The ambiguities of money-making

Purpose Indie developers are part of the creative fringe of the video game industry, fashioning an identity for themselves as a community committed to the development of video games as a cultural expression and art form. In playing this role, money-making is ambiguous inasmuch as economic return is honorable if such interests remain unarticulated and execute minimal influence on the development work process, while the possibility of producing a successful commercial video game is simultaneously one of the primary motivations for new industry entrants. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach The paper reports on the empirical material drawn from a study of indie video game developers in Sweden, a leading country for video game development. Findings To reconcile tensions between video game development in terms of being both cultural/and artistic production and business activity, easily compromising the perceived authenticity of the subject in the eyes of audiences (e.g. hardcore gamers), indie developers distinguish between monetary motives ex ante and compensation ex post the release of the game. Indie developers thus emphasize the metonymic function of money as this not only indicates economic value and currency but also denotes a number of business practices that indie developers have otherwise avoided in their career planning as they believe these practices would restrain their creativity and skills. Originality/value The study contributes to the scholarship on video game development, the literature on creative industries, and the economic sociology literature examining the social meaning of money and how social norms and values are manifested in professional ideologies and practices.

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Why supporters contribute to reward-based crowdfunding

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research ◽

10.1108/ijebr-04-2016-0117 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 23 (2) ◽

pp. 336-353 ◽

Cited By ~ 27

Author(s):

Norbert Steigenberger

Keyword(s):

Empirical Evidence ◽

Video Game ◽

Design Methodology ◽

The Other ◽

Game Development ◽

Content Type ◽

Video Game Development ◽

Entrepreneurial Activities

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence on the motivation of supporters to contribute resources to reward-based crowdfunding campaigns. Design/methodology/approach The paper reports results from a survey combining open and closed questions, addressing supporters of reward-based crowdfunding campaigns in the field of video game development. Publicly available data from a large crowdfunding website complements the approach. Findings Two groups of supporters emerge from the data: one group derives motivation almost exclusively from a purchasing motive, the other group displays the purchasing motive alongside an altruistic and involvement motive. There is little indication that social acknowledgement plays a role for supporter motivation. Supporters rely on the evaluation of previous activities of an entrepreneur to judge trustworthiness. Originality/value The manuscript offers empirical insights into the previously scarcely researched question why supporters contribute to reward-based crowdfunding. These insights inform research on reward-based crowdfunding and help entrepreneurs considering reward-based crowdfunding as a way to fund entrepreneurial activities.

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Games-as-a-service: Conflicted identities on the new front-line of video game development

New Media & Society ◽

10.1177/1461444821995815 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 146144482199581

Author(s):

Louis-Etienne Dubois ◽

Johanna Weststar

Keyword(s):

Video Game ◽

Creative Industries ◽

Game Development ◽

Service Workers ◽

Production And Consumption ◽

Video Game Development ◽

Mind Set ◽

Game Developers ◽

The Impact ◽

Occupational Communities

As creative industries begin to experiment with service and subscriptions models, prior research suggests that such changes in production and consumption carry important implications for workers. Using the theoretical lens of occupational communities, this empirical study investigates the impact of servitization—that is, the transition from a product to a service-dominant logic—on the identity of video game developers. It theorizes that service workers’ skills and mind-set, relationships with peers and players, internal and external reputation, as well as development principles and values all experience disruptions, leading to the emergence of a distinct identity.

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The perils of project-based work: Attempting resistance to extreme work practices in video game development

Organization ◽

10.1177/1350508415572509 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 22 (4) ◽

pp. 570-587 ◽

Cited By ~ 31

Author(s):

Amanda Peticca-Harris ◽

Johanna Weststar ◽

Steve McKenna

Keyword(s):

Working Conditions ◽

Video Game ◽

Work Conditions ◽

Control Mechanisms ◽

Work Practices ◽

Game Development ◽

Video Game Development ◽

Dominant Ideologies ◽

Reader Comments ◽

Game Developers

This article examines two blogs written by the spouses of game developers about extreme and exploitative working conditions in the video game industry and the associated reader comments. The wives of these video game developers and members of the game community decry these working conditions and challenge dominant ideologies about making games. This article contributes to the work intensification literature by challenging the belief that long hours are necessary and inevitable to make successful games, discussing the negative toll of extreme work on workers and their families, and by highlighting that the project-based structure of game development both creates extreme work conditions and inhibits resistance. It considers how extreme work practices are legitimized through neo-normative control mechanisms made possible through project-based work structures and the perceived imperative of a race or ‘crunch’ to meet project deadlines. The findings show that neo-normative control mechanisms create an insularity within project teams and can make it difficult for workers to resist their own extreme working conditions, and at times to even understand them as extreme.

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“All bets are off”: Flexible engagement with music-listening technologies by autistic adults

Psychology of Music ◽

10.1177/0305735620971037 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 030573562097103

Author(s):

Michael Matsuno ◽

Deon Auzenne ◽

Leanne Chukoskie

Keyword(s):

Video Game ◽

New Music ◽

Music Listening ◽

Typically Developing ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

Personal Taste ◽

Convenience Sample ◽

Game Development ◽

Video Game Development ◽

Autistic Adults

This qualitative study used semi-structured interviews to explore daily experiences with music among a convenience sample of 12 autistic adults interning at a video game development lab. Our analysis indicates that music technologies enabled autistic individuals to explore new music and to engage reflexively with personal taste and self-curation. We also show that participants used music to accompany a range of cognitive and emotional tasks. These findings are consistent with broader sociological literature on music-listening habits of typically developing adults and indicate that autistic adults use music to meet their personal needs. Our cohort also described expressly creative and proactive engagement with music, suggesting that habits with music may differ among unique sub-populations of autistic individuals.

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