Jean Ketterling (@ jeanketterling.bsky.social) will give an Oasis Lunchtime Talk on "Rhythm, Orgasm, & Chrononormativity in Orgasm Simulator & NSFWare” on Thursday 13 November at 12:00-13:00 EEST. Join us at Oasis, Tampere University, or follow online: www.youtube.com/live/fQXNBXs...

Florence Chee (@ cheeflo.bsky.social) gives an Oasis Lunchtime Talk on "Games growing up (again)? Intersections of Ethics, Law, and Policy in our public and private spaces” on Monday 10 November at 12:00-13:00 EEST. Join us at Oasis, Tampere University, or online: www.youtube.com/live/Mo8ZUOJ...

Azul Romo Flores will give an Oasis Lunchtime Talk on "Learning to E-sport: A Swedish case study of the organization of E-sport education in upper-secondary schools” on Wednesday 29 October at 12:00-13:00 EET. Join us at Oasis, Tampere University, or follow online: www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrGt...

Mark Maletska (@ markmaletska.bsky.social) will give an Oasis Lunchtime Talk on "Why being a Ukrainian game studies scholar is… complicated?” on Thursday 23 October at 12:00-13:00 EEST. Join us at Oasis, Tampere University, or follow online: www.youtube.com/live/EBRRynA...

NEW DATE: Michael Dieter will give an Oasis Lunchtime Talk on “Interface Theory and Critical Technical Cultures" on Thursday 16 October at 12:00-13:00 EEST. Join us at Oasis, Tampere University, or follow online: www.youtube.com/live/Mo8ZUOJ...

Michael Dieter will give an Oasis Lunchtime Talk on “Interface Theory and Critical Technical Cultures" on Thursday 9 October at 12:00-13:00 EEST. Join us at Oasis, Tampere University, or follow online: www.youtube.com/live/Mo8ZUOJ...

Bryan Hikari Hartzheim will give an Oasis Lunchtime Talk on “Institutions of Play: Mapping Japan’s Indie Game Scene" on Thursday 2 October at 12:00-13:00 EEST. Join us at Oasis, Tampere University, or follow online: www.youtube.com/live/IuTUH27...

Professor Nick Webber (@ doktornick.bsky.social) will give an Oasis Lunchtime Talk on “Remnants of Play" on Wednesday 17 September at 12:00-13:00 EET. Join us at Oasis, Tampere University, or follow online: www.youtube.com/live/gdl-hgm...

Richy Srirachanikorn (@ srirachanikorn.bsky.social) will give an Oasis Lunchtime Talk on "Taking the Metso, the Retro, and the Algo(s): On Nostalgia and Video Games" on Thursday 11 September at 12:00-13:00 EET. Join us at Tampere University, or follow online: www.youtube.com/live/VVvu5Ix...

Our final blog post before the summer is live! In this blog post, volunteer students Nadezhda Gerasimenko, Elia Väätäinen, and Julius Soini share their experiences and reflections on helping to organize the Festival of Game Culture, held on 29–31 May 2025 in Tampere, Finland.

Dr. Mia Consalvo (@miac.bsky.social) will give an Oasis Lunchtime Talk on "The future of media studies is game studies" on Thursday 5 June at 12:00-13:00 EET. Join us at Oasis space at Tampere University, or follow online: www.youtube.com/live/QT4_m7F...

In our latest blog post, Research Manager Tanja Välisalo (@tanjavalisalo.bsky.social) dives into Cartographia Game Jam, a game development event held at the National Archives of Finland in Helsinki in March 2025. Read the full post here: coe-gamecult.org/2025/04/30/t...

⏰ As a final reminder, you can still register for the Nordic DiGRA 2025 conference until this Friday, 9 May, at 23:59 EEST (UTC+3)! Buy your ticket here: www.eventbrite.fi/e/nordic-dig... The tickets may sell out before the deadline. Conference programme: www.nordicdigra2025.org/nordic-digra...

Doctoral Researcher Ville Malinen shares his thoughts in the CoE blog on the E-Gaming Symposium 2025 held in Seinäjoki (Finland), where he gave a presentation and followed the two-day program filled with insights into gaming and research.

Nordic DiGRA 2025 conference programme is now published! There are some audience seats available, register swiftly to secure a seat! Nordic DiGRA 2025 is organised on 26–28 May 2025 in Turku, Finland by the Finnish Society for Game Research in collaboration with the CoE in Game Culture Studies.

