The Recruitment of Passion and Community in the Service of Capital: Community Managers in the Digital Games Industry

Abstract

Globalization and technical change have had a significant impact on work in the cultural industries. Online games are services that are networked, operate around the clock and require ongoing player and company input. The industry's content production networks are dispersed internationally, and many of its services are offered transnationally. These new services have generated new forms of work, like community management, which are often outsourced to near-to-market locations. Much of the research on media work is focused on high status creative occupations or the free labour of amateurs. This paper draws upon the findings of a content analysis of job advertisements and face-to-face interviews with community managers to examine the recruitment and work of community managers. Using scholarship on media production, media work and emotional labour this article argues that recruitment and organizational practices surrounding community managers appropriate passion, community, and experience in the service of capital, but also marginalize these workers. While community managers see themselves as creative workers, their visibility and creative autonomy are limited by organizational and workplace cultures.