Introduction to the Special Issue on Meta: “About, Within, and Around” the 20th Annual Tampere University Game Research Lab Spring Seminar

Abstract

This is the introduction to a special issue based on papers presented at the 20th Annual Tampere University Game Research Lab Spring Seminar in Tampere, Finland. The theme for this iteration of the seminar was Meta. After a brief discussion on the multifaceted nature of meta, we introduce the six papers that make up this special issue. Within game studies, meta is a word or prefix that has many meanings to many people. We suggest that the articles in this special issue engage with meta as it pertains to players, developers, and scholars, and discuss each piece in turn. We conclude by thanking everyone whose work led to the production. Meta is what one makes of it, and we affirm that our authors have made this special issue a compilation of a set of significant contributions to the study of everything that occurs about, within, and around games.