Newsletter 11/2009
Growth and interest in games research
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Games are a relatively young but rapidly growing target for research. In Finland this research, which has forged an international reputation, is carried out in several universities and institutes. The Game Research Laboratory, which started in 2002, is a research group operating at Tampere University and studying the design, making and playing of games and the development of game cultures from as many viewpoints as possible.
Several research projects are under way. For example, a project funded by the Academy of Finland ‘Creation of Game Cultures: The Case of Finland’ examines from the perspective of Finnish society how digital game playing came to Finland and what kind of game cultures have been created in Finland.
“We study playing as a digital form of culture and art,” says Mäyrä, who adds that in global terms the Nordic countries are at the forefront as developers of modern games research. Finland comes a good second to Denmark. Internationally, Finns have considerable expertise in the field of game-design research in addition to pervasive games.
Game or reality?
The Game Research Laboratory is involved in an EU-funded project entitled ‘Integrated Project on Pervasive Gaming (IPerG)’. The research group is developing socially adaptable games, investigating how a game adapts to a normal, social background.
“Professor Frans Mäyrä feels that the future of games research is bright. The continuing rapid development of the game industry will also increase the demand for research."
Pervasive games create new game experiences that are tied in with everyday life, using tools, items and people that surround us. “Pervasive games expand playing both temporally, locally and socially. The limits of the game world and reality become blurred, and a player does not necessarily always know what elements in the surroundings are part of the game,” Mäyrä says.
There are many kinds of pervasive games: LARPS, role-plays and virtual reality games. What almost all of them have in common is the use of everyday communication technologies such as the mobile phone, Internet, Bluetooth technology and RFID identifiers.
“A good example of easily transmittable pervasive gaming is the globally popular Geocaching, in which the participants look for hidden geocaches around the world using GPS.”
Game survey
Why are games played? “Games liberate mental resources. It is said that, when playing, people are truly themselves. Games help with relaxing and experiences are obtained of an alternative world that is not true,” Mäyrä says.
A player survey published by the Game Research Laboratory in 2009 gives information about the playing of games in Finland. According to the research, just over a half of Finns belong to the ranks of those who actively play digital games i.e. those that play some game at least once a month. The average age of these players is 33.
Less than a third of Finns play no digital games at all and their average age is 57. The most popular digital game is computer patience. Almost every Finn plays traditional non-digital games now and then.
Finns spend an average of three hours a week on digital games. Less than five euros a month are spent on them and two or three games are purchased annually. A large number of Finns, however, (more than 40 per cent) play free games on the Internet.
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