Game Developers Playing Games : Instrumental Play, Game Talk, and Preserving the Joy of Play

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olli Sotamaa
Keyword(s):  
Global Game ◽  
Critical Studies ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Game Industry ◽  
Play Game ◽  
Game Developers ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Conditions Of Work ◽  
Over Time

Critical studies of the global game industry have shown how employment in game companies is often advertised as a chance to get paid for playing games. The same love of games that often brings people to the game industry also places them at a disadvantage when negotiating the terms and conditions of work. Drawing from fourteen in-depth interviews conducted with game industry representatives, the chapter traces the different roles and functions playing games has for game developers and how working in a game studio changes their playing habits over time. Developers appear aware of the trade-offs associated with playing games as part of their work and apply various strategies to preserve the joy and relevance of play.

scholarly journals How Do Small and Medium-Sized Game Companies Use Analytics? An Attention-Based View of Game Analytics

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 1163-1178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matti Mäntymäki ◽  
Sami Hyrynsalmi ◽  
Antti Koskenvoima
Keyword(s):  
Sense Making ◽  
Communication Tool ◽  
Organizational Attention ◽  
Game Industry ◽  
Hygiene Factor ◽  
Cost Efficient ◽  
Game Developers ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Game Analytics ◽  
Analyze Data

Abstract The widespread adoption of the freemium business model together with the introduction of cost-efficient analytics tools have made the use of analytics pervasive in the game industry. While big data and analytics have drawn extensive scholarly attention, the research focusing particularly on game analytics is scant and largely descriptive. Thus, there is a need for research focusing on how game companies employ analytics. In this study, we analyze data collected through a set of in-depth interviews of small and medium-sized freemium game developers. We identify four main roles of game analytics: 1) sense-making device, 2) decision-support system, 3) communication tool, and 4) hygiene factor. We employ the attention-based view of the firm to discuss how these roles diverge and converge in terms of organizational attention. The study advances the research on the roles and business value of analytics in the game and software industry.

White Masculinity, Creative Desires, and Production Ideology in Video Game Development

2020 ◽  
pp. 155541202093987 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ergin Bulut
Keyword(s):  
Video Game ◽  
Philosophy Of Technology ◽  
Game Studies ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Game Development ◽  
White Masculinity ◽  
Global Game ◽  
Video Game Development ◽  
Game Industry ◽  
Game Developers

Game workers have a problem. They code values and ideologies into games, but they are either not aware of it or deny it. Through a constructive and critical engagement with Games of Empire, I propose the concept of “ludic religiosity” to reveal how white masculinity informs game workers’ professional discourses, technological practices, ludic desires, and imaginations. Drawing on three-year-long ethnographic research and in conversation with cultural studies, philosophy of technology, and postcolonial game studies, I revisit desiring machine and ideology, two major concepts from Games of Empire. My goal is to demonstrate the racialized and gendered discourses and practices behind game developers’ desire to produce cognitive capitalism’s “escapist” commodities and rethink ideology within white masculine production cultures. Foregrounding how racialized and gendered practices and imaginations inform the desire behind the global game industry is crucial, especially in the aftermath of Gamergate and the rise of authoritarianism.

Pioneras

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 163-197
Author(s):  
Phillip Penix-Tadsen
Keyword(s):  
Production Condition ◽  
Female Leadership ◽  
South American ◽  
Game Development ◽  
Global Game ◽  
Three Generations ◽  
Game Industry ◽  
Material Conditions ◽  
Game Developers

This oral and written history examines three generations of pioneering women game developers from Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile—the South American region known as the Southern Cone. Each of the individuals interviewed—Marcela Nievas, Sofía Battegazzore, Maureen Berho, and Martina Santoro—offers insight on female leadership over three generations of precipitous growth in regional game development. Together, their personal and professional trajectories demonstrate how the embodied and material conditions of game production condition diverse histories of game development, challenging universalizing myths of a global game industry in which “anybody can make games.” At the same time, these four developers' histories working outside the conventional centers of the global game industry reflect the transformative role of women developers and game designers across the Global South in shaping three generations of global game culture.

