Digital Game Industry Research Articles

Gra w kapitalizm. PRL, konstruowanie pamięci i gry cyfrowe

Artykuł poświęcony jest sposobom konstruowania w polskiej kulturze gier komputerowych wyobrażeń na temat rodzimej branży growej, a pośrednio – kapitalizmu. Obraz wyłaniający się m.in. z aktualnych publikacji związanych z polskimi grami oraz przesłanie towarzyszące wystawie "Digital Dreamers" zostaje zestawiony z analizą gier, reklam oraz tekstów z prasy branżowej z okresu od połowy lat 80. do połowy lat 90. XX wieku. To zderzenie prowadzi do dekonstrukcji opowieści o korzeniach polskiej branży gier i postawienia pytań o możliwość napisania jej historii w duchu tekstów Mariany Mazzucato czy Manuela Castellsa i Pekki Himanena.

Playing Capitalism. The Polish People’s Republic, Constructing Memory, and Video Games

The article is devoted to practices of constructing narratives about the history of the Polish digital game industry and its connection to the system transition. The author analyzes both contemporary publications devoted to the history of Polish games as well as early examples of digital games and historical sources, such as advertisements and press articles from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. The juxtaposition of contemporary, heroic narratives and originary sources allows the author to deconstruct the story of the Polish gaming industry and propose a new way of writing its history, in the spirit of methods proposed by Mariana Mazzucato, Manuel Castells, or Pekka Himanen.

Playing Capitalism. The Polish People’s Republic, Constructing Memory, and Video Games

The article is devoted to practices of constructing narratives about the history of the Polish digital game industry and its connection to the system transition. The author analyzes both contemporary publications devoted to the history of Polish games as well as early examples of digital games and historical sources, such as advertisements and press articles from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. The juxtaposition of contemporary, heroic narratives and originary sources allows the author to deconstruct the story of the Polish gaming industry and propose a new way of writing its history, in the spirit of methods proposed by Mariana Mazzucato, Manuel Castells, or Pekka Himanen.

“Everyone Can Make Games!”: The post-feminist context of women in digital game production

After over a decade of scholarly research and well-documented harassment, sexism, and other forms of exclusion and marginalization, digital games culture is currently the object of heightened attention and discourse related to diversity and inclusion. This paper considers the context of this shift with a particular focus on the relationship between gender-focused inclusivity-based action in the form of women-in-games incubators, post-feminist discourse, and the neoliberal context of digital games production. As opposed to rife anti-feminism and similar “backlash” sentiments, articulations of post-feminism within the digital game industry provide insights into the tensions inherent in introducing action for change within a conservative culture of production, particularly for women in the industry. At the same time, the contradictions and tensions of the post-feminist ethos allow for actions that function through this logic while subverting it. Through a brief consideration of three exemplary post-feminist articulations by visible female figures in the North American digital games community, this article explores the challenges and opportunities presented by the gaps and contradictions of post-feminism in games culture and production. It concludes with equal measures of caution and optimism, indicating future directions for study and activism.

Surveillant Assemblages of Governance in Massively Multiplayer Online Games: A Comparative Analysis

This paper explores governance in Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs), one sub-sector of the digital games industry. Informed by media governance studies, Surveillance Studies, and game studies, this paper identifies five elements which form part of the system of governance in MMOGs. These elements are: game code and rules; game policies; company community management practices; player participatory practices; and paratexts. Together these governance elements function as a surveillant assemblage, which relies to varying degrees on lateral and hierarchical forms of surveillance, and the assembly of human and non-human elements. Using qualitative mixed methods we examine and compare how these elements operate in three commercial MMOGs: Eve Online, World of Warcraft and Tibia. While peer and participatory surveillance elements are important, we identified two major trends in the governance of disruptive behaviours by the game companies in our case studies. Firstly, an increasing reliance on automated forms of dataveillance to control and punish game players, and secondly, increasing recourse to contract law and diminishing user privacy rights. Game players found it difficult to appeal the changing terms and conditions and they turned to creating paratexts outside of the game in an attempt to negotiate the boundaries of the surveillant assemblage. In the wider context of self-regulated governance systems these trends highlight the relevance of consumer rights, privacy, and data protection legislation to online games and the usefulness of bringing game studies and Surveillance Studies into dialogue.

Using e-portfolios to elevate knowledge amassment among university students

The study aimed to explore the effect of e-portfolios on knowledge amassment. Participants were juniors majoring in multimedia design and taking the course Analysis on Digital Game Industry at a university. They were randomly selected and assigned to an experimental group with 43 students or to a control group with 45 students. Students in the experimental group created their personal e-portfolios by using blogs, whereas students in the control group did not. The experiment lasted nine weeks, and took 3 h per week. The study results showed that the experimental group had significantly higher knowledge amassment after using e-portfolios than before. The experimental group had significantly better knowledge amassment than the control group did. This indicated that the effects of blog-based portfolios on knowledge amassment was significantly positive.

