Monday 26 May
Conference venue: University of Turku, Arcanum building (Address: Arcanuminkuja 1, 20500 Turku). Auditorium Aava, 1st floor.
| 10:00–12:00 | Registration In the lobby of Arcanum building |
| 12:00–12:15 | Welcome address (15 min) Auditorium Aava |
| 12:15–13:15 | Keynote 1 (60 min) Kishonna L. Gray: Black game studies – From theorizing a genre to developing a field |
| 13:15–13:30 | Break (15 min) |
| 13:30–14:45 | Session 1 (75 min) Critical resistance |
| 14:45–15:15 | Coffee (30 min) Coffee, tea, and sandwiches |
| 15:15–16:30 | Session 2 (75 min) New solutions for the game industry |
| 16:30–16:45 | Break (15 min) |
| 16:45–18:30 | Session 3 (105 min) Values and politics of competitive play |
| 18:30– | Social programme IGDA Turku meeting at Skärgårdsbaren – Saaristobaari |
Keynote 1 Kishonna L. Gray: Black game studies – From theorizing a genre to developing a field
Keynote bios and abstracts: https://www.nordicdigra2025.org/keynotes
Session 1: Critical resistance
Chair: Jonne Arjoranta
- Rainforest Scully-Blaker and Sabine Harrer: Critical game studies and the politics of hope
- Jon Back and Lina Eklund: Game changing perspectives through post-critical play
- Agata Waszkiewicz: Be cozy, do crimes – Cozy games and the narratives of resistance
Session 2: New solutions for the game industry
Chair: Kati Alha
- Elena Petrovskaya, Leon Y Xiao, Callum Deery, and Philip W. S. Newall: Still failing to disclose loot box presence – Identifying illegal UK video game ads using Meta’s advertising repository
- Jasmine Poikela and Marko Siitonen: Games industry professionals’ perceptions and experiences of generative AI in game design
- Krzysztof Chmielewski: Audio games: (not only) for visually impaired – Lessons from the Polish video game industry
Session 3: Values and politics of competitive play
Chair: Jaakko Suominen
- Torill Elvira Mortensen: “It is all just fake points” – About policing rules in knitting roleplay
- Jaakko Stenros: Finnish folk competitions – The forgotten connection between games, sports, fairs, and folk culture
- Egil Trasti Rogstad: The rise of sportswashing in esports – Ethical challenges and the potential for positive change
- Maria Ruotsalainen and Tom Legierse: “This is the future” – The making or breaking of Esports?
Social programme on Monday
Nordic DiGRA 2025 Conference attendees are invited to the IGDA Turku Hub gathering at Skärgårdsbaren – Saaristobaari where they can meet game developers from Turku. The event begins at 18:00 but is informal, and attendees are welcome to arrive later after the conference programme has ended.
Map link: https://maps.app.goo.gl/xM7m65JDmcwWrhZe6
We do not have organised joint dinner on Monday evening, but there’s a great variety of excellent restaurants available in Turku (see: https://en.visitturku.fi/eat-and-drink). If you’d like some dinner company, please use the conference Discord to coordinate plans!
Tuesday 27 May
| 9:00–10:45 | Session 4 (105 min) Fostering safety and wellbeing |
| 10:45–11:00 | Break (15 min) |
| 11:00–12:00 | Keynote 2 (60 min) Kristine Jørgensen: Part of the problem, or part of the solution? On why game studies need masculinity studies now |
| 12:00–13:30 | Lunch (90 min) Warm meal at the restaurant Piccu Maccia |
| 13:30–14:45 | Session 5 (75 min) Exploring global game production |
| 14:45–15:15 | Coffee (30 min) Coffee, tea, and something sweet |
| 15:15–17:00 | Session 6 (105 min) Intersectional identities in play |
| 19:15– | Social programme Conference dinner at Restaurant Brunndeli in the Aboa Vetus Ars Nova museum |
Keynote 2 Kristine Jørgensen: Part of the problem, or part of the solution? On why game studies need masculinity studies now
Keynote bios and abstracts: https://www.nordicdigra2025.org/keynotes
Session 4: Fostering safety and wellbeing
Chair: Mikko Meriläinen
- Veli-Matti Karhulahti, Marcel Martončik, Matus Adamkovic,Tiina Auranen, Solip Park, Miia Siutila, Yaewon Jin, Valtteri Kauraoja, Bora Na, and Tae-Jin Yoon: A hundred case studies of intensive gaming and health
- Tiina Auranen: A longitudinal case study of engaged gaming as coping: Two adolescents with social anxiety
