Introduction: Why Game Production Matters?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olli Sotamaa ◽  
Jan Švelch
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
Game Studies ◽  
Game Development ◽  
The Public ◽  
Production Studies ◽  
Rigorous Research ◽  
Video Game Development ◽  
Game Industry

In the introduction, the editors of this collection argue for the importance of game production studies at a point when the public awareness about the production context of video games has, arguably, never been higher. With so many accounts of video game development permeating player and developer communities, the task of game production studies is to uncover the economic, cultural, and political structures that influence the final form of games by applying rigorous research methods. While the field of game studies has developed quickly in the past two decades, the study of the video game industry and different modes of video game production have been mostly dismissed by game studies scholars and requires more attention.

EXPLORATION VS. EXPLOITATION AND HOW VIDEO GAME DEVELOPERS ARE ABLE TO COMBINE THE TWO

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (06) ◽  
pp. 1650045
Author(s):  
BJÖRN REMNELAND WIKHAMN ◽  
ALEXANDER STYHRE ◽  
JAN LJUNGBERG ◽  
ANNA MARIA SZCZEPANSKA
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Creative Work ◽  
Game Development ◽  
Video Game Industry ◽  
Video Game Development ◽  
Game Industry ◽  
Game Developers ◽  
Suitable Case

This paper reports an in-depth qualitative study about innovation work in the Swedish video game industry. More specifically, it focuses on how video game developers are building ambidextrous capabilities to simultaneously addressing explorative and exploitative activities. The Swedish video game industry is a particularly suitable case to analyze ambidexterity, due to it’s extreme market success and continuous ability to adapt to shifts in technologies and demands. Based on the empirical data, three ambidextrous capabilities are pointed out as particularly valuable for video game developers; (1) the ability to separate between a creative work climate and the effectiveness in project organizing; (2) the balancing of inward and outward ideation influences, and (3) the diversity in operational means and knowledge paired with shared goals and motivations, derived from the love of video games and video game development.

scholarly journals Towards a “Filipino” Video Game: Teaching Filipino Culture and Identity for Video Game Development

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoffer Mitch C. Cerda
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Game Development ◽  
Video Game Development ◽  
Game Industry ◽  
Filipino Culture ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Game Developers

This paper uses the author’s experiences of teaching the Filipino module of a multidisciplinary video game development class as a case study in teaching Filipino culture and identity as an element of video game development. A preliminary definition of “Filipino video game” as having Filipino narratives and subject matter, made by Filipino video game developers, and catering to a Filipino audience, is proposed. The realities and limitations of video game development and the video game market in the Philippines is also discussed to show how the dominance of Western video game industry, in terms of the dominance of outsource work for Filipino video game developers and the dominance of non-Filipino video games played by Filipino players, has hindered the development of original Filipino video games. Using four Filipino video games as primary texts discussed in class, students were exposed to Filipinomade video games, and shown how these games use Filipino history, culture, and politics as source material for their narrative and design. Issues of how video games can be used to selfexoticization, and the use of propaganda is discussed, and also how video games can be used to confront and reimagine Filipinoness. The paper ends with a discussion of a student-made game titled Alibatas, a game that aims to teach baybayin, a neglected native writing system in the Philippines as a demonstration of how students can make a Filipino video game. The paper then shows the importance of student-made games, and the role that the academe plays in the critical understanding of Filipino video games, and in defining Filipino culture and identity.

The Nintendo Entertainment System and the 10NES Chip: Carving the Video Game Industry in Silicon

2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Casey O'Donnell
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Historical Data ◽  
Securities And Exchange Commission ◽  
Court Cases ◽  
Local Effects ◽  
Game Development ◽  
Video Game Industry ◽  
Video Game Development ◽  
Game Industry

This essay makes the argument that the numerous ‘‘networks’’ or ‘‘inter/intranetworks’’ that structure the video game industry have lived local effects for those involved in the production of video games. In particular, this is most visible in the realm of console video game development but is visible in many other contexts as well. It uses the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) as an index into this complex and highly structured world that frequently disappears from developers perception. The essay uses largely historical data drawn from patent filings, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, and court cases to analyze these networks. The essay argues that these inter/intranetworks, as constructed, have been instrumental in the way that the game industry now finds itself structured and that as the industry has ‘‘matured,’’ the networks have become less accessible and less interoperable.

scholarly journals Game Production Studies

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Game Development ◽  
Production Studies ◽  
International Group ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Video Game Development ◽  
Cultural Intermediaries ◽  
Everyday Realities

Video games have entered the cultural mainstream and in terms of economic profits they now rival established entertainment industries such as film or television. As careers in video game development become more common, so do the stories about precarious working conditions and structural inequalities within the industry. Yet, scholars have largely overlooked video game production cultures in favor of studying games themselves and player audiences. In Game Production Studies, an international group of established and emerging researchers takes a closer look at the everyday realities of video game production, ranging from commercial industries to independent creators and cultural intermediaries. Across sixteen chapters, the authors deal with issues related to labour, game development, monetization and publishing, as well as local specificities. As the first edited collection dedicated solely to video game production, this volume provides a timely resource for anyone interested in how games are made and at what costs.