Decision Processes and Value Endogeneity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
James G. March
Keyword(s):  
Decision Processes ◽  
Hard Problem ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Over Time ◽  
What Matters

Humans use reasons to shape and justify choices. In the process, trade-offs seem essential and often inevitable. But trade-offs involve comparisons, which are problematic both across values and especially over time. Reducing disparate values to a common metric (especially if that metric is money) is often problematic and unsatisfactory. Critically, it is not that values just shape choices, but that choices themselves shape values. This endogeneity of values makes an unconditional normative endorsement of modern decision-theoretic rationality unwise. This is a hard problem and there is no escaping the definition of good values, that is, those that make humans better. This removes the wall between economics and philosophy. If we are to adopt and enact this perspective, then greater discourse and debate on what matters and not just what counts will be useful and even indispensable.

scholarly journals Evolving user needs and late-mover advantage

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrien Querbes ◽  
Koen Frenken
Keyword(s):  
User Needs ◽  
Nk Model ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Managerial Implications ◽  
First Mover ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Late Movers

We propose a generalized NK-model of late-mover advantage where late-mover firms leapfrog first-mover firms as user needs evolve over time. First movers face severe trade-offs between the provision of functionalities in which their products already excel and the additional functionalities requested by users later on. Late movers, by contrast, start searching when more functionalities are already known and typically come up with superior product designs. We also show that late-mover advantage is more probable for more complex technologies. Managerial implications follow.

scholarly journals A Mobile App for Longterm Monitoring of Narcolepsy Symptoms: Design, Development, and Evaluation

10.2196/14939 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. e14939
Author(s):  
Laury Quaedackers ◽  
Jan De Wit ◽  
Sigrid Pillen ◽  
Merel Van Gilst ◽  
Nikolaos Batalas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Interaction Design ◽  
Daytime Sleepiness ◽  
Patient Reported Outcome ◽  
Mobile App ◽  
Design Development ◽  
Subjective Burden ◽  
Design Data ◽  
Patient Reported ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Over Time

Background Narcolepsy is a chronic sleep disorder with a broad variety of symptoms. Although narcolepsy is primarily characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness and cataplexy (loss of muscle control triggered by emotions), patients may suffer from hypnagogic hallucinations, sleep paralysis, and fragmented night sleep. However, the spectrum of narcolepsy also includes symptoms not related to sleep, such as cognitive or psychiatric problems. Symptoms vary greatly among patients and day-to-day variance can be considerable. Available narcolepsy questionnaires do not cover the whole symptom spectrum and may not capture symptom variability. Therefore, there is a clinical need for tools to monitor narcolepsy symptoms over time to evaluate their burden and the effect of treatment. Objective This study aimed to describe the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of the Narcolepsy Monitor, a companion app for long-term symptom monitoring in narcolepsy patients. Methods After several iterations during which content, interaction design, data management, and security were critically evaluated, a complete version of the app was built. The Narcolepsy Monitor allows patients to report a broad spectrum of experienced symptoms and rate their severity based on the level of burden that each symptom imposes. The app emphasizes the reporting of changes in relative severity of the symptoms. A total of 7 patients with narcolepsy were recruited and asked to use the app for 30 days. Evaluation was done by using in-depth interviews and user experience questionnaire. Results We designed and developed a final version of the Narcolepsy Monitor after which user evaluation took place. Patients used the app on an average of 45.3 (SD 19.2) days. The app was opened on 35% of those days. Daytime sleepiness was the most dynamic symptom, with a mean number of changes of 5.5 (SD 3.7) per month, in contrast to feelings of anxiety or panic, which was only moved 0.3 (SD 0.7) times per month. Mean symptom scores were highest for daytime sleepiness (1.8 [SD 1.0]), followed by lack of energy (1.6 [SD 1.4]) and often awake at night (1.5 [SD 1.0]). The personal in-depth interviews revealed 3 major themes: (1) reasons to use, (2) usability, and (3) features. Overall, patients appreciated the concept of ranking symptoms on subjective burden and found the app easy to use. Conclusions The Narcolepsy Monitor appears to be a helpful tool to gain more insight into the individual burden of narcolepsy symptoms over time and may serve as a patient-reported outcome measure for this debilitating disorder.

