Suchergebnisse

Viimeisen vuosikymmenen aikana akateeminen pelitutkimus on keskittynyt kasvavassa määrin pelituotannon eri osa-alueisiin, kuten teollisuuden rakenteisiin, tuotantomalleihin ja työolosuhteisiin. Tämä väitöskirja tutkii kriittisen tutkimuksen lähtökohdista tuoretta riippumattoman pelituotannon aluetta, pelien joukkorahoittamista. Pyytämällä tuotantorahoitusta suoraan tukija-faneilta, pelintekijät ovat kyenneet ohittamaan perinteisen peliteollisuuden veräjänvartijat, pelijulkaisijat. Joukkorahoituksen käyttäminen vaikuttaa kuitenkin monilla tavoilla pelintekijöiden päivittäiseen työhön, tuotantoverkostoihin ja pelien myyntiin ja vastaanottoon. Yhdistellen pelitutkimusta, poliittista taloustiedettä, kulttuurintutkimusta ja monimenetelmällistä metodologiaa tämä väitöskirja käsitteellistää pelien joukkorahoituksen 'tuotantologiikaksi', joka vaikuttaa pelituotannon jokaiseen osaalueeseen. Sivuuttaessaan perinteiset pelijulkaisijat pelintekijöiden täytyy omaksua monia uusia taitoja ja tehdä paljon ylimääräistä työtä. Tukija-faneilla on projekteissa monia muitakin rooleja rahoittamisen lisäksi, ja tuotantoprosessiin osallistutaan monesta muustakin syystä kuin vain rahoitettavan pelin saaminen. Samalla kun pelien joukkorahoituksesta on tullut standardisoidumpaa ja ammattimaisempaa, monet tukija-fanit ovat alkaneet suhtautua siihen ennakkotilaamisen muotona, joka aiheuttaa ristiriitoja joukkorahoittamiseen liitetyn altruistisen eetoksen kanssa. Väitöskirjan diskussio-osiossa pelien joukkorahoittaminen kontekstualisoidaan osaksi 'kulttuurisen tuotannon platformisaatiota', jossa pelinkehityksen ja talouden osatekijät kytkeytyvät keskuksena toimivaan alustaan ja sen sidosryhmäverkkoon. Pelien joukkorahoitus paljastuu tutkimuksessa ristiriitaiseksi alueeksi, jossa yhdistyvät epävarmat työolot, lupaukset emansipatorisesta tuotantomallista, kaupallistumisprosessi ja uudenlaiset käyttäjien osallistumismahdollisuudet. ; The recent decade has seen an increasing number of 'game production studies', with critical examinations on industry structures, production models and labour issues. This study critically examines an emerging area of independent production of digital games, games crowdfunding. Asking funding directly from 'backer' audiences, game developers have been able to sidestep the publishers of the traditional game industry. However, crowdfunding has had a myriad of repercussions for everyday game work, production networks, and how games are received and sold, amongst other things. Through a mixed-methods approach combining elements from game studies, critical political economy and cultural studies, this dissertation conceptualises games crowdfunding as a production logic that affects every area of game production. In getting rid of the traditional publisher, developers need to acquire a lot of new competencies and shoulder a lot of work previously handled by the publishers. Backers are found to possess several other roles beyond just funding and hold a wide variety of participation motivations beyond just acquiring the crowdfunded game. As projects have become more professional, many backers treat crowdfunding as a form of pre-ordering. In the discussion, games crowdfunding is contextualised as a form 'platformisation of cultural production', with game development and economics revolving around a central platform and intermediaries connected to it. The production model is revealed as a site of tension between alternative production opportunities, precarious game work, commercialisation and emerging user opportunities. Further studies are needed to understand the full gamut of games crowdfunding, including small campaigns.

The introduction of online connectivity and a hard drive has changed how console games can be marketed and sold, as it is now possible to patch, update, and publish more content after the game is released. Downloadable add-on content (DLC) is the latest, and still evolving, formatting strategy in the long line of entertainment industry franchising practices. A digital attachment to the physical game copy, DLC is used to guide players to networked service relationships and to uphold these services, while prolonging players' time with the game through offering more content. Because of its smaller size, DLC is quickly developed and can be used to mitigate financial risk, to bridge the gaps between bigger franchise installments, and to better answer the needs of the fragmented niche markets. In this thesis the benefits and ramifications of DLC, both for the gaming industry and to the player community, are examined. I ask how DLC, as a marketing practice, affects the play and the surrounding culture of console games. More specifically, in what ways does the DLC model affect the ways console games are marketed, and, in what ways does the player community respond to these marketing strategies? The thesis approaches the DLC model through a case study of the skateboarding game Skate 3. The methodological approach consists of a three-fold media industry analysis focusing on 1) cultural production and political economy analysis, 2) cultural texts, and 3) the reception and effects of those texts. These layers are then used as lenses to dissect the respective areas of the DLC model utilized in the case game Skate 3. Tying into each other in surprising depth, the production, distribution, and the textual form of DLC are examined through critical political economy analysis, whereas the player reception is opened by secondary data analysis of user discussions on the gaming forum NeoGAF and on the official Skate blog. Visible within the DLC system is the fact how marketing imperatives have shaped the form of the digital game to better answer their needs. Through leveraging the fragmented form of DLC, options open for controlling both the competition and the player population. As games can be used again after consumption, it is in the interests of the gaming companies to artificially limit this second-hand access to them. DLC provides a solution to this, as it is bound to the first buyer and cannot be sold forward. To get the "full experience", second-hand users, too, must pay. Thus DLC can be used for exploiting the power its production structure has over individual. Players are enticed to buy more expensive new game copies, coaxed into service relationships, and leveraged towards other franchises. A central method is to utilize DLC's fragmented form and use DLC packs for rewarding players when they conform to the marketing plan. The ramifications of the new digital economy come as a surprise to many users. DLC divides the play experience into several pieces, denying the player the "whole experience" unless she buys all the DLC packs. Player groups are forced to buy the same DLC packs to play the same content. As many users still do not have the ability to play or pay online, the online components create haves and have-nots. Players are also forced to gather information about the model on the Internet and left to wonder whether or not DLC even works in certain situations. For many players DLC spoils the customer experience by accruing additional costs over time, making players feel they are charged for content they have already paid for, and by selling a service that simply seizes to function over time. The publisher Electronic Arts contradicts itself by, on the one hand giving an implied promise of a service relationship and basing Skate 3 forcefully on online components, and on the other hand letting its game servers and customer support deteriorate, abruptly disbanding its game service once it seizes to be profitable. Asiasanat: Console Games, Game Industry, Digital Distribution, Downloadable Add-on Content, Player Studies

Point of Sale offers the first significant attempt to center media retail as a vital component in the study of popular culture. It brings together fifteen essays by top media scholars with their fingers on the pulse of both the changes that foreground retail in a digital age and the history that has made retail a fundamental part of the culture industries. The book reveals why retail matters as a site of transactional significance to industries as well as a crucial locus of meaning and interactional participation for consumers. In addition to examining how industries connect books, DVDs, video games, lifestyle products, toys, and more to consumers, it also interrogates the changes in media circulation driven by the collision of digital platforms with existing retail institutions. By grappling with the contexts in which we buy media, Point of Sale uncovers the underlying tensions that define the contemporary culture industries