We are excited to kick off our game event research this week with fieldwork at Vectorama, the biggest gaming festival and LAN party in Northern Finland! It is organised annually in Oulu on the first weekend of June since 2000. The event runs non-stop from Thursday afternoon to Sunday morning. This year Oulu is a European Capital of Culture 2026, with Vectorama being part of the programme.
Vectorama’s event programme includes hundreds of participants bringing their own gaming equipment on-site to play PC and console games together both online and offline. They also host game tournaments, a cosplay competition, a streamer’s corner, and a variety of talks, music shows, and other engaging activities. The event is organised by over two hundred volunteers under the non-profit association VECTOR – Suomen verkkopeliyhdistys ry.
Our Doctoral Researcher Essi Taino will start our project’s game event fieldwork at Vectorama. She will observe the event, taking notes, photos, and videos, and have chats with participants and organisers. We have also prepared a short research survey for event participants, and we will have a group interview with members of the organiser team at a later time. You can read more about this fieldwork from our information sheet for the study.
Essi’s work at Vectorama is part of our wider research on social sustainability and cultural accessibility of game events. With this work, we want to understand what kind of meanings and significance different types of game events hold for their organisers, participants, and wider environments – but also what makes or does not make them inclusive and accessible for their participants. We are looking at these events in their local contexts, aiming to discover the cultural value and impact they hold and create for the local participants, communities, and other stakeholders. Our work at and with Vectorama will be a wonderful start for this research that will extend from Finland to Norway and all the way to Canada over the next year.