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This course explores transformative practices and content in the context of game culture and game industries. Aside from traditional game production, many human and non-human actors create, transform, and otherwise generate media content, which is becoming increasingly important and rivals the position of games as the main attraction of game culture. From playthrough videos, actual play, and live-streaming to esports, fan art, cosplay, or modding, these various activities establish a rich cultural space with complex power and economic dynamics. In between game developers and players, there are now many intermediaries with their own competing agendas. This course draws on the research traditions of media studies, game studies, fan studies, production studies, creator studies, and political economy to address the contemporary moment in game culture, which is on the one hand marked by platformization and on the other hand by decentralization of games in favor of transformative, player-created phenomena.
The goal of the class is to give students the ability to critically assess the role of player-created community content within game culture and how it intersects with economic goals of the video game industry and platform companies. Poslední úprava: Švelch Jan, Mgr., Ph.D. (22.08.2024)
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Grading Criteria To successfully complete the class, students must do the following:
The (approximately) fortnightly assignments are relatively small in their scope (usually within the range of 150–700 words) and connected to major themes of the class. For the final project, students can choose from three thematic areas: (1) fan labor, (2) playthrough (including actual play), (3) metagaming; and two main directions: (a) analytical and (b) creative. Grading scale: A: 91–100%, B: 81–90%, C: 71–80%, D: 61–70%, E: 51–60%, Fail: 0–50% Fortnightly class assignments: up to 40% Final project: up to 70% It is technically possible to earn more than 100% if students complete all assignments with high enough scores. Use of Generative AI: For all the written assignments, students must disclose any use of generative AI and language models and in what capacity they were used to complete the assignment. Final Project (full description in syllabus JKM150 Live-Streaming and Content Creation in Game Culture 2024.docx) The final project consists of three parts: (1) a written summary, (2) an oral presentation, and (3) a discussion with the lecturer. The written summary should be approximately 500 to 1000 words long, excluding references, and must be submitted at least five days prior to the presentation. The student presents their project during a 15-minute presentation followed by a 15-minute discussion. Presentation slots will be scheduled during the examination period. Presentations and discussion can happen in-person or remotely. The final project should fall into one of the three main thematic areas: 1. fan labor, 2. playthrough (including actual play), 3. metagaming. The project can follow one of two directions (a) analytical or (b) creative. The students should decide their preferred theme and direction during the Project Abstract assignment. For analytical projects, students undertake their own original small-scale empirical research of a phenomenon or an event within the three thematic areas. For creative projects, students can propose and sketch out interventions aimed at improving the issues in the three thematic areas or challenging the current status quo. The main difference between the two directions is the practical part of the project. All projects should include literature review. For analytical projects, literature review helps to guide the analysis and shows the student’s understanding of the studied phenomenon. For creative projects, literature review should frame the proposed intervention and explain its relevance. Poslední úprava: Švelch Jan, Mgr., Ph.D. (22.08.2024)
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Boluk, Stephanie, and Patrick LeMieux. 2017. Metagaming: Playing, Competing, Spectating, Cheating, Trading, Making, and Breaking Videogames. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. Brewer, Johanna Marie, Bonnie Ruberg, Amanda L. L. Cullen, and Christopher J. Persaud, eds. 2023. Real Life in Real Time: Live Streaming Culture. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Consalvo, Mia. 2007. Cheating: Gaining Advantage in Videogames. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Comerford, Chris, and Natalie Krikowa. 2022. “Archive-Lensing of Fan Franchise Histories: Chronicle, Guide, Catalyst.” Transformative Works and Cultures 37 (March). https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2022.2095. Gray, Kishonna L. 2017. “‘They’re Just Too Urban’: Black Gamers Streaming on Twitch.” In Digital Sociologies, edited by Jessie Daniels, Karen Gregory, and Tressie McMillan Cottom, 355–68. Bristol: Policy Press. Kretzschmar, Mark, and Mel Stanfill. 