scholarly journals The Musings of ‘Evil Bastards’: Perspectives from Social Casino Game Professionals

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-20
Author(s):  
Jennifer Reynolds
Keyword(s):  
Social Networking Sites ◽  
Mobile Apps ◽  
Social Casino Games ◽  
The Social ◽  
Game Designer ◽  
Game Developers ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Player Behaviour ◽  
Casino Game

Technology has blurred the lines between gambling and gaming. While the convergence can be witnessed on many different levels, social casino games on social networking sites and mobile apps illustrate just one example. Much of what we currently know about social casino games focuses on player behaviour, with little understanding about this genre from the perspective of social game professionals. This paper aims to fill the gap in our understanding of social casino games through interviews with the professionals who design them. In-depth interviews were conducted with 14 professionals from the social casino games industry. Interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings illustrate tensions that exist between the two fields of gambling and gaming; however, both are trying to separate themselves from the stigmatized ‘dirty secret’ that is gambling. Further, as a result of social casino games residing, for the most part, in an unregulated ‘grey area,’ findings illustrate the ethical struggle felt by social casino game professionals. This convergence has significant consequences, not only for players, but for game developers, designers, and researchers, and highlights the importance of game designer education.

Current issues and controversies in assessing the environmental impacts of livestock production.

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (044) ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith L. Capper
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Resource Use ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Livestock Production ◽  
Environmental Indicators ◽  
Environment Impact ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Specific Practice ◽  
Over Time

Abstract The environment impact of livestock production is one of the most significant issues within agriculture. Global concerns over climate change, resource use, pollution and other environment indicators means that producers must implement practices and systems to reduce environmental impacts, yet this may only be achieved through assessments that allow impacts to be quantified, benchmarked and improved over time. Although environmental indicators are widely accepted, the metrics by which these are assessed continue to evolve over time as assessment objectives gain clarity and focus, and as the science relating to controversial topics (e.g. global warming or carbon sequestration) becomes more refined. however, significant negative trade-offs may occur between different metrics and denominators such that a specific practice or system may appear to have greater or lesser impacts, depending on assessment methodology. A number of tools and models have been developed to empower producers in quantifying environmental impacts, which will be increasingly important is satisfying future consumers' hunger for information as well as food. These tools must be supplied in tandem with information as to the potential consequences of changing management practices and systems. At present however, tools available are based on differing methodologies, are often opaque in their background calculations and do not necessarily account for all the factors that influence environmental impacts from livestock. There is a clear need for robust tools that can be used as standards for assessing environmental impacts from the global livestock industry and that go beyond GHG emissions to produce a more rounded holistic assessment.

Time paradoxes of neoliberalism: How time management applications change the way we live

2021 ◽  
pp. 0961463X2110597
Author(s):  
Celina Strzelecka
Keyword(s):  
Time Management ◽  
Linear Time ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
Social Practices ◽  
Critical Studies ◽  
Personal Time ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
The Way

Time management applications aim to coordinate and tame the rhythms of social reality. It transpires, however, that in many cases, they somewhat complicate and impede this process, leading to time paradoxes. Using various theoretical tools developed in the critical studies of time and the critique of neoliberalism, I identify three time paradoxes produced by the applications: remembering to remember, planning to plan, and accelerating acceleration. These three paradoxes were brought up and thoroughly discussed in in-depth interviews with self-selected individuals who constantly face challenges related to personal time management. I highlight how managing time using various applications shapes the experience and meaning of time, makes individuals reorganize their social practices, redefines their memory, and influences their emotions. In conclusion, I reflect on how the tension between linear time and multi-temporality is intertwined with the discussed paradoxes and counter-productivity of time management applications.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document