Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies, continuation (CoE-GameCult)
Main funder
Funder's project number: 353267
Funds granted by main funder (€)
- 605 707,00
Funding program
Project timetable
Project start date: 01/01/2023
Project end date: 31/12/2025
Summary
The CoE in Game Culture Studies brings together leading expertise in game culture studies to develop original theoretical and empirical approaches that are crucial for understanding, anticipating and influencing the direction and impact games have on contemporary and future developments in culture and society. The CoE unifies socio-cultural approach in game culture studies and brings the multi-method and interdisciplinary understanding of the field to a completely new level. The novel approaches this CoE brings to the game culture studies involve methodological experimentation that enriches the hermeneutical analyses of games and play in culture with novel insights gained from analysing player created contents, participation in collaborative game design experiments, and both qualitative and quantitative studies of large data-sets from e.g. games related media, online services, and player surveys.
CoE work is focused on four interconnected themes: 1) Meaning and Form of Games, 2) Creation and Production of Games, 3) Players and Player Communities, and 4) Societal Framing of Games.
The overarching research questions are: A) What are the key processes and characteristics of meaning making that are significant for understanding changing game cultures? B) How is cultural agency being reshaped, redistributed and renegotiated in games and play, and in their associated societal contexts?
Scientific breakthrough potential in the CoE GameCult relates particularly to its aims of unifying the theories of the meaning making of games with the wider societal and cultural research of changing contemporary culture and agency. The CoE will result in deeper understanding of interactivity and participation, and disseminate findings that guide into understanding games as expressive forms, with unique interactive aesthetics of play, with a long history and foundation that is both ancient as well as constantly renewed.
The impact of GameCult CoE goes beyond academia, as during its operation it will function in close dialogue with multiple stakeholders such as policy makers, game educators, game design and innovation communities, and it will influence how play and co-creation activities evolve in terms of their future artistic and societal, value conscious dimensions. The interdisciplinary character of CoE means also that it will bridge the fields of game studies with neighbouring yet separate fields such as gambling research and play studies.
CoE work is focused on four interconnected themes: 1) Meaning and Form of Games, 2) Creation and Production of Games, 3) Players and Player Communities, and 4) Societal Framing of Games.
The overarching research questions are: A) What are the key processes and characteristics of meaning making that are significant for understanding changing game cultures? B) How is cultural agency being reshaped, redistributed and renegotiated in games and play, and in their associated societal contexts?
Scientific breakthrough potential in the CoE GameCult relates particularly to its aims of unifying the theories of the meaning making of games with the wider societal and cultural research of changing contemporary culture and agency. The CoE will result in deeper understanding of interactivity and participation, and disseminate findings that guide into understanding games as expressive forms, with unique interactive aesthetics of play, with a long history and foundation that is both ancient as well as constantly renewed.
The impact of GameCult CoE goes beyond academia, as during its operation it will function in close dialogue with multiple stakeholders such as policy makers, game educators, game design and innovation communities, and it will influence how play and co-creation activities evolve in terms of their future artistic and societal, value conscious dimensions. The interdisciplinary character of CoE means also that it will bridge the fields of game studies with neighbouring yet separate fields such as gambling research and play studies.
Principal Investigator
Primary responsible unit
Follow-up groups
- Emergent work in the digital era (University of Jyväskylä JYU) EWIDE
- Multidisciplinary research on learning and teaching (University of Jyväskylä JYU) MultiLeTe
- Multiliteracies for social participation and in learning across the life span (University of Jyväskylä JYU) MultiLEAP; 2021-2026. Formerly RECLAS
- School of Wellbeing (University of Jyväskylä JYU) JYU.Well
- Teacher education research (teaching, learning, teacher, learning paths, education) (University of Jyväskylä JYU) JYU.Edu; Formerly JYU.Ope
Profiling area: Emergent work in the digital era (University of Jyväskylä JYU) EWIDE; Multidisciplinary research on learning and teaching (University of Jyväskylä JYU) MultiLeTe; Multiliteracies for social participation and in learning across the life span (University of Jyväskylä JYU) MultiLEAP; 2021-2026. Formerly RECLAS; School of Wellbeing (University of Jyväskylä JYU) JYU.Well
Related publications and other outputs
1 of 3
- Eight types of video game experience (2025) Vahlo, Jukka; et al.; A1; OA
- Exploring music-based attachment to video games through affect expressions in written memories (2025) Tuuri, Kai; et al.; A1; OA
- Article summary: Excluded soyboys and spoiled gaming : Masculinity and antifeminism in an Ylilauta gaming culture discussion (Meriläinen, Arjoranta & Lounela, 2023) (2024) Meriläinen, Mikko; et al.; O4; OA
- “I bet she’s ‘not like other girls” : Discursive Construction of the Ideal Gaming Woman on r/GirlGamers (2024) Ruotsalainen, Maria; et al.; A1; OA
- Individuals, Representatives, and Racers : Instagram Images of F1 and F1 Esports Series Drivers (2024) Malinen, Ville; A1; OA
- Liminal Encounters : Evolving Discourse in Nordic and Nordic-inspired Larp (2024) Kangas, Kaisa; et al.; E3; OA; 978-952-69423-5-3
- Measuring digital intervention user experience with a novel ecological momentary assessment (EMA) method, CORTO (2024) Lukka, Lauri; et al.; A1; OA
- Narrative, gameplace and players’ affective response (2024) Amey, Evgenia; O4; OA
- Online Disinhibition, Normative Hostility, and Banal Toxicity : Young People’s Negative Online Gaming Conduct (2024) Meriläinen, Mikko; et al.; A1; OA
- Sociohistorical development of sim racing in European and Asia-Pacific esports : A cross-cultural qualitative study (2024) Lefebvre, Florian; et al.; A1; OA