2019. “Mods as Lightning Rods: A Typology of Video Game Mods, Intellectual Property, and Social Benefit/Harm.” Social & Legal Studies 28 (4): 517–36. https://doi.org/10.1177/0964663918787221. Paul, Christopher A. 2024. Optimizing Play: Why Theorycrafting Breaks Games and How to Fix It. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Perreault, Gregory, and Tim Vos. 2020. “Metajournalistic Discourse on the Rise of Gaming Journalism.” New Media & Society 22 (1): 159–76. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444819858695. Postigo, Hector. 2008. “Video Game Appropriation through Modifications: Attitudes Concerning Intellectual Property among Modders and Fans.” Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 14 (1): 59–74. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856507084419. Taylor, T.L. 2012. Raising the Stakes: E-Sports and the Professionalization of Computer Gaming. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Taylor, T.L. 2018. Watch Me Play: Twitch and the Rise of Game Live Streaming. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. http://watchmeplay.cc/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/WatchMePlayCC.pdf Uszkoreit, Lena. 2018. “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: Video Game Live Streaming and Its Potential Risks and Benefits for Female Gamers.” In Feminism in Play, edited by Kishonna L. Gray, Gerald Voorhees, and Emma Vossen, 163–81. Cham: Springer. Witkowski, Emma. 2018. “Doing/Undoing Gender with the Girl Gamer in High-Performance Play.” In Feminism in Play, edited by Kishonna L. Gray, Gerald Voorhees, and Emma Vossen, 185–203. Palgrave Games in Context. Cham: Springer International Publishing. Poslední úprava: Švelch Jan, Mgr., Ph.D. (22.08.2024)
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Full and up-to-date syllabus, including course schedule and assignment instructions can be found here: syllabus JKM150 Live-Streaming and Content Creation in Game Culture 2024.docx Schedule 30. 9. Course Introduction 7. 10. Fan Labor 14. 10. Modding and In-Game Photography 21. 10. Playthrough Videos and Live-Streaming: Formal Aspects 28. 10. Bank Holiday (no class) 4. 11. Playthrough Videos and Live-Streaming: Political Economy and Labor 11. 11. Actual Play 18. 11. Esport 25. 11. Metagaming 2. 12. Secondary Markets, Betting, and Player Services 9. 12. Transmedia, Paratextual Industries, and Merchandising 16. 12. Wrap-Up Session
Main Themes: Fan Labor and Fan Wikis Fans create a wealth of unofficial content, which can be exploited by game companies, but which can also breach copyright and threaten commercial interests. Drawing on the tradition of fan studies as well as political economy, we will explore game-related forms of fan-made cultural artifacts, including fan wikis. While these products of fan labor are not exclusive to game culture, video game developers have publicly admitted their usefulness for industry insiders. There are also several sites that bring together volunteers and game companies, such as Paradox Wikis, which cover strategy games from the eponymous Swedish publisher. Chin, Bertha. 2014. “Sherlockology and Galactica.Tv: Fan Sites as Gifts or Exploited Labor?” Transformative Works and Cultures 15 (March). https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2014.0513. Comerford, Chris, and Natalie Krikowa. 2022. “Archive-Lensing of Fan Franchise Histories: Chronicle, Guide, Catalyst.” Transformative Works and Cultures 37 (March). https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2022.2095. Jones, Shelly. 2021. “Actual Play Audience as Archive: Analyzing the Critical Role Fandom.” In Watch Us Roll: Essays on Actual Play and Performance in Tabletop Role-Playing Games, edited by Shelly Jones, 136–56. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
In-Game Photography and Screenshots Screenshots first found use as visual representations of games in marketing materials. Over time, screen capture has arguably become a quasi-artistic practice thanks to the available software tools and the so-called photo modes, which are included in most major video game releases. In-game photography remediates genres and styles of photography and approaches video games and their worlds as sites worthy of capturing. Images created in this fashion can function as crowdsourced marketing of games. Gerling, Winfried. 2018. “Photography in the Digital.” Photographies 11 (2–3): 149–67. https://doi.org/10.1080/17540763.2018.1445013. Švelch, Jan. 2021. “Redefining Screenshots: Toward Critical Literacy of Screen Capture Practices.” Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 27 (2): 554–69. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856520950184. Zylinska, Joanna. 2020. Perception at the End of the World (or How Not to Play Video Games). Pittsburgh, PA: Flugschriften. http://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/28380/.
