Play as Preservation: Folklore and Mythology in The Mooseman

Caleb Levy's article "Play as Preservation: Folklore and Mythology in The Mooseman" argues that Morteshka's 2017 game is a meaningful case study in cultural preservation, reconstructing Komi-Permian mythology from Permian animal style bronze castings and grounded in academic research and museum consultation. The paper situates the game at the intersection of game studies, folkloristics, and heritage studies, attending to the Komi people's history of Christianization, Russification, and the subsequent folklore collection efforts of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Its analysis spans narrative structure, audio-visual design, and mechanics, including the muted, shadow-puppet-like visual style and a student choir from Perm Krai College of Arts and Culture singing Komi folk songs.

The author contends that the game's mechanics position the player as someone who influences rather than dominates the spirit world. Slow-moving spirits, puzzles requiring foreknowledge, and an in-game encyclopedia that encourages cross-referencing produce a research-oriented form of play the author terms "exegetic play." At the same time, the game departs significantly from its sources, adopting a single demiurge and substituting a moose for a bird, which raises the question of whether it constitutes cultural preservation or "fakelore." The article concludes that its blend of sourced and invented material, which it describes as "selective authenticity," holds real value but risks leading players to treat it as an authoritative account of the folklore it depicts.

On the question of responsibility, the paper finds that the game's upfront labeling as an "artistic reconstruction" and its accompanying bibliography offer meaningful protection against misinterpretation, and that these safeguards partly address the risk of reinforcing harmful stereotypes about Finno-Ugric peoples. The author notes, however, that commercial pressures and the professionalization of folklore complicate preservation work. Ultimately, the article holds that games are already participants in the wider preservation ecosystem and calls for further research into how they can be used responsibly and equitably within it.