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.

scholarly journals Video game consumer profiles

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 51-66
Author(s):  
Ivan Tolić ◽  
Vanja Šimunec ◽  
Dijana Vuković
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Normal Activity ◽  
Game Development ◽  
Development Path ◽  
Technology Sector ◽  
Video Game Development ◽  
Human Need ◽  
Game Industry ◽  
Reducing Stress

The video game development path is full of drastic changes. The growth and strengthening of technology and the growth of innovation in the technology sector have inevitably led to the growth of this industry, which is nowadays achieving unexpected, enviable results. The basic human need for entertainment and socializing contributes to the popularity of video games. Today, video games are played by people of all ages and genders, and the most common reasons for playing video games are fun, socializing, learning, and reducing stress, but video games also provide interactive entertainment, unlike books, movies or theatre performances. The popularity of video games is witnessed by numerous communities on social networks through which professional gamers share their experiences, tips and video game reviews, and there are statistics that support this popularity and growth. The features offered by the video game industry do not need to be particularly emphasized because the results, statistics and enthusiastic players speak for themselves. This paper deals with the demographics and behaviour of consumers playing video games. The aim is to identify the main features of the user, video game players, and to identify and determine user habits and trends affecting the users. The consumer is a social and cultural being. At the same time, he is an individual for himself, a member of a family, a member of a group or a certain class or class in society, a representative of a particular nation, race, religion, nationality of a particular country, etc. The consumer is a person who has the money (assets) and a will to buy the goods or a service. In this paper, the above consumer definitions will be brought in correlation with the video game market, with an industry that encompasses various forms of modern entertainment. It is shown that technology and new modes of entertainment are present among all, and that we need to adjust the time we live in. Playing some kind of video games has become a normal activity of any normal, modern individual.

scholarly journals The everyday lives of video game developers: Experimentally understanding underlying systems/structures

2009 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Casey O'Donnell
Keyword(s):  
Video Game ◽  
Daily Activity ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
The United States ◽  
Collaborative Practice ◽  
Game Studies ◽  
Game Development ◽  
Critical Thought ◽  
Video Game Development ◽  
Game Developers

This essay examines how tensions between work and play for video game developers shape the worlds they create. The worlds of game developers, whose daily activity is linked to larger systems of experimentation and technoscientific practice, provide insights that transcend video game development work. The essay draws on ethnographic material from over 3 years of fieldwork with video game developers in the United States and India. It develops the notion of creative collaborative practice based on work in the fields of science and technology studies, game studies, and media studies. The importance of, the desire for, or the drive to understand underlying systems and structures has become fundamental to creative collaborative practice. I argue that the daily activity of game development embodies skills fundamental to creative collaborative practice and that these capabilities represent fundamental aspects of critical thought. Simultaneously, numerous interests have begun to intervene in ways that endanger these foundations of creative collaborative practice.

Making players care: The ambivalent cultural politics of care and video games

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 655-672
Author(s):  
Bonnie Ruberg ◽  
Rainforest Scully-Blaker
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Video Games ◽  
Cultural Politics ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Cultural Rhetorics ◽  
Game Development ◽  
The Walking Dead ◽  
Tend And Befriend ◽  
Video Game Development ◽  
The Relationship

The relationship between care and video games is fraught. While the medium has the potential to allow players to meaningfully express and receive care, the cultural rhetorics that connect video games to care are often problematic. Even among game designers and scholars committed to social justice, some view care with hope and others with concern. Here, we identify and unpack these tensions, which we refer to as the ambivalent cultural politics of care, and illustrate them through three case studies. First, we discuss “tend-and-befriend games,” coined by Brie Code, which we read through feminist theorists Sarah Sharma and Sara Ahmed. Second, we address “empathy games” and the worrisome implication that games by marginalized people must make privileged players care. Lastly, we turn to issues of care in video game development. We discuss Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead series (2012–18) and strikingly care-less fan responses to recent employee layoffs.

Gender Composition of Teams and Studios in Video Game Development

2019 ◽  
pp. 155541201986838
Author(s):  
Eric N. Bailey ◽  
Kazunori Miyata ◽  
Tetsuhiko Yoshida
Keyword(s):  
Gender Gap ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Gender Disparity ◽  
Gender Composition ◽  
Movie Industry ◽  
Game Development ◽  
Development Face ◽  
Pay Disparity ◽  
Video Game Development ◽  
Game Industry

Women in video game development face issues such as the pay disparity reported at Rockstar North and the “bro culture” issues reported within Riot Games. Some development roles are rewarded more, whether by pay or creative voice, than others. Although there has been research into gender disparity by roles within other entertainment industries, such as the movie industry, there has yet to be a data-based examination of gender disparity broken down by role within the video game industry. To provide a more nuanced examination of the gender gap that exists in game development, we analyze the gender and roles for 14,265 staff listed in the credits of 27 games produced by seven of the video game publishers most represented in top seller lists to discover how the distribution of women and men varies by role.

Virtual Worlds, Digital Dreams

2018 ◽  
pp. 59-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vít Šisler
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Video Game Industry ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Video Game Development ◽  
Game Industry ◽  
Private Entrepreneurs ◽  
And Migration

Video games are inherently transnational by virtue of their industrial, textual and player practices. Until recently, the focus of research on the social and cultural aspects of video games has been on the traditional centers of the video game industry consumption, while the international flows of digital gaming remained largely underexplored. This chapter analyzes the cultural dynamics and technological processes influencing both video game development and the gaming culture in the Middle East. It conceptualizes Middle Eastern video games as imaginary spaces that entangle diverse and contradictory processes: global cultural flows, media policies of nation states, visions and engagements of private entrepreneurs, and migration and appropriation of Western game genres and rule systems. By mapping out dominant trends, the chapter offers the opportunity to think about processes and flows influencing the video game industry in the Middle East during the first fifteen years of its existence

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