ABOUT

Joleen Blom (Ph.D.) is a university lecturer in the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies at the Tampere University Game Research Lab. She researches the commercialization of game characters and their affective roles in games and transmedia monetization models, with a focus on Japanese popular culture. Currently, she is researching parasocial relationships with game characters and their monetization in East Asian gacha games.

She is the author of Video Game Characters and Transmedia Storytelling, which has been published by Amsterdam University Press in 2023. She has published in academic journals such as Mechademia, ToDiGRA, and Replaying Japan, and edited collections like Japanese Role-Playing Games (eds. Pelletier-Gagnon and Hutchison, 2022), Modes of Esports Engagement in Overwatch (eds. Ruotsalainen et al., 2022), Comics | Games: From Hybrid Medialities to Transmedia Expansions (eds. Rauscher et al., 2020).

She is the coeditor of the upcoming edited collection Monstrosity in Games and Play (with S. Stang, M. Meriläinen, and L. Hassan, 2024), and a special issue on ‘Character’ in Narrative (with J. Phelan, 2022). She will be editing an edited collection on East Asian Gaming Fandoms (with D. Schules).

Social media:

• Website: joleenblom.com
• bsky: @jjol33n