Go for games: Managerial career networks in creative industries

ABSTRACTThe digital games industry has developed from a secondary sector of the media entertainment industry to one of its major driving forces. Despite its economic relevance, it is still a transitional industry with quickly evolving structures. As such, it is also an interesting object for the analysis of the development of media industries. The current study uses a combination of social network analysis and expert interviews to map the emerging network structures within the German games industry. It reconstructs the career pathways of key managers in the industry, including their former and current business relationships. The study's findings indicate that the current breed of managers primarily enter the games business from other economic sectors. For this reason, the industry network is still characterized by weak organizational interconnections. However, the strong connectedness of a younger generation of managers hints at a future strengthening of the underlying business and communication network.

Motion capture and performance

The production of digital animation by means of motion capture from live, real-time performance of actors, athletes or any human being has become more and more popular. On the one hand there are film productions and the digital game industry, which drive technology improvements and is consumed by hundreds of millions of people. On the other hand, there is the user mass, made mostly of potential users, which require more compact and cheaper solutions for their productions. The process of animating characters by means of this technique introduces taxonomy discussions that, after all, are useful for differentiating the two groups. The digital motion capture appeared in the late 1980s. Until the beginning of the twenty-first century, only body movements were captured while facial expressions were manually animated. This is due to the subtlety of facial movements and the consequent need for better accuracy in mapping the dozens of muscle groups and their links. When this facial technique was made possible, it was then named performance capture. Independently of the name given to the technique, the new possibilities of creation, production and improved performance are wide. This article approaches these aspects from the point of view of the evolution of audio-visual production since the appearance of animation, while the process of motion capture is presented with its impact on animation and performance. The expectations about the use of the technique are discussed with the equipment available. The open source code software for motion capture, OpenMoCap, is presented here as an alternative for the current production scenario.

The spatialisation of the digital games industry: lessons from Ireland

This article draws on the concept of spatialisation to better understand the development of a digital games industry on the periphery of mainland Europe, on the island of Ireland. Positioning digital games within the cultural and creative industries, we explore how global networks of production in this industry get territorialised, negotiated and shaped by local factors. Drawing upon an industry-wide survey in Ireland we found that employment has grown by 400% in the last decade but that this rate of employment growth and its concentration in large urban areas masks significant ruptures and shifts which more detailed spatial, occupational and social analysis reveals: in particular, how the state, multinational game companies, and physical and human capital interact to shape an industry which is strong in middleware, localisation and support but weak in content development. An understanding of global digital games production networks and of occupational patterns in this industry is, we believe, crucial for national and European cultural policies for the digital games industry and for the cultural and creative industries more generally.

PATHWAYS TO CREATIVITY

Focusing on the ‘talent pathways’ outlined in the 2008 Department of Culture, Media and Sport Creative Britain report, this article explores how different forms of creative agency are positioned to make a ‘contribution’ to the creative economy. Drawing on Paul du Gay's concept of personhood, case studies on digital gaming explore the formation of two forms of personhood – creative consumers and creative workers. Specifically, these forms of creative agency are analysed in terms of their connections on the ‘talent pathway’, and the transitions that see creativity and talent as inherent in all individuals and in need of channelling and directing. The creative-consumer case study unpacks the digital games industry strategy of enrolling fan-creators within their commercial operations. This case study reveals the increasing importance of co-production for the creative economy, and the extent to which diverse cultural practices are facilitated and positioned. Higher education Games Design courses will then provide the case study for examining how the creative-consumer can be positioned to make a productive contribution to the creative economy as a worker. Within this context, the formation of fans/students into a creative worker or industry-ready worker is evident. Through tracing different forms of creative agency and how they are connected to make a contribution to the creative economy, this article explores the governance of creative agency and economic subjects.

A Man Chooses, A Slave Obeys: BioShock and the Dystopian Logic of Convergence

For all the critical attention paid to dystopian landscapes in recent literature and film, a similar dystopian turn within gamespace has been largely overlooked. The authors contend that post-apocalyptic digital games merit the same critical examination as their literary and cinematic counterparts, arguing that such games can provide a meaningful site in which questions about the future of technology play out against the dialectic of utopian and dystopian alternatives. Specifically, this article argues that the popular console game BioShock simultaneously celebrates and interrogates utopian notions of technological progress and free will embedded within prevailing industrial and academic conceptions of convergence. The authors explore the differing, yet complementary, conceptions of utopia put forth by critical theorists and the games industry in order to examine how BioShock’s ambivalence toward technology—and technologies and practices of media consumption in particular—complicates more idealistic and totalizing forecasts for the future of media convergence. Building upon Alexander Galloway’s treatment of gamic action as an ‘‘allegorithm’’ that permits procedural exploration and mastery of dominant control protocols in the information age, the authors analyze the way in which BioShock operationalizes the ‘‘control’’ logic of convergence. By performing a close reading of the game’s ideological content as well as its procedural strategies of transmediation, they link BioShock’s ambivalence to the multifaceted, often conflicting nature of convergence discourse and practice within the digital games industry.

