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Poslední úprava: Mgr. Jan Švelch, Ph.D. (15.08.2022)
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Poslední úprava: Mgr. Jan Švelch, Ph.D. (20.09.2023)
Grading criteria: To successfully complete the class, students have to submit all fortnightly assignments (6 in total) and the final assignment. 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. Students can pick their own topics for the final assignment; however, the chosen topic has to be related to the theme of transformative content and labor in game culture. The final assignment has two possible formats: a) a research paper, or b) oral presentation & discussion + research summary. More info can be found in the syllabus. Grading scale: A: 91–100%, B: 81–90%, C: 71–80%, D: 61–70%, E: 51–60%, Fail: 0–50% Fortnightly class assignments: 30% (each assignment contributes up to 5% to the final grade, but all have to be submitted to finish the course) Final assignment: 70% |
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Poslední úprava: Mgr. Jan Švelch, Ph.D. (15.08.2022)
Recommended Literature: Boluk, Stephanie, and Patrick LeMieux. 2017. Metagaming: Playing, Competing, Spectating, Cheating, Trading, Making, and Breaking Videogames. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota 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. 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. |
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Poslední úprava: Mgr. Jan Švelch, Ph.D. (17.09.2023)
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 2023.docx
Main Themes: 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. 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. Johnson, Mark R., and Jamie Woodcock. 2019. “The Impacts of Live Streaming and Twitch.Tv on the Video Game Industry.” Media, Culture & Society 41 (5): 670–88. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443718818363. 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 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.
Actual Play Actual play represents an emerging category of gameplay as performance, albeit focused on analog games abd 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/.
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. Welsh, Timothy. 2020. “(Re)Mastering Dark Souls.” Game Studies 20 (4). http://gamestudies.org/2004/articles/welsh.
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.
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. Švelch, Jan, and Tereza Krobová. 2016. “Who Is the Note-Worthy Fan? Featuring Players in the Official Facebook Communication of Mainstream Video Games.” Replay. The Polish Journal of Game Studies 3 (1): 81–100. https://doi.org/10.18778/2391-8551.03.05.
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.
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/. Transmedia, Paratextual Industries, and Merchandising Official industrial production often extends to transmedia tie-ins, adaptations, or merchandising. These products are generally considered secondary to the games that spawned them, but they can become self-sufficient and noteworthy as cultural artifacts in their own right. Physical merchandise can offer tangible objects to fans amidst the move to digital distribution of games. Consalvo, Mia. 2007. Cheating: Gaining Advantage in Videogames. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Peters, Ian M. 2014. “Peril-Sensitive Sunglasses, Superheroes in Miniature, and Pink Polka-Dot Boxers: Artifact and Collectible Video Game Feelies, Play, and the Paratextual Gaming Experience.” Transformative Works and Cultures 2014 (Vol 16). https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2014.0509. Scott, Suzanne. 2017. “#Wheresrey?: Toys, Spoilers, and the Gender Politics of Franchise Paratexts.” Critical Studies in Media Communication 34 (2): 138–47. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295036.2017.1286023.
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. Švelch, Jan. 2017. “Exploring the Myth of the Representative Video Game Trailer.” Kinephanos 7 (1): 7–36. http://www.kinephanos.ca/2017/exploring-the-myth-of-the-representative-video-game-trailer/
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. Macey, Joseph, and Juho Hamari. 2019. “ESports, Skins and Loot Boxes: Participants, Practices and Problematic Behaviour Associated with Emergent Forms of Gambling.” New Media & Society 21 (1): 20–41. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444818786216. 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. |