prevented its programmers from publicly claiming authorship for games they had developed. The negotiations over what constitutes a noteworthy contribution to video game development are ongoing and play out in the unregulated space of in-game credits. Here, some creators get top billing akin to film and television credits, while others struggle to…
Normalizing player surveillance through video game infographics
As video game production is becoming increasingly data-driven, player surveillance shapes the everyday realities of users and developers. Remote online tracking and the resulting optimization and governance of in-game activity subscribe to the Big Data methodology as a way of accounting for entire player populations. By design, player surveillance serves the interests of developers and publishers, who have exclusive access to this proprietary dat…
Never Good Enough”
In this article, we examine the position of women in Czech video game journalism and the strategies they use to cope with sexism. To this end, we conducted eight in-depth interviews with currently active women journalists. According to our respondents, their work is judged more harshly because they are women and they have to deal with gender boundaries and stereotypes, sometimes conforming to them to prevent further harassment. In this regard, ou…
Game Production Studies
Video games have entered the cultural mainstream and now rival established forms of entertainment such as film or television in terms of economic profits. As careers in video game development become more common, so do the stories about precarious working conditions and structural inequalities within the industry. In Game Production Studies, an international group of researchers takes a closer look at the everyday realities of video game productio…
Digital Games and Media (11 works) · Computer Science (10 works) · Multimedia (8 works) · Video game (8 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Political science (5 works) · Art (3 works) · Business (3 works) · Cinema and Media Studies (3 works) · Economics (3 works)