Betting the farm on games

This article discusses about FarmVille, the Facebook game which has led a social-game ascendance that will sway the Facebook-Google struggle and threaten the digital gaming industry. Such are the bucolic pleasures of FarmVille, that led the way in a games revolution that transformed how hundreds of millions of people are entertained online.

Player, Student, Designer: Games Design Students and Changing Relationships With Games

Drawing on empirical research conducted with U.K. games design students, games design course tutors, and professional designers alongside broader careers advice and guidance from industry representatives, this article will explore the changing relationships games design students describe with digital games and games technologies. Opening with accounts of their childhood pastimes and passions, the discussion will move to consider closely students’ development within a higher education context and the associated, emerging shifts in their engagements with games technologies. Through exploring the transition from hobby to career and the overlapping player/student/designer positions, questions concerning human and technological interactions, identity, and wider career and skills contexts are highlighted. In drawing out such questions and issues, this article will seek to outline how exploring the practices and understandings of students prompts reflection on both located and specific and more broadly applicable engagements between digital games technologies, industry, and individuals.

Cheerleaders/booth babes/ Halo hoes: pro-gaming, gender and jobs for the boys

In recent years, a ‘professional’ digital gaming industry has emerged in North America: this interconnected series of organisations and leagues host competitive gaming tournaments (often televised) in which young, mostly male participants compete for increasingly lucrative prize money and sponsorship contracts. Taking up Jo Bryce and Jason Rutter's (2005) challenge to confront the ways girl gamers are rendered ‘invisible’ by gamers, researchers and designers, this paper maps the various ways women participate in a set of practices around the organisation, promotion and performance of competitive gaming, framed as the exclusive domain of (young, straight, middle class) male bodies. Mothers flying their sons' teams to events all over North America, female players participating in tournaments or promotional models operating sponsorship booths, the women who participate in competitive gaming tournaments negotiate different expectations and carry out different kinds of embodied work. Each of these ‘roles’, however, is tenuously maintained within a community that most commonly reads female participation in sexualised terms: mothers at events describe themselves as ‘cheerleaders’, female players risk being labelled as ‘halo hoes’ and promotional models become ‘booth babes’.

Digital Games in eLearning Environments

The notion of using games in education is as old as games themselves. In addition, the massive market opened by the digital games industry has caused great interest regarding their specific potential in education. However, this interest is sometimes thwarted by the resistance of traditional educational settings toward technology-enhanced learning and digital games. The future, on the contrary, is much more promising within the eLearning field. This field is in a process of evolution and reinvention, seeking new features and ideas to improve the learning experience. We believe that educational games are a perfect medium for these new directions in eLearning. In this article, the synergies between the new eLearning environments and educational games are explored and reviewed.

Enthusiasm, the Creative Industry and the 'Creative Tropical City: Mapping Darwin’s Creative Industries' Project

Enthusiasm, the Creative Industry and the 'Creative Tropical City: Mapping Darwin’s Creative Industries' Project

Crisis' as Tool in the Digital Games Industry: Resistance or Command and Conquer?

From media-driven moral panics to colossal business failures, digital games have historically been rife with crisis, defining the games industry and its practices to a significant degree. More recently, media discourse regarding the very aggressive global economic crisis is host to an ideological game where the form and context of crisis is shaped into a number of disparate and sometimes contradictory conclusions about the current state of digital game development. I will provide an overview pinpointing some of the recent claims made about the digital games industry and relate this discursive context to the ongoing challenges of the peoplewho work within it. Additionally, in an effort to address the title and theme of the Intersections2009 Conference, I wish to highlight the ways in which crisis can be “disruptive”, but also manipulable and productive in ways that reveal both hegemonic industry mandates and opportunities for bottom-up mobilization.

A Techno-Semiotic Approach to Cheating in Computer Games

This article is an attempt to understand cheating in digital games as a practice that highlights the machinicity of the process of digital gameplay. The significance of this endeavor lies in the fact that digital gameplay is often naturalized—by the digital games industry, by players, and by scholars in the burgeoning field of digital game studies—which leads to an obfuscation of the inherently cybernetic character of videogames. Cheating and other ``de-ludic'' practices can counteract this naturalization and reveal the process of ``becoming-machine'' that lies at the heart of digital gameplay.

Digital Gaming Upgrade and Recovery: Enrolling Memories and Technologies as a Strategy for the Future.

Digital Gaming Upgrade and Recovery: Enrolling Memories and Technologies as a Strategy for the Future.

Of Mods and Modders

This article is concerned with the role that fan-programmers (generally known as “modders”) play in the success of the PC digital game industry. The fan culture for digital games is deeply embedded in shared practices and experiences among fan communities, and their active consumption contributes economically and culturally to broader society. Using a survey of the most commercially successful PC games in the first-person shooter category from 2002 until 2004, this article answers a series of questions concerning fan-programmer produced content: (a) What is the value of the fan produced game add-ons in terms of labor costs? (b) What motivates fans to make add-ons for their favorite games? and (c) How does the fan-programmer phenomenon in PC gaming fit into broader trends in the high-tech economy?