- Sarah Lynne Bowman, PerOla Öberg, Karin Johansson, Jon Back, and Annika Waern: Live action role-playing and deliberative events – Comparing strategies for facilitation, moderation, and psychological safety
- Ida Martine Gard Rysjedal: Hope to help – A researcher dealing with hateful behaviour from research participants
Session 5: Exploring glocal game production
Chair: Olli Sotamaa
- Jan Houška and Solip Park: Comparing game work migration in Finland, Czech Republic, and South Korea
- Mark Staun Poulsen and Hanna Wirman: Danish games industry futures – Anticipations of a “new heyday”
- Thitinan Boonpap Common: Can digital ghosts help in promoting Thailand’s gaming industry? The case study analysis of the Home Sweet Home game series
Session 6: Intersectional identities in play
Chair: Matilda Ståhl
- Zoe Li: My true self is motion-tracked – Investigating gender construction and empowerment among VTubers
- Tom Legierse: Towards a hopeful understanding of masculinities in gaming – An autoethnographic exploration through Kind Words
- Elisa Wiik: Playing is not the only way – Leisure identity positioning and game cultural agency
- Kristian Bjørkelo, Megan Condis, Hilde G. Corneliussen, Kristine Jørgensen, Ida Martine Gard Rysjedal, and Dag Skarstein: Hope, life and disability – Using The Remarkable Life of Ibelin as a lens to understand intersectionality in game culture
Social programme on Tuesday
The conference dinner will be served at restaurant Brunndeli located at the Aboa Vetus Ars Nova museum. The dinner is included in the conference fee. The dinner is informal yet festive, including a vegetarian and seafood focused buffet (dietary limitations announced during registration are taken into consideration). The doors are open from 19:00 and we kindly ask all guests to arrive by 19:15. Dress code: don’t stress about it.
Map link: https://maps.app.goo.gl/6GnHgfeBnEKAUHYV8
Wednesday 28 May
| 9:00–10:45 | Session 7 (105 min) Hopeful readings |
| 10:45–11:00 | Break (15 min) |
| 11:00–12:00 | Keynote 3 (60 min) Velvet Spors: “Is the grass greener out of bounds?” Exploring the relationship of people, nature and video games |
| 12:00–13:30 | Lunch (90 min) Warm meal at the restaurant Piccu Maccia |
| 13:30–14:45 | Session 8 (75 min) Political play |
| 14:45–15:15 | Coffee (30 min) Coffee, tea, and something sweet |
| 15:15–17:00 | Session 9 (105 min) Sustainability – from material to emotional |
| 17:00–17:15 | Thank you and goodbye |
Keynote 3 Velvet Spors: “Is the grass greener out of bounds?” Exploring the relationship of people, nature and video games
Keynote bios and abstracts: https://www.nordicdigra2025.org/keynotes
Session 7: Hopeful readings
Chair: Elisa Wiik
- Matilda Davidsson: Decentering humanity – Hope and ahuman perspectives in digital games
- Anna Ishchenko: Exploring the aesthetics of environmental melancholy in Disco Elysium (2019) and Kentucky Route Zero (2020)
- Aleksandra Mochocka: Depression, decisions, and hope: Meaningful choice in Pentiment (Obsidian Entertainment, 2022)
- Kacper Karwacki: Chains of Olympus – God of War: Ragnarök as an individual, narrative and metamedial reinterpretation of the motif of fate
Session 8: Political play
Chair: Marko Siitonen
- Ossian Nordgren: Games for and of the radical flank
- Leonid Moyzhes: Game designing the utopian thinking – Comparative study of superhero TRPGs as vehicles for political imagination
- Dom Ford: Player democracy in Old School RuneScape
Session 9: Sustainability – from material to emotional
Chair: Elina Koskinen
- Jaakko Suominen: Is new material always better? Plastics and games in Finnish popular media in the 1950s and 1960s
- Leif Sundberg, Karin Danielsson, and Ylva Fernaeus: Exploring the intersection between gaming cultures and sustainability – Looking beyond narrow technological utopias
- Amal Fatemah, Lobna Hassan, and Mirva Hyypiä: Towards a hopeful future: A literature review of gamified and game-based approaches in sustainability education
- Lilli Sihvonen: “Would you pass the board game Kimble on to the next generation?” Transgenerationality reflecting hope and emotional sustainability in our relationship to games