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- Volume 13, Issue 3, 2021
Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds - Volume 13, Issue 3, 2021
Volume 13, Issue 3, 2021
- Articles
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Cultivation play: Video games and the labour of character progression
Authors: Sky LaRell Anderson and Mark R. JohnsonIn this article, we develop a theory of gameplay labour, acknowledging the paradigm of political economy yet grounded in game design and play, called ‘cultivation play’. In most understandings of game work, theorists traditionally explain digital labour in games as inherently difficult or manipulative. Instead, we propose a theory that explains how gameplay work can be organized around a design heuristic – character progression – that is rewarding, given the objectives and interests of different kinds of players. We explicate our theoretical intervention through an analysis of four games: Stardew Valley, Grand Theft Auto V, The Witcher 2 and The Witcher 3. We specifically examine upgrade paths, what we call character progression tasks, wherein levelling up, progressing, gaining in-game skills and working towards goals operate to create an environment of gameplay work that players may find engaging.
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Network analysis among World of Warcraft players’ social support variables: A two-way approach
Authors: Xiang Zhao, Patricia L. Obst, Katherine M. White, Erin L. O’Connor and Huon LongmanWorld of Warcraft (WoW) is one of the most popular massively multiplayer online games. Previous studies have found evidence of in-game and offline social support among WoW players; however, the interplay of different types of social support such as informational and emotional support among this cohort has not been examined. This study used a reciprocal social support perspective to explore the system-level relationships among different types of social support in a sample of WoW players (N=181). Using network analysis, two major types of social support, informational and emotional, given and received within WoW and offline systems were included as model indicators. Social support networks of guild and non-guild members were compared. Clear separation was found between offline and in-game social support. Informational support played a key role in all networks but differences in the social support networks were identified between guild and non-guild members. These findings indicate dynamics between different types of social support overlooked in previous studies. By revealing such dynamics, network analysis has been shown as a promising tool for evidencing the subtle dynamics between distinct constructs.
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Gamification and social comparison processes in electronic brainstorming
Authors: Jérôme Guegan, Stéphanie Buisine, Julien Nelson and Frédéric VernierGamification can be seen as the intentional use of game design elements in non-game tasks, in order to produce psychological outcomes likely to influence behaviour and/or performance. In this respect, we hypothesize that gamification would produce measurable effects on user performance, that this positive impact would be mediated by specific motivational and attentional processes such as flow and that gamification would moderate the social comparison process. In three experimental studies, we examine the effects of gamified electronic brainstorming interfaces on fluency, uniqueness and flow. The first study mainly focuses on time pressure, the second on performance standard and the third one introduces social comparison. The results highlight some effects of the gamified conditions on brainstorming performance, but no or negative effects on flow. All three studies are congruent in that gamification did not occur as a psychological process, which questions popular design trends observed in a number of sectors.
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The moral economy of user-created content in the digital game industry
Authors: Daniel Nielsen and Alessandro NanìModders, as people adding modifications or suggesting those to original creations, have been a source of free labour in the digital game industry. Their contributions have been at the root of many controversies. As such, corporations have adopted either hostile or friendly attitudes towards the practice of modding, which is reflected in how corporations try to facilitate or limit modders’ agency to create user-created content. This article explores the perspective of players as creators, commonly referred to as modders, on corporate strategies to commodify their free labour. The empirical work consists of semi-structured interviews with modders associated with the website fora Nexusmods.com and ModDB.com. By adopting Sayer’s concept of moral economy, this study draws two conclusions: first, that modders exist within a participatory ecosystem comprised of the modder, the community and corporate actors, where all actors participate in a political-ideological negotiation on how modders ought to create digital game modifications; second, when analysing agency affordances, a moral economy of multiple actors with different norms, values and social codes constitutes a provision system of social dependency that is at risk of collapsing whenever there is outsider interference, as well as corporate attempts to incorporate modders into paid-mod systems.
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Profiling online gamers and probing their preferences and motivations: An empirical study of an online role-playing game
Authors: Chau Chu, Merja Halme, Jani Merikivi and Esko PenttinenGreater understanding of gamers’ preferences (what it is in the game that they value) and motivations (why they play the game) provides cues for game developers’ better response to consumer desires and drives. Complementing insights from literature that identifies a wide variety of antecedents to both preferences and motivations, the article addresses the relationship between the two by reporting on an empirical study in the context of online role-playing. In the study, analysis of gamer preferences revealed five gamer clusters (storyline-lovers, aesthetics-lovers, socializers, achievers and local-story-lovers), which together reflect three key gamer motivations (achievement related, social and immersion based). In a key finding, immersion emerged as an overarching motivator, spanning all the clusters and different in nature from the other two motivating factors. Also, distinguishing between local- and global-storyline-lovers may have important implications. Thirdly, the authors make a methodological contribution connected with the design of best–worst scaling, thereby informing managerial insights and providing avenues for further research.
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- Book Reviews
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War Games: Memory, Militarism and the Subject of Play, Philip Hammond and Holger Pötzsch (eds) (2020)
More LessReview of: War Games: Memory, Militarism and the Subject of Play, Philip Hammond and Holger Pötzsch (eds) (2020)
New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 265 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-50135-115-0, h/bk, USD $130.00
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Game Production Studies, Olli Sotamaa and Jan Švelch (eds) (2021)
More LessReview of: Game Production Studies, Olli Sotamaa and Jan Švelch (eds) (2021)
Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 356 pp.,
ISBN 978-9-46372-543-9, e-book open access, h/bk, EU €109.00
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