Assembly Winter 2023 in Helsinki, FI

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  • Liue's Avatar
    Level 31
    Winter holiday is for gaming! Welcome to Finland's biggest gaming festival in winter! 🎮 Assembly: https://party.assembly.org/en/winter23

    I'll be working at Assembly between 23rd - 26th February 2023 in Helsinki, Finland. Like last year, I'll be moving around, taking pictures and recording video in order to post some exciting stuff here. I'll be posting everything here. I am a bit better equipped than last year, with a new phone and holding stick to ensure that my hands are not shaking this time when recording a video. 📷

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    This time I'll be a volunteer for Female Gaming Finland ry (association), which aims to reduce harasshment and discrimination against female and other gender-minority players. That's a real problem: many female players are afraid to, e.g. talk on a voice chat as they might be directly offended by male players. This must stop. I might be a male player, but I say NO to any type of racism or harasshment towards anyone. You have right to be yourself and female do have a right to play in a safe environment.

    If you are interested about FGF as an association, you can find more information from their website: https://www.femalegamingfinland.fi/ (english-language webpage is incoming 26th Feb).

    Also, you can check out my video from last year Assembly Summer 2022 in which I was representing Lenovo Legion with @MoriMoonpaw. This time I'll be using better equipment: I got new phone able to record 4K 2160p video. I'll also be using selfie-stick to make sure picture is as clean as possible. 'm sorry for the quality of Summer 2022 video, I had old phone and my hands were shaking.
    Last edited by Liue; 17-02-23 at 15:24.
    Hey. o/ I'm Liue, gamer with epilepsy from Finland. I'm BBA, Business Information Technology student at Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences and been helping out Legion Gaming Community since the creation of this forum, March 2021. I was one of the first members whom joined and never looked back.

    For me, accessibility is close to my heart. As world is connected, I wish to develop digital services in a way that more and more people would have a chance to use them on their daily basis, no matter of disabilities.
  • 17 Replies

  • DoctorEldritch's Avatar
    Community Manager
    @Liue Exciting, the last event was very successful and interesting (as per the videos you showed us), so I will be looking forward to more from this one. And it will be nice to see what difference a better phone makes.

    Good for you to volunteer for Female Gaming Finland. It is indeed an important issue that needs urgent addressing. It is my hope that we may raise awareness of this issue. So much so that while February is the month of Love and Friendship here in Legion, March is going to be (I am revealing it a bit ahead of time) a month of Women in Gaming.
  • Saka's Avatar
    Level 52
    It is indeed an important issue that needs urgent addressing. It is my hope that we may raise awareness of this issue. So much so that while February is the month of Love and Friendship here in Legion, March is going to be (I am revealing it a bit ahead of time) a month of Women in Gaming.

    Oh, that's neat. Expecting many great discussions! (And I can probably share some of my experiences then)

    Just a couple of days ago I read a post from a lady at Blizzard about women in gaming: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/arin-...79010817-6HGG/

    The content of the post:
    A lot of times it feels like women who like video games can’t win.

    I have met hundreds of women from all walks of life who spend several hours a week playing video games, but almost none of them actually consider themselves to be gamers. But why is that?

    When we like video games, our interest is always downplayed.

    It always seems like the goalposts for what constitutes being a gamer are evermoving as soon as being female comes into the question.

    Play Candy Crush? “You and everyone else, mobile games don’t count.” Enjoy the Sims? “Not a real game.” Like the Animal Crossing? “That’s just a boring decorating simulator.” Spend hours ranking in Overwatch? “Probably just an excuse to cosplay the characters for clout.” Write an entire post on why a game from the 90s revolutionized the industry with its development of 3D combat? “Not real, her boyfriend probably wrote it.”

    Not only that, but women tend to be more isolated because of harassment and the harsh judgment we face on our performance. To avoid verbal abuse in online multiplayer games, we often have to hide our identity and avoid any kind of verbal communication.

    There is also the myth that skill in video games is a born trait, when in reality being good takes practice - and it’s hard to get practice if your attempts to improve are met with cruel remarks and sexist insults.

    So, if you’re a woman who enjoys video games, it’s okay to call yourself a gamer.

    You can call yourself a gamer if you only have time to play on your phone. You can call yourself a gamer if you lose every match. You can call yourself a gamer if you only like games that are marketed toward women.

    GLHF <3

    I, too, have encountered harassment in different ways when just trying to enjoy games like anyone else.
    Unamused Snarktooth. Advocate for hearing loss & accessibility. Person, friend and a terrible/terrific* artist.
    *delete as appropriate
  • DoctorEldritch's Avatar
    Community Manager
    @Saka It was an educating read. I do not play games with other people online except during our Game Nights, and I hope that we manage to keep those harassment-free (please do tell me if there are things we could do better!). But because of my generally limited experience in more broad online gaming, I mostly hear about this issue from articles or posts like that. It would definitely be illuminating to learn from experiences that people I know have.
  • Saka's Avatar
    Level 52
    @DoctorEldritch I believe if women were getting the support they deserve, we would see them more often in the world's best teams/players.

    We already are seeing some, but they are more scarce due to the additional pressure that their male teammates don't experience. Female streamers or competitive gamers also don't get as much viewers or money even if they play on the same level, largely due to negative stereotypes.
    Unamused Snarktooth. Advocate for hearing loss & accessibility. Person, friend and a terrible/terrific* artist.
    *delete as appropriate
  • DoctorEldritch's Avatar
    Community Manager
    @Saka I'd think Esports may be a more complex issue, as with actual sports, there is more involved in the equation of how it operates, such as politics, finance, publicity, and such. Maybe the modules that @Liue mentioned illustrate how Esports work on a deeper level and would help to address those issues when organizing them.

    But it is equally important to think about those issues in everyday recreational gaming, and there everyone to try for positive change.
  • Saka's Avatar
    Level 52
    @DoctorEldritch Yeah, these courses were interested and I briefly considered them. Unfortunately there was not much of a heads-up and the signups closed on 15th and 17th February, when I was busy sorting out things in Poland. Perhaps another time.
    Unamused Snarktooth. Advocate for hearing loss & accessibility. Person, friend and a terrible/terrific* artist.
    *delete as appropriate
  • DoctorEldritch's Avatar
    Community Manager
    @Saka One of the good thing about universities is that they do courses regularly, so there should be a chance later.
  • Saka's Avatar
    Level 52
    @DoctorEldritch It depends, sometimes they have courses regarding topical subjects and those are not necessarily recurrent. My uni had several more exotic ones that unfortunately only were done once.
    Unamused Snarktooth. Advocate for hearing loss & accessibility. Person, friend and a terrible/terrific* artist.
    *delete as appropriate
  • DoctorEldritch's Avatar
    Community Manager
    @Saka True, education is an evolving process. 30 years ago Tourism was not widespread at all, but now many universities teach it, it grew out of Human Geography and Management. But Esports is an emerging topic, so I would hope it will have more modules dedicated to it in the future.

    Out of curiosity and as an educator (once a teacher always a teacher 😅), what were those exotic one-time subjects?