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Everywhere but Nowhere: Development Experiences of the International Game Developers in Finland during the Covid-19 Pandemic and Remote Work

Authors:

Annakaisa Kultima,

Miikka J. Lehtonen,

Jeanine KrathAuthors Info & Claims

Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, Volume 6, Issue CHI PLAY

Article No.: 233, Pages 1 - 14

https://doi.org/10.1145/3549496

Published: 31 October 2022 Publication History

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has influenced people's views on work, and a significant portion of the global game industry converted to remote work during the pandemic. To explore the status of game development in this pivotal moment, we have conducted semi-structured interviews with 27 immigrant/expatriate game developers ("game expats") in Finland analyzing their migration push and pull on societal, industrial, social, and individual factors. The results indicate societal and industrial factors simultaneously influencing game expats' migration intention, but with an increasing influence of game corporation's role on developers' both on-the-job and off-the-job embeddedness due to an absence of (local) community activities during the pandemic. The data also reveals that game developers are valuing the physical workspace for face-to-face interactions, despite the industrial norm of digital tools and seamless transition to remote work. Furthermore, an alarming stratification and hierarchization within the game industry were identified, which game developers self-dividing in-house versus outsourced workforce even if they were both required to work remotely. This paper contributes to game studies on game developers' experiences as an attempt to investigate the local context of game development. It is also one of the first snapshots of game work practices in Finland during the Covid-19 era.

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Cited By

Brewer JRomine M(2024)Breaking Barriers in Mobile Game DevelopmentProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36770618:CHI PLAY(1-20)Online publication date: 15-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3677061
Gunturi UKumar ADing XRho E(2024)Linguistically Differentiating Acts and Recalls of Racial Microaggressions on Social MediaProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36373668:CSCW1(1-36)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3637366
Park SHämäläinen PKultima A(2024)Comic-making to Study Game-making: Using Comics in Qualitative Longitudinal Research on Game DevelopmentProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642275(1-11)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642275

Index Terms

Everywhere but Nowhere: Development Experiences of the International Game Developers in Finland during the Covid-19 Pandemic and Remote Work
1. Applied computing
  1. Computers in other domains
    1. Personal computers and PC applications
      1. Computer games
2. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics

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cover image Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction

Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction Volume 6, Issue CHI PLAY

CHI PLAY

October 2022

986 pages

EISSN:2573-0142

DOI:10.1145/3570219

Editor:
Jeff Nichols
Apple Inc., United States

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Published: 31 October 2022

Published in PACMHCI Volume 6, Issue CHI PLAY

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Cited By

Brewer JRomine M(2024)Breaking Barriers in Mobile Game DevelopmentProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36770618:CHI PLAY(1-20)Online publication date: 15-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3677061
Gunturi UKumar ADing XRho E(2024)Linguistically Differentiating Acts and Recalls of Racial Microaggressions on Social MediaProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36373668:CSCW1(1-36)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3637366
Park SHämäläinen PKultima A(2024)Comic-making to Study Game-making: Using Comics in Qualitative Longitudinal Research on Game DevelopmentProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642275(1-11)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642275

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