Jaroslav Švelch
Biographic Data
| ID | 3589674 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jaroslav Švelch |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jaroslav |
| FAMILY NAME | Švelch |
| SIGNATURE | ŠVELCH J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Charles University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9918-8346 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 11 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 12 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Czech Appeal: Why and How National Game Productions Use Local Themes and Settings
In recent years, semi-peripheral industries have produced numerous video games that use local settings but aim at a global audience. We explore this trend using five cases of commercially released Czech indie games that feature local themes and settings. Our research combines qualitative content analysis of representation with developer interviews, which we analyze to reveal motivations for including local content , its implementation, localizati…
Player vs. Monster: The Making and Breaking of Video Game Monstrosity
A study of the gruesome game characters we love to beat—and what they tell us about ourselves. Since the early days of video games, monsters have played pivotal roles as dangers to be avoided, level bosses to be defeated, or targets to be destroyed for extra points. But why is the figure of the monster so important in gaming, and how have video games come to shape our culture's conceptions of monstrosity? To answer these questions, Player vs. Mon…
Video Games and Comedy
Video Games and Comedy is the first edited volume to explore the intersections between comedy and video games. This pioneering book collects chapters from a diverse group of scholars, covering a wide range of approaches and examining the relationship between video games, humour, and comedy from many different angles. The first section of the book includes chapters that engage with theories of comedy and humour, adapting them to the specifics of t…
Atari Design: Impressions on Coin-Operated Video Game Machines by Raiford Guins
Reviewed by: Atari Design: Impressions on Coin-Operated Video Game Machines by Raiford Guins Jaroslav Švelch (bio) Atari Design: Impressions on Coin-Operated Video Game Machines By Raiford Guins. London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2020. Pp. 244. Atari Design: Impressions on Coin-Operated Video Game Machines By Raiford Guins. London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2020. Pp. 244. Video game scholarship has been criticized for its formalist tendencies, which …
Recasting Life Is Strange: Video Game Voice Acting during the 2016–2017 SAG-AFTRA Strike
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”: Behind-the-scenes narratives in let’s plays and streaming content by video game voice actors
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…
Gaming the Iron Curtain: How Teenagers and Amateurs in Communist Czechoslovakia Claimed the Medium of Computer Games
How amateur programmers in 1980s Czechoslovakia discovered games as a medium, using them not only for entertainment but also as a means of self-expression. Aside from the exceptional history of Tetris, very little is known about gaming culture behind the Iron Curtain. But despite the scarcity of home computers and the absence of hardware and software markets, Czechoslovakia hosted a remarkably active DIY microcomputer scene in the 1980s, producin…
I see your garbage”: Participatory practices and literacy privilege on “Grammar Nazi” Facebook pages in different sociolinguistic contexts
In contemporary online culture, Grammar Nazi (GN) is a derogatory term used to label individuals who practice excessive language policing but has also been ironically appropriated by groups of users who engage in evaluation of other people’s grammar for entertainment purposes. In this article, we combine approaches from media studies and sociolinguistics to analyze the adoption of the phenomenon by two GN Facebook pages in two languages: English …
The coup that flopped: Facebook as a platform for emotional protest
This paper develops the idea that recent “networked” social movements are driven by emotions and provides an analysis of the role of emotions in movement mobilization. The case study focuses on the 2013 protests against a “coup” within the Czech Social Democratic Party. The protests had an immediate impact, resulting in a series of demonstrations, mainstream media attention and a successful overturning of the “coup”. The movement’s Facebook page …
Dressing Commander Shepard in pink: Queer playing in a heteronormative game culture
This article explores the strategies of queer playing of video games and their relationship to the heteronormative game culture. Its premise is that most video games are, either implicitly or explicitly, heteronormative and the inscribed player of such games is in the majority of cases a heterosexual male. In order to achieve the same level of identification with an avatar and to enjoy a similar gameplay experience as the heterosexual player, the…
Social Media As a New Challenge for Political Participation Research
This article aims to synthesise existing theoretical and empirical work on political participation in social media, a topic especially relevant but still under-researched in post-transformation countries such as the Czech Republic. It argues for encouraging productive dialogue between the political science approach to participation research and the work in media and communication studies. First, the article sums up normative and theoretical stand…
Excuse my poor English: Language management in English-language online discussion forums
Using the framework of Language Management Theory (LMT), this article seeks to analyze the ways in which non-native speakers negotiate their position in English-language online discussion forums. Based on the material collected from four discussion forums, competing opinions have been identified regarding the acceptability of “bad English” and the need for language management, i.e. acting upon a perceived lack of compliance to linguistic norms. S…
Grammar Nazis never sleep”: Facebook humor and the management of standard written language
Social Media As a New Challenge for Political Participation Research
This article aims to synthesise existing theoretical and empirical work on political participation in social media, a topic especially relevant but still under-researched in post-transformation countries such as the Czech Republic. It argues for encouraging productive dialogue between the political science approach to participation research and the work in media and communication studies. First, the article sums up normative and theoretical stand…
Grammar Nazis never sleep”: Facebook humor and the management of standard written language
I see your garbage”: Participatory practices and literacy privilege on “Grammar Nazi” Facebook pages in different sociolinguistic contexts
