Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies / 2 (CoE GameCult)
Main funder
Funder's project number: 336802
Funds granted by main funder (€)
- 438 663,00
Funding program
Project timetable
Project start date: 01/01/2018
Project end date: 31/12/2022
Summary
One of the most notable ongoing changes in the contemporary culture and society relates to the growing role of information technology and interactive media in the everyday lives. New technologies occupy a significant position in this trend, since many key activities in work, leisure, and social life are increasingly intermeshed with the use of smartphones, computers, and gaming consoles. Particularly the role of digital gaming has been influential in introducing entire generations to the expressive potentials and interaction modalities of new media.
The CoE in Game Cultures will bring 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 will unify the socio-cultural approach into game culture studies and bring 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 particularly involve the methodological triangulation that is based on comparisons and combinations of methods deriving from humanities, social sciences and design research, including both qualitative and quantitative approaches.
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, 4. Societal Framing of Games.
The CoE will result in deeper understanding of interactivity and participation, and create during its operation breakthrough scholarly publications that guide into understanding games as expressive forms, with unique interactive aesthetics of play, rooted in culture, history, as well as in biology. Secondly, the impact of GameCult CoE goes beyond academia, as during its operation it 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 will also mean that it will bridge the fields of game studies with neighbouring yet isolated fields such
as gambling studies, play studies and sports studies in mutually beneficial ways.
The CoE in Game Cultures will bring 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 will unify the socio-cultural approach into game culture studies and bring 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 particularly involve the methodological triangulation that is based on comparisons and combinations of methods deriving from humanities, social sciences and design research, including both qualitative and quantitative approaches.
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, 4. Societal Framing of Games.
The CoE will result in deeper understanding of interactivity and participation, and create during its operation breakthrough scholarly publications that guide into understanding games as expressive forms, with unique interactive aesthetics of play, rooted in culture, history, as well as in biology. Secondly, the impact of GameCult CoE goes beyond academia, as during its operation it 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 will also mean that it will bridge the fields of game studies with neighbouring yet isolated fields such
as gambling studies, play studies and sports studies in mutually beneficial ways.
