New research utilisation project: Pegasus

We are excited to announce that the Research Council of Finland has granted funding for our new research utilisation project PEGASUS: Promoting equity and game cultural sustainability in Finland for 2024–2025.  

PEGASUS will build on the significant research results and societal impact achieved within the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies on different aspects of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), especially in the areas of player community and esports studies and game production studies. 

The project team includes Professor Olli Sotamaa (PI), Professor Frans Mäyrä, Postdoctoral Research Fellow Usva Friman, and Doctoral Researcher Taina Myöhänen. One additional researcher will be hired through an open call in early 2024. 

The project aims to steer Finnish game culture towards more sustainable cultural, social, and economic growth by assessing current DEI challenges and creating new collaborative methods to address them. 

Based on close collaboration with player and esports organisations, gaming event organisers, and game industry partners, PEGASUS will bring together the key actors of Finnish game culture with capacity to initiate positive changes that will affect the lives of players and game developers alike. Main project partners are Neogames Finland, We in Games Finland, The Finnish Esports Federation (SEUL), Female Gaming Finland, and Assembly Organizing. 

The project will generate three key outcomes: 1) actionable DEI guidelines for best practices, co-created with community and industry representatives; 2) a tested workshop-based co-design method for creating more culturally sustainable new models of operation; and 3) peer-reviewed publications that expand the current state-of-the-art understanding of how DEI and cultural sustainability are defined, experienced, and promoted in the context of gaming. 

Photo: SEUL ry, Katja Tähjä, Assembly Winter 2023