Interested in gender structures in video games? The blog post by Postdoctoral Research Fellow Matilda Ståhl & Associate Professor Fredrik Rusk gives an English summary of their book chapter originally published in Swedish, exploring hegemonic gender structures in Fallout 76 through duoethnography.

The next Oasis Lunchtime Talk is on “Game as Art: A practical toolkit to identify artistic games” by Alina Potemska on Thursday 3rd of March at 12:00-13:00 EET/ UTC+2. Join us at Oasis space at Tampere University, or follow online: www.youtube.com/live/LC0bLvW...

The 21st annual Tampere Game Research Lab Spring Seminar is just around the corner. The theme this year is Arts and Games. Registration for the event is now open. The event is free, but we have limited space, so sign up now. Hope to see you in Tampere! springseminar.org/2025/03/10/r...

What makes a foreign country feel like a second home? In our latest blog post, Doctoral Researcher Aasa Timonen (@rosgakori.bsky.social) shares her experiences as a visiting research fellow at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Ville Kankainen’s doctoral defence on “Hybrid Play Experience and Design in Tabletop Gaming” takes place on Friday 21.2. at 12:00 EET/ UTC+2 at Tampere University & online. The dissertation: urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978... Stream: tuni.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Page... More info: www.tuni.fi/en/news/vill...

In this article summary, Markku Reunanen, Tapani Joelsson, and Petri Saarikoski explore gaming on marginal home computers in 1980s Finland, highlighting user experiences, community support, and the factors behind their decline.

Adjunct Professor Rami Mähkä writes about ice hockey video game research and player identification in the CoE blog: the games remain popular one decade after another because they are based on virtual versions of real-life hockey teams and players, which are updated annually.

Elina Koskinen’s (@elinako.bsky.social) doctoral defence on “Memorable Player Experiences with Pokémon GO” takes place on Friday 31.1. 12:00 UTC+3 at Tampere University & online. The thesis: urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978.... Stream: tuni.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Page... More info: www.tuni.fi/en/news/elin...

The Finnish Player Barometer 2024 has been published! Find the Barometer here (in Finnish, but you can find an English abstract within the publication): trepo.tuni.fi/handle/10024...

In our latest CoE blogpost Ruotsalainen et al. reflect on “Feminist Approaches to Esports Research” workshop organized in November 2024. By reading selected texts, the authors contemplate how feminist studies and understanding the margins should be extended to examining esports as whole.

Riikka Aurava's doctoral defence "Game Jamming in Schools: Affordances of game jam events in general formal education" on Tue 17.12. at Tampere university & online. The thesis: trepo.tuni.fi/handle/10024... Stream: tuni.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Page... More info: www.tuni.fi/en/news/riik...

Dive into this fascinating new blog post by Doctoral Researcher Mayara Araujo Caetano, who explores tags as a valuable point of entrance to study user animated pornography production using sex game and its points of connections with free porn platforms and its creation and consumption logics.

Mark your calendar: Festival of Game Culture (29.–31.5.2025, Tampere) is a celebration of games, play and scholarship. This witty, playful, thought-provoking and fun event both summarizes some of the work conducted in the CoE GameCult in 2018-25 and explores the future prospectives for game culture.

The third keynote announcement for the Nordic DiGRA 2025: Dr Velvet Spors www.nordicdigra2025.org/third-keynot... The conference will be organised on 26–28 May 2025 in Turku, Finland by the Finnish Society for Game Research in collaboration with the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies.

2nd keynote announcement for Nordic DiGRA 2025: Professor Kristine Jørgensen www.nordicdigra2025.org/2024/11/08/s... The conference will be organised on 26–28 May 2025 in Turku, Finland by the Finnish Society for Game Research in collaboration with the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies.

The 2025 Spring Seminar "Arts and Games" CfP: springseminar.org/2025-call-fo... ⏰ Abstract submission deadline is 13.12.2024 The seminar is organised on 26-27.3.2025 in Tampere by Tampere University Game Research Lab in collaboration with The CoE in Game Culture Studies and Games As Art Center.

First keynote announcement for Nordic DiGRA 2025: Professor Kishonna Gray: www.nordicdigra2025.org/first-keynot... The conference will be organised on 26–28 May 2025 in Turku, Finland by the Finnish Society for Game Research in collaboration with the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies.