In contemporary online culture, Grammar Nazi (GN) is a derogatory term used to label individuals who practice excessive language policing but has also been ironically appropriated by groups of users who engage in evaluation of other people’s grammar for entertainment purposes. In this article, we combine approaches from media studies and sociolinguistics to analyze the adoption of the phenomenon by two GN Facebook pages in two languages: English …
Excuse my poor English: Language management in English-language online discussion forums
Using the framework of Language Management Theory (LMT), this article seeks to analyze the ways in which non-native speakers negotiate their position in English-language online discussion forums. Based on the material collected from four discussion forums, competing opinions have been identified regarding the acceptability of “bad English” and the need for language management, i.e. acting upon a perceived lack of compliance to linguistic norms. S…
Definitive playthrough”: Behind-the-scenes narratives in let’s plays and streaming content by video game voice actors
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…
Grammar Nazis never sleep”: Facebook humor and the management of standard written language
Dressing Commander Shepard in pink: Queer playing in a heteronormative game culture
This article explores the strategies of queer playing of video games and their relationship to the heteronormative game culture. Its premise is that most video games are, either implicitly or explicitly, heteronormative and the inscribed player of such games is in the majority of cases a heterosexual male. In order to achieve the same level of identification with an avatar and to enjoy a similar gameplay experience as the heterosexual player, the…
Social Media As a New Challenge for Political Participation Research
This article aims to synthesise existing theoretical and empirical work on political participation in social media, a topic especially relevant but still under-researched in post-transformation countries such as the Czech Republic. It argues for encouraging productive dialogue between the political science approach to participation research and the work in media and communication studies. First, the article sums up normative and theoretical stand…
Excuse my poor English: Language management in English-language online discussion forums
Using the framework of Language Management Theory (LMT), this article seeks to analyze the ways in which non-native speakers negotiate their position in English-language online discussion forums. Based on the material collected from four discussion forums, competing opinions have been identified regarding the acceptability of “bad English” and the need for language management, i.e. acting upon a perceived lack of compliance to linguistic norms. S…
The coup that flopped: Facebook as a platform for emotional protest
This paper develops the idea that recent “networked” social movements are driven by emotions and provides an analysis of the role of emotions in movement mobilization. The case study focuses on the 2013 protests against a “coup” within the Czech Social Democratic Party. The protests had an immediate impact, resulting in a series of demonstrations, mainstream media attention and a successful overturning of the “coup”. The movement’s Facebook page …
I see your garbage”: Participatory practices and literacy privilege on “Grammar Nazi” Facebook pages in different sociolinguistic contexts
In contemporary online culture, Grammar Nazi (GN) is a derogatory term used to label individuals who practice excessive language policing but has also been ironically appropriated by groups of users who engage in evaluation of other people’s grammar for entertainment purposes. In this article, we combine approaches from media studies and sociolinguistics to analyze the adoption of the phenomenon by two GN Facebook pages in two languages: English …
Gaming the Iron Curtain: How Teenagers and Amateurs in Communist Czechoslovakia Claimed the Medium of Computer Games
How amateur programmers in 1980s Czechoslovakia discovered games as a medium, using them not only for entertainment but also as a means of self-expression. Aside from the exceptional history of Tetris, very little is known about gaming culture behind the Iron Curtain. But despite the scarcity of home computers and the absence of hardware and software markets, Czechoslovakia hosted a remarkably active DIY microcomputer scene in the 1980s, producin…
Recasting Life Is Strange: Video Game Voice Acting during the 2016–2017 SAG-AFTRA Strike
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”: Behind-the-scenes narratives in let’s plays and streaming content by video game voice actors
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…
Atari Design: Impressions on Coin-Operated Video Game Machines by Raiford Guins
Reviewed by: Atari Design: Impressions on Coin-Operated Video Game Machines by Raiford Guins Jaroslav Švelch (bio) Atari Design: Impressions on Coin-Operated Video Game Machines By Raiford Guins. London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2020. Pp. 244. Atari Design: Impressions on Coin-Operated Video Game Machines By Raiford Guins. London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2020. Pp. 244. Video game scholarship has been criticized for its formalist tendencies, which …
Video Games and Comedy
Video Games and Comedy is the first edited volume to explore the intersections between comedy and video games. This pioneering book collects chapters from a diverse group of scholars, covering a wide range of approaches and examining the relationship between video games, humour, and comedy from many different angles. The first section of the book includes chapters that engage with theories of comedy and humour, adapting them to the specifics of t…
Player vs. Monster: The Making and Breaking of Video Game Monstrosity
A study of the gruesome game characters we love to beat—and what they tell us about ourselves. Since the early days of video games, monsters have played pivotal roles as dangers to be avoided, level bosses to be defeated, or targets to be destroyed for extra points. But why is the figure of the monster so important in gaming, and how have video games come to shape our culture's conceptions of monstrosity? To answer these questions, Player vs. Mon…
Czech Appeal: Why and How National Game Productions Use Local Themes and Settings
In recent years, semi-peripheral industries have produced numerous video games that use local settings but aim at a global audience. We explore this trend using five cases of commercially released Czech indie games that feature local themes and settings. Our research combines qualitative content analysis of representation with developer interviews, which we analyze to reveal motivations for including local content , its implementation, localizati…
Digital Games and Media (8 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Art (6 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Political science (6 works) · Law (5 works) · Psychology (5 works) · Czech (4 works) · Media studies (4 works) · Multimedia (4 works)