Modding Game mods expand and transform existing games in terms of new storylines, visuals, or rules, but are still reliant on the infrastructure of a given game. Modders can enhance games and add their own spin on them, this activity, however, can be regulated or outright rejected by game companies. Mods can also serves as prototypes for future commercial games and in this sense tie directly into industrial production of games (e.g. Auto Chess, Dota, or The Forgotten City). Joseph, Daniel James. 2018. “The Discourse of Digital Dispossession: Paid Modifications and Community Crisis on Steam.” Games and Culture 13 (7): 690–707. https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412018756488. Kretzschmar, Mark, and Mel Stanfill. 2019. “Mods as Lightning Rods: A Typology of Video Game Mods, Intellectual Property, and Social Benefit/Harm.” Social & Legal Studies 28 (4): 517–36. https://doi.org/10.1177/0964663918787221. Postigo, Hector. 2008. “Video Game Appropriation through Modifications: Attitudes Concerning Intellectual Property among Modders and Fans.” Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 14 (1): 59–74. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856507084419.
Playthrough Videos and Live-Streaming The so-called let’s plays and game live-streaming rank among the most popular types of content in game culture. As such, they impact how game industries operate but also by themselves represent a growing professional segment of game culture. As a commercial activity, live-streaming exhibits characteristics of other types of creator culture, including precarity and the demands for relational labor. In this thematic area, we will discuss the formal characteristics of playthrough video content as well as economic and labor conditions of creators. As a core and complex area of transformative content, this theme will be split into multiple sessions. Gandolfi, Enrico. 2016. “To Watch or to Play, It Is in the Game: The Game Culture on Twitch.Tv among Performers, Plays and Audiences.” Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds 8 (1): 63–82. https://doi.org/10.1386/jgvw.8.1.63_1. Ruberg, Bonnie, Amanda L. L. Cullen, and Kathryn Brewster. 2019. “Nothing but a ‘Titty Streamer’: Legitimacy, Labor, and the Debate over Women’s Breasts in Video Game Live Streaming.” Critical Studies in Media Communication 36 (5): 466–81. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295036.2019.1658886. Taylor, T.L. 2018. Watch Me Play: Twitch and the Rise of Game Live Streaming. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. http://watchmeplay.cc/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/WatchMePlayCC.pdf Tran, Christine H. 2022. “‘Never Battle Alone’: Egirls and the Gender(Ed) War on Video Game Live Streaming as ‘Real’ Work.” Television & New Media 23 (5): 509–20. https://doi.org/10.1177/15274764221080930.
Actual Play Actual play represents an emerging category of gameplay as performance, albeit focused on analog games and most notably tabletop role-playing. With commercial hits like Critical Role, actual play is entering the mainstream game and geek culture. Compared to video game live-streaming, the relationship between developers and players is different, giving the latter more freedom to create their own intellectual property on the basis of official game systems. Chalk, Alex. 2022. “Mapping an Online Production Network: The Field of ‘Actual Play’ Media.” Convergence, May, Online First. https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565221103987. Friedman, Emily C. 2021. “‘Is It Thursday yet?’ Narrative Time in a Live-Streamed Tabletop RPG.” In Roleplaying Games in the Digital Age: Essays on Transmedia Storytelling, Tabletop RPGs and Fandom, edited by Stephanie Hedge and Jennifer Grouling, 187–206. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. White, William J. 2019. “Actual Play and the Laws of Media.” Analog Game Studies VI (2019 Role-Playing Game Summit). https://analoggamestudies.org/2019/12/actual-play-and-the-laws-of-media/.
