Development of a Finnish Community of Game Scholars

The origins of Finnish simulation and game studies and research are somewhat unclear (Sotamaa, 2009). It seems likely, however, that the first formalized forays into the field were master’s level students of the 1970s wanting to write their theses about the games they played (Kangas & Sihvonen, 2004). Business simulation games were likewise developed in master’s thesis projects during the 1970s, with the earliest university business game sessions having been conducted in 1962/1963 (see Palmunen et al., 846-869 [this issue], for more information). Although the aim of that game thrust was to create games for learning business dynamics, strong learning studies were not carried out until the 2000s. Certain Finnish pioneers, such as Elsa Enäjärvi-Haavio and Yrjö Hirn, had already been interested in the relevance of play in the early 20th century, but did not look much on more structured games (Mäyrä et al., 2010).

In the late 1990s, a handful of academic professionals started specializing in the study of games and digital culture. Coming mostly from the study of literature or media, they brought from own fields their methodologies, reshaped to fit the new subject. Others, on the side of business gaming, started developing and analyzing the kind of training games with which they had earlier studied. Most importantly, however, these pioneers decided not to stay isolated. They recruited promising students, in order to establish a new field (or, more properly at that time, fields). They also networked abroad. When, for example, Markus Montola and Jaakko Stenros (2004) edited the seminal anthology of early live-action role-playing (larp) studies, Beyond Role and Play, they were soon headhunted to work as professional game studies scholars at the University of Tampere. This disciplinary diversity, however, meant that, although such research groups formed and expanded, they did so on their own, often even unaware that other types of game studies networks existed.

The end of the first decade of this millennium saw a slow, but dramatic paradigm shift. The previously isolated groups of simulation and game researchers began to find each other. One of the key reasons for the change was this very journal. Simulation & Gaming: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Theory, Practice and Research was, and still is, one of the few simulation/game and game studies journals that does not have an overly strong, nor even exclusive, focus on digital gaming. This makes it an attractive publication channel for game scholars who do not fit the exclusively digital or online game researcher template. As the journal is anchored especially in educational gaming, however, the Finnish scholars who submitted their articles to this symposium were assigned reviewers who may have belonged to a tradition different from theirs.

The result of this was not the rejection notices one would normally expect when paradigms clash. Instead, it started a fruitful cross-pollination, in which both groups generated new ideas and learned new perspectives from each other. People from both traditions were exposed to sources that the other side may have taken as standard or even canonical, but with which the other side was completely unfamiliar. The fact that Simulation & Gaming uses a coaching review system, allowing guided contact between author and reviewer after the initial double blind stage, was of significant influence in this cross-fertilization, quite in keeping with the nature and spirit of the simulation/game endeavor. It also led to several cases of co-authoring, as people realized they had been working on similar things, but from different perspectives. Authors and reviewers, in keeping with the spirit of interdisciplinary gaming, made serious efforts to meet each other and discuss their projects.

At the same time, preparations started for a 2012, 43(3), Simulation & Gaming symposium, titled Research Methodology in Gaming, featuring the best papers from a seminar, organized by Frans Mäyrä, at the Games Research Lab of the University of Tampere, Finland (April 8-9, 2010), and which lead to further contact among quite differing, but essentially amicable, groups.

This first shared phase effectively turned into a slowly rolling snowball. Several Finnish researchers started to look intentionally for research groups they did not yet know. Whenever people crossed paths, invitations to the mailing list of the Finnish branch of the Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) were presented, reading tips were given, and theoretical correspondences noted, with people staying in touch through social media. Within the next years, the reference lists of many of these researchers started to look very different. ISAGA members began quoting DiGRA-affiliated scholars of recreational games and vice versa. Students looking into LARP suddenly referenced simulation studies and scenario planning from future studies, and so forth.

At the same time, the most actively networking scholars—many of them doctoral students nearing graduation—also initiated another system, that of systematic mentoring. Knowing from their own experience how easy it is to miss essential references and what sort of obstacles one faces in submitting articles, they started assisting graduate students who studied games. Another key factor was that they were thankful to the first professors who mentored them and wanted to do the same. The only return on time invested was that if the mentored students themselves later became professional researchers, they too would pay the favor forward. In half a decade, this system has produced scores of high-quality master’s theses, over a dozen new doctoral students (already mentoring the next generation), internationally acclaimed articles and, most of all, a network of young scholars exceptionally aware of the one another’s work and of those preceding them.

These processes have together created in Finland a particularly vibrant community of simulation and gaming scholars. Those scholars talk to each other across traditional paradigm lines, function as a loyal and informal editorial board that harshly critiques their fellows’ work before it is submitted to peer review, and produce articles of higher quality and quantity than might be expected from a country with such a small population. Since 1998, the Finnish scene has produced no less than 37 simulation/game or game studies related doctoral dissertations, and at an increasing pace: 15 of the dissertations were published between 2010 and 2012 (Sotamaa & Suominen, 2013).

This symposium first arose as an idea presented by Simulation & Gaming editor, David Crookall, when he came to Helsinki in the autumn of 2011 to talk to a largish group of Finnish scholars of simulations and games. A variety of traditions were present, with many of their representative scholars meeting each other for the first time. The articles in this symposium likewise reflect the diversity of Finnish scholarship in games and simulations. Although two strong strands in Finnish game studies—role-playing and scenario planning—are not included in this particular collection, we believe nevertheless that the scope testifies to the vitality and range of active scholars.

During the review process, we guest editors also sought to address that point. Each of the submitted articles was assigned at least two expert reviewers, one from the author’s primary field, as well as one reviewer who studied the same or similar subject with a different methodology. While some reviewers expressed surprise with the process, the end results show that their critique has clearly allowed the authors to express their points with a wider and less paradigm-specific audience in mind. The seven accepted articles all represent key facets of simulation/game research from Finland. They come from scholars of game-based learning, management studies, recreational gaming, and player experiences, and have implications for research far beyond their country of origin.