grants
33
finnish cultural foundation
annual report 2013–2014
interview, his brother was coming up from
Copenhagen to stay with him in Turku.
“And I promised we’d spend the
weekend playing.”
team. This database could be likened to
the IMDB.com for films. And naturally
Karhulahti has coined a term for what he
is doing: ludification, a combination of
play and work. A couple of times a year
he nevertheless switches his phone and
email off and lays his articles aside. And
then he immerses himself in a carefully-
chosen video game for the space of a whole
ten days, just like he did as a child.
At other times, too, he occasionally
casts off his scholar’s hat. Just after this
Veli-Matti Karhulahti has received a total of
EUR 32,000 from the Finnish Cultural Foun-
dation for research into video games.
"The video game is in the process of cultural
evolution. Ten years from now we’ll be seeing
something quite different."
One of the sources of inspiration for
Veli-Matti Karhulahti has been
the Grim Fandango game in 1998.
