@article{nokey,

title = {Understanding Game Data Work},

author = {Heikki Tyni and Olli Sotamaa and Taina Myöhänen},

url = {https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517241309892},

doi = {10.1177/20539517241309892},

issn = {2053-9517},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-21},

journal = {Big Data and Society},

volume = {12},

issue = {1},

abstract = {The game industry's content production, maintenance of live games, and processes of acquiring production funding increasingly rely on various kinds of data and its rigorous analysis. These new needs and functions have generated emerging forms of work, such as those of the data analyst, data engineer, and data scientist. Through in-depth interviews with 20 Finnish game industry professionals and an analysis of game industry job advertisements, this paper examines the work and identity of game industry data workers. Drawing from scholarship focused on game production, game work, and data labour, this article argues that organisational practices surrounding data professionals reveal the centrality of high-level data work in game studios focused on live service games and that data work is now performed not just by data analysts, but by the entire staff and management. As a precursor to the wider creative industries, we argue that creative work and data work in game companies are gradually converging, due to the datafied work environment facilitating datafied game work and the work of data professionals increasingly intertwining with creative tasks. Complicating the previous game studio hierarchy is the data analyst's dual role as both a subservient support function and a central broker of data. Adding nuance to this, the article argues that an important aspect of the work of bespoke data professionals in game companies is communication, in contrast to the high-level quantitative tasks often associated with analysis.},

keywords = {Data, Data analytics, Digital gaming, Game industry},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Sotamaa2023,

title = {‘Even if the Algorithm is a Terrible Workmate, You Just Need to Learn to Live with It’: Perceptions of Data Analytics Among Game Industry Professionals},

author = {Olli Sotamaa and Heikki Tyni and Taina Myöhänen},

url = {https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13675494231168568

https://trepo.tuni.fi/handle/10024/149415},

doi = {https://doi.org/10.1177/13675494231168568},

issn = {1367-5494},

year  = {2023},

date = {2023-05-13},

urldate = {2023-05-13},

journal = {European Journal of Cultural Studies},

abstract = {The digital game industry has actively integrated data-driven methods into its core processes. This interview-based study shows how game industry professionals perceive the role of data as part of their everyday work. Analysing the data-related notions and negotiations helps to explicate how mainstream data imaginaries are both reproduced and challenged in the different phases and contexts of game making. The analysis is divided into the following themes: data is everywhere, data is messy, data is constructed and data redefines creativity. The qualitative inquiry shows how the meaning of game data cannot be reduced to individual metrics or analytics services, or new positions like data analysts. Data-driven development is based on particular values and assumptions, and it creates new practices, working cultures and conflicting forms of agency.},

keywords = {Data analytics, Data work, Data-driven development, Datafication, Game industry, Game production},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}