Antