Academia

An overview of the academic work I have published

The Masquerade of Play: A Reappraisal of the Magic Circle

2024, Larsen B. A., Carstensdottir E. In: FDG, ACM

A reappraisal of the game studies term "The magic circle", why it has been derided and deemed useless, and why it still matters.



Community, Storytelling, and Play

Making and Breaking Rituals in Destiny 2

2024, Larsen B. A., Carstensdottir E. In: CHI, ACM

Reporting of a 2.5 year ethnography on the Destiny 2 community and how the rituals of the game are reinforced and broken by its community.



Communal Ritual Play

Repetition and Interpretation of Game Narratives Across Communities

2023, Larsen B.A., Junius, N., Carstensdottir E. In: Interactive Storytelling. Springer

A comparative analysis of Destiny 2, Final Fantasy XIV, and Elden Ring, and how they use communal rituals as part of their design to enforce (re)interpretation of their narratives.



“Anything a Guardian Does Is Canonical”

Player Understanding of Canon in Destiny

2023, Larsen B. A., Carstensdottir E. In: CHI PLAY, ACM

A report of results on a survey and interview with Destiny 2 players, on what they consider canon and why.



Myth, Diegesis and Storytelling in Perennial Games

2022, Larsen B.A., Carstensdottir E. In: Interactive Storytelling. Springer

An investigation of perennial games using the lens of mythological storytelling, showing how perennial experiences can be understood as a kind of mythmaking, which helps explain many of the otherwise strange properties of perennial storytelling.



Wrestling With Destiny

Storytelling in Perennial Games

2021, Larsen B.A., Carstensdottir E. In: Interactive Storytelling. Springer

A framework and analysis of "Perennial Games", long-running online games that tell ongoing stories, like Destiny, of which there is a case study. Compares perennial games with other perennial experiences, such as Wrestling or Doctor Who.



Making the Player the Detective

2020, Larsen B.A., Schoenau-Fog H. In: Foundations of Digital Games. ACM.

An investigation of different kinds of Detective Games, and why not all games let the player be the detective, but only let them follow one instead.



The Story We Cannot See

On How a Retelling Relates to its Afterstory

2019, Larsen B.A., Bruni L.E., Schoenau-Fog H. In: Interactive Storytelling. Springer

An investigation of the emergent narrative field and a definition of the term "Afterstory", the specific, retellable story of a play experience, and its relation to the retelling itself.



"Well That Was Quick"

Towards Storytelling Adaptivity That Reacts to Players as People

2019, Larsen B.A., Schoenau-Fog H. In: Interactive Storytelling. Springer

Best Short Paper Award Winner. A preliminary exploration of "storyworld adaptivity", when the game adapts to player behaviour without altering the plot or narrative in a meaningful way, but rather acknowledges the player through the world.



Creating Interactive Adaptive Real Time Story Worlds

2018, Schoenau-Fog H., Larsen B.A. In: Interactive Storytelling. Springer

A workshop on creating a storyworld for an adaptive real-time experience. I was an assistant on this.



The Narrative Quality of Games and Play

2017, Larsen B.A. Masters Thesis. Aalborg University

My thesis on how games tell stories, on how narrative is shaped from a game and how the relationships between mechanics and context and fiction in the game creates that narrative. The thesis includes a framework and a discussion of each element, as well as supporting analyses of games.



The Narrative Quality of Game Mechanics

2016, Larsen B.A., Schoenau-Fog H. In: Interactive Storytelling. Springer

An early look at the framework that later became my masters thesis, exploring how game mechanics influence the narrative quality of a game, through its relations to the other elements.



The Moody Mask Model

A Hybrid Model for Creating Dynamic Personal Interactions in an Interactive Setting

2015, Larsen B.A., Andkjær K.I., Schoenau-Fog H. In: Interactive Storytelling. Springer

An attempt at creating a relation model for social simulation using social "masks", differing behaviour based on who each character is situated next to and in what context. The implementation largely failed when compared to other social simulations, but it showed potential.