“This is a three-day celebration of games, play and scholarship hosted by the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies, taking place in Tampere in 29.-31. of May 2025. 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.”  

Nadia: I have volunteered at several events organized by the members of CoE before, and I think that this festival was the least official and the most fun one. Participants were encouraged to wear bright party clothing, and additional decorations like funny hats or glitter were provided for them at the entrance. During the event, researchers participated in different activities related to game studies and the CoE specifically, ranging from the Game History Olympics, which took players through the timeline of several traditions of play, to a quiz during which everyone had to guess which of the CoE’s researchers wrote the quotation from the academic paper shown on the screen (given that most of the authors of the quotes were also present in the room, the game turned out to be really quirky and exciting). Another quiz was about the history of the CoE, and I found it really funny that the absolute winner was the director of the Center, Frans Mäyrä. The games and talks held at Paidia were accompanied by a series of other small events like a film club, but, unfortunately, I did not have time to participate in all of the festival’s activities. Overall, the festival was aimed at the community of CoE specifically, and I really enjoyed the friendly and relaxed atmosphere of this small event. It felt like a perfect place to celebrate the end of the academic year.

Elia: At the Festival, I got to broaden my horizon of game culture and learn new things, such as how to use different types of games in group dynamic exercises and in a non-formal learning experiences, popularity’s effect on a research topic, funding’s impact on academia, community’s importance in research work, what following your passion can look like, and how to act as a student volunteer in an academic but non-formal celebratory setting. I extend my heartfelt thanks for getting to be a part of this celebration with you.

Julius: For me, working as a student volunteer at the Center of Excellence Festival of Game Culture was a fun and fruitful way to both familiarize myself with the contributions of the project as well as connect with scholars of game studies in Finland and abroad. Amongst coffee making, maintaining the snack table and registering participants (and providing them with festival accessories to display party spirit), I e.g. took part in a game of Kahoot! and witnessed a quote quiz, two paper speedruns and other lighthearted presentations and discussions on the scholarly work conducted in the project. The highlight of the festival, however, was the Friday night programme at the restaurant Telakka: Aside from the delicious dinner served at the venue and award-deserving presentations of PowerPoint karaoke(!), the invaluable opportunity to exchange ideas and topics of interest with those more knowledgeable than myself in my field in a relaxed setting was my main takeaway of the entire Festival. Overall, being a part of a celebration of research on games, game cultures and play gave me a new perspective on what game scholarship can be at its most meaningful.

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