We are happy to share the latest blog post where Postdoctoral Research Fellows Usva Friman and Matilda Ståhl describe their experiences and initial insights gained from studying Nordic esports.

The CoEsports network (coesports.gg/en/) & CoE GameCult are organizing Esport Nexus Jyväskylä in 6.–7.11.2024. The event brings together professionals from both the academic and commercial fields of esports. Full program: coesports.gg/wp-content/u... Register here: tinyurl.com/esportsnexus...

New blog post alert! In our brand new blog post, Postdoctoral Researcher Evgenia Amey discusses the interplay between narrative, worldbuilding, and in-game environments, looking at how players can experience, affectively engage with and form emotional attachments to in-game settings and localities.

Doctoral Researcher Hanne Grasmo (@hannegg.bsky.social) reports in our blog on her course, Larp Design in Theory and Practice. Grasmo delves into how physicality and materiality shaped the play experience and emotions in academic context.

After a refreshing summer break, we are excited to resume our blog activity! Today's post is part of our article summary series, featuring an English summary of an article by Professor Frans Mäyrä (@fransmayra.bsky.social) on demonic imagery in games, originally published in Finnish.

The CoE is collaborating with University of Jyväskylä and CoEsports-network in organizing an interdisciplinary esports seminar Understanding Esports Audiences 7.-8.11.2024 in Jyväskylä. Deadline for abstracts: 11.8.2024. More information & submission instructions: www.jyu.fi/en/events/un...

We are happy to share the following blog post from Dr. Joleen Blom who shares insights and background on the “Japanilaiset romanssipelit” (Japanese Romance Games) exhibition she curated for The Finnish Museum of Games at Vapriikki.

Our new Doctoral Researcher Valtteri Kauraoja's doctoral thesis focuses on game design structures and the types of engagement they build. In this blog post, he contemplates the concept of empowerment by mapping it out in the context of mechanical game design.

New in our blog: English summary of an article about masculinity and antifeminism discussed on a game culture thread on the Ylilauta imageboard by researchers @merilainen.bsky.social, Jonne Arjoranta & Emilia Lounela. Original publication in Finnish: journal.fi/sukupuolentu...

This Wednesday 17th of April at 13:00-14:00 EEST, Petri Lankoski will give an OASIS Talk with the topic of “Indie Porn Games:  Contents, Ecosystems, Business Models”. Join us live at OASIS space at Tampere University or watch the talk on OASIS YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2Ij...

On 4.4.2024 at 12:00-13:00 EEST, Jorge Oceja will give an OASIS Talk on“Playing Emotions: How to Bring Indie Games to the Classroom”. Join us live at OASIS at Tampere University or online on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-Lx...  Facebook-event:  www.facebook.com/events/95593...

The Rule Book: The Building Blocks of Games by Jaakko Stenros and Markus Montola is out now! The book is part of the Playful Thinking series from The MIT Press. It is also available as an open access publication. mitpress.mit.edu/978026254744...

Our 3rd keynote speaker is Dr Tom Apperley @t0mm7.bsky.social. Senior Research Fellow at the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies at Tampere University, Tom is author of "Gaming Rhythms: Play and Counterplay from the Local to the Global". Get it here! www.networkcultures.org/_uploads/TOD...

On 14.3.2024 at 12:00-13:00 EEST, Ian Sturrock will give an OASIS Talk on “Creativity: in academic research, narrative, and worldbuilding”. Join us live at OASIS at Tampere University or online on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRfr... Facebook-event: www.facebook.com/events/96464...

On Saturday 2.3.2024 at 12:00 EEST Katriina Heljakka's Doctoral Defense “How Play Moves Us: Toys, Technologies, and Mobility in a Digital World” at University of Turku (Arcanum, Aava auditorium) & online: echo360.org.uk/section/c1dc... The dissertation is openly available: urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978...

On 22.2.2024 at 12:00-13:00 EEST, Alan Meades gives an OASIS Talk on “Arcade Britannia: British Arcade History, Comics, and Interactive Experiences”. Join us live at OASIS at Tampere University or online on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECxr... Facebook event: www.facebook.com/events/76795...

On 16.2.2024 at 12:00-13:00 EEST, Eric Zimmerman will give an OASIS Talk on “THE RULES WE BREAK - Lessons in Play, Thinking, and Design”. Join us live at OASIS at Tampere University or online on OASIS YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/watch?v=oahs... Facebook event: www.facebook.com/events/76795...