It’s not too often that you get asked if you’d be interested in giving a presentation about your research at an international seminar. So, when I was pitched about and asked to take part in SeAMK (Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences) E-Gaming Symposium 2025, I didn’t hesitate. The symposium took place on 13–14 February in Seinäjoki (Finland) and was part of SeAMK International days, held from 10 to 14 February 2025. The event gathered international partner university members, colleagues, and third-party contacts and collaborators from Finland and abroad. The E-Gaming Symposium 2025 was organized in collaboration with JAMK (Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences) and Vancouver University, focusing on gaming, notably esports, related phenomenon from cheating to sim racing gear business.

First day: Long time no Seinäjoki

I arrived in Seinäjoki on the 13^th of February, as I was scheduled to give my presentation that same morning. This was my first visit to the city since 2008. Back in my early adulthood, I attended the Provinssi Rock music festival three times in a row during the 2000s. To put it mildly, the seventeen-year gap was already something, but there’s quite a difference in the city atmosphere between a crisp February Thursday morning and a warm June weekend when navigating towards the festival area along with tens of thousands of other attendees.

The campus was not far away from the railway station, and I arrived just in time for the opening and keynote presentation, which I specifically looked forward to. During her presentation, Maria-Teresa Lahti, the Key Account Manager and partner at SIMUCUBE, elaborated how the company is one of the leaders in sim racing gear business, notably producing rigs, wheels, and pedals. Accordingly, the company is synonymous with top-tier customer products that even the world’s top-tier sim racers and on-track racers use for sim racing. SIMUCUBE first came to my attention a few years ago during a research project, so as a researcher of sim racing and motorsports media, it was particularly interesting to hear about this side of the scene – and naturally about the company itself. This was boosted by the fact that Lahti herself is also a rally driver.

After Lahti’s speech, it was my turn to give a presentation, during which I discussed about my research and dissertation regarding the current position of sim racing and its future as a media sport. I also included some reflections about the more recent developments in gaming and media sports culture. The presentation included brief, referenced summaries of sim racing, esports, and motorsports and their relationship to racing games from over four decades. This was followed by the main point how all these three realms have begun to overlap even further with stronger synergy, though they have co-existed and collaborated for decades – yet it was the COVID-19 pandemic constraints that benefited sim racing’s visibility and status greatly. What is often forgotten is the lengthy transmedial visibility of racing series and related brands in different racing games, despite the more recent transition of drivers, teams, and sponsors etc. between (esports-level) sim racing and motorsports. Regarding the latter, there has also been speculation about the driver-gamer transitions for a long time, and the potential benefits of sim racing to traditional racing due to its demanding difficulty and realism. However, before considering future developments, I pointed out that this synergy may have greater negative consequences instead of mere pros, including sim racing inheriting issues from traditional sports (e.g. corruption, questionable events and ownerships, and carbon footprint), and motorsports vice versa from esports (e.g. toxic online culture, unstable ecosystem, and uneven power balance within the scene).

The presentation went well and had the largest audience I’ve spoken to so far. After lunch, more presentations followed. Dr. Bronwen Russell from Vancouver Island University presented work from her and fellow CoE-member Postdoctoral Researcher Maria Ruotsalainen regarding cheating in esports. Perhaps the most interesting part of this presentation was related to gambling as a phenomenon that is a familiar trait from traditional sports that has gained a foothold in esports. The final presentation of the day was held by Esports Program Coordinator Janus Pitkänen from Kajaani University of Applied Sciences regarding optimal training in esports, which underlined how comprehensive current approaches are. This was followed by a visit to SeAMK’s XR Lab, where we had the opportunity to learn about the various VR games and simulated programs they had developed, for example for various industries as training material and simulation of different terrains and buildings to map and analyze.

Second day: From management abroad to indie games

The program of the second day was shorter and included three presentations followed by a summarizing lunch with presenters and organizers who were still around. Friday’s topics focused on management and indie game scene reflection. Coordinator Bart van Eemeren and his colleague Program Manager Steven Jacobs from Thomas More University gave us a presentation regarding their post-graduate esports management program in Belgium, followed by a presentation regarding esports management as a learning environment by SeAMK affiliates Kimmo Kulmala, Veera Tähtinen, and Allison Müller.

Though esports management is a feature that has had its fair share in my research projects regarding sim racing, what I remember most from Friday was Postdoctoral Research Fellow Jussi Rasku’s (University of Tampere) thorough presentation about indie game development and overall scene reflecting his career, experiences, and developments witnessed. He described the career challenges involved with detail, including huge effort confronted with minimal and/or risky profits in a highly competitive scene, but also spoke very enquiringly about indie games as an excellent and enriching hobby. Even if Rasku’s focus was mostly on game development, these points he made resonated with the risks and challenges of balancing enjoyable hobbyism and striving for professionalism in the sim racing scene as a player/driver or a team manager. He also presented some pros and cons of using AI in this field of work and discussed the trending Finnish simulator game scene.

I highly enjoyed the E-Gaming Symposium and would recommend possible following seminars, as it provided a wide range of interesting topics and a chance to meet new peers. It was also nice to present my research after some time and hear a keynote speech from a different stakeholder of the same field where I have specialized in.

Author bio and contact

See also

Kulmala, M. (2025, March 6). Havaintoja E-Gaming Symposiumista – osa 1: Ajosimulaatiot. @seamk-verkkolehti. https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2025030616439

Kulmala, M. (2025, March 10). Havaintoja E-Gaming Symposiumista – osa 2: Harjoittelu. @seamk-verkkolehti. https://lehti.seamk.fi/verkkolehti/havaintoja-e-gaming-symposiumista-osa-2-harjoittelu/

Kulmala, M. (2025, March 12). Havaintoja E-Gaming Symposiumista – osa 3: eSports opetuksessa. @seamk-verkkolehti. https://lehti.seamk.fi/verkkolehti/havaintoja-e-gaming-symposiumista-osa-3-esports-opetuksessa/