Esport Competitive gaming dates back to the early days of the video game industry, but a more significant growth began in the 2000s with games like StarCraft a Counter-Strike. Currently, esports boasts a wide viewership and has made its way into college programs. Despite its symbolic connection to traditional sports, the role of video game companies and their control over the esports communities is important for understanding the unique qualities of esports, which is often criticized for poor working conditions and high precarity. Borowy, Michael, and Dal Yong Jin. 2013. “Pioneering ESport: The Experience Economy and the Marketing of Early 1980s Arcade Gaming Contests.” International Journal of Communication 7 (0): 2254–74. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/2296 Taylor, T.L. 2012. Raising the Stakes: E-Sports and the Professionalization of Computer Gaming. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Witkowski, Emma. 2018. “Doing/Undoing Gender with the Girl Gamer in High-Performance Play.” In Feminism in Play, edited by Kishonna L. Gray, Gerald Voorhees, and Emma Vossen, 185–203. Palgrave Games in Context. Cham: Springer International Publishing.
Metagaming Metagaming refers to diverse approaches to playing that transcend official rules and emerge in gaming communities. Metagaming covers phenomena such as competitive gaming, speedrunning, glitch hunting, trolling, theorycrafting, but also various systems of achievements and trophies. As a concept, metagaming is key for understanding esports. Boluk, Stephanie, and Patrick LeMieux. 2017. Metagaming: Playing, Competing, Spectating, Cheating, Trading, Making, and Breaking Videogames. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. Janik, Justyna. 2020. “Negotiating Textures of Digital Play: Gameplay and the Production of Space.” Game Studies 20 (4). http://gamestudies.org/2004/articles/janik. Paul, Christopher A. 2024. Optimizing Play: Why Theorycrafting Breaks Games and How to Fix It. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. https://direct.mit.edu/books/oa-monograph/5784/Optimizing-PlayWhy-Theorycrafting-Breaks-Games-and (open access)
Secondary Markets, Betting, and Player Services Despite the platformized nature of contemporary games, various goods and services can be purchased on secondary markets. While companies generally try to control the exchange of virtual items in games, gray markets still emerge at the peripheries of games. Virtual goods also sometimes function as relatively unregulated currency for betting and online casinos. Martinelli, Desirée. 2017. “Skin Gambling: Have We Found the Millennial Goldmine or Imminent Trouble?” Gaming Law Review 21 (8): 557–65. https://doi.org/10.1089/glr2.2017.21814. Trammell, Aaron. 2013. “Magic Modders: Alter Art, Ambiguity, and the Ethics of Prosumption.” Journal of Virtual Worlds Research 6 (3): 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4101/jvwr.v6i3.7040. Zanescu, Andrei, Martin French, and Marc Lajeunesse. 2020. “Betting on DOTA 2’s Battle Pass: Gamblification and Productivity in Play.” New Media & Society, July, Online First. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444820941381.
Game Criticism, Journalism, and Marketing Like other entertainment and media industries, games create a demand for consumer-oriented advice, reviews, and journalism. Cultural curation and criticism are key for orientation among the countless game releases. Historically, reviews were a domain of the specialized press but user reviews, creator culture, and algorithmic recommendations are becoming increasingly important in promoting of games. Carlson, Rebecca. 2009. “Too Human versus the Enthusiast Press: Video Game Journalists as Mediators of Commodity Value.” Transformative Works and Cultures 2009 (Vol 2). https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2009.098. Perreault, Gregory, and Tim Vos. 2020. “Metajournalistic Discourse on the Rise of Gaming Journalism.” New Media & Society 22 (1): 159–76. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444819858695. Yodovich, Neta, and Jinju Kim. 2022. “Exploring the Feminization of Backseat Gaming Through Girlfriend Reviews YouTube Channel.” Games and Culture 17 (5): 795–815. https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120211056124. Poslední úprava: Švelch Jan, Mgr., Ph.D. (22.08.2024)
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