The Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies is launching a new event series titled GameCult Talks: Discussing games in culture and society. The series aims to create and strengthen dialogue between researchers and other societal actors on current game cultural topics in our culture and society. The events are organised by the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies with various partners. They bring together game studies researchers, industry experts, cultural institutions, community representatives, activists, and policy makers to develop and highlight new initiatives into building sustainable game culture for our future.

Event #1: Equity in games and play

On Friday 13 November 2020, 12:00–16:00 EET/GMT+2

The first event in the series, themed Equity in games and play, will be organised on the National Game Week (Kansallinen peliviikko), on Friday 13 November from 12:00 to 16:00 EET/GMT+2. The event will offer concise 10-minute presentations from the CoE GameCult researches as well as various experts from the Finnish game industry, organisations, and communities to present different perspectives into equity in games, in Finland and globally, and to introduce various significant initiatives aiming to advance equity in the game industry and game cultures.

Participate in the discussion:

• The event will be streamed on YouTube live on our CoE GameCult channel
• During the presentations, we will be collecting questions from the audience, to be asked from the speakers in the Q&A session at 14:30. Send your questions through this form. You can also write your question in the comment section of our YouTube live broadcast.
• You can also participate in the discussion on Twitter using the hashtag #GameCultTalks

Programme:

12:00–12:05 Welcome to GameCult Talks!
CoE GameCult Main Research Coordinator Usva Friman

12:05–12:10 Greetings from the CoE GameCult
CoE GameCult Director, Professor Frans Mäyrä

Talks:

12:15–12:40 Accessible game creation

• Riikka Aurava (CoE GameCult): Lowering the threshold for game creation with game jams
• Lobna Hassan (CoE GameCult): Visually accessible gaming

12:40–13:05 Equity in the game industry

• Taina Myöhänen (President, We in Games Finland ry): We in Games for diversity and inclusion in Finnish games industry
• KooPee Hiltunen (Director, Neogames Finland Assn.): Finnish Game Industry Sexual Harassment Task Force – why, when and how

13:05–13:15 Break

13:15–13:50 Diverse and inclusive play

• Jaakko Stenros (CoE GameCult): Queer games, queer players, queer play
• Niina Niskanen (Inklusiivisempaa ja turvallisempaa larppausta website): Towards safer and more inclusive larping
• Niklas Nylund (CoE GameCult): Inclusive game heritage

13:50–14:15 Towards non-toxic game cultures

• Maria Ruotsalainen (CoE GameCult): Women in competitive gaming
• Miia Siutila (Youth department of City of Helsinki/University of Turku): Non-toxic gaming – game education at home and youth work

14:15–14:30 Break

14:30–15:00 Q&A: Questions from the audience

15:10–16:00 Discussion on equity in games and play (discussion not streamed, limited to invited guests)