Frans Mäyrä

Personal history:

• my background is in literary and media studies, where I did my PhD on "demonic texts and textual demons" in 1999 (see the thesis online)
• I have promoted the cultural study of information technology and games from the early 90's, organising seminars, conferences and then later in setting DiGRA in motion
• I have interests in three key areas, game studies theories and methodologies, study of players and gameplay experience, and new approaches into game design; these are also where our Games Research Lab is currently working on in University of Tampere, Finland

Favourite games:

• I have special interest in role-playing games, and have done classic Dungeons&Dragons stuff for ages, and also going into some LARPs (live action role-playing games)
• contemporary digital games often disappoint me, but I have played my share of CRPGs and adventure games (starting from Commodore64 days), going through Nethack (still play that sometimes)
• in current overworking phase, there is not much time for my own playing, but I maintain a steady contact and attempt to at least try out any new interesting titles that come out
• I used to only dabble with Ultima Online, Everquest, and other online games, but currently, I seem to spend quite a lot of my time in World of Warcraft (mostly in the hairy shape of a dwarwen paladin - say hello to 'durutthure' in Earthen Ring, if you come there)

Contact details:

• www-page: www.uta.fi/~frans.mayra (university page), www.unet.fi (personal website), www.unet.fi/fransblog (my blog)
• email: frans.mayra [no spam] uta.fi
• tel: +358 3 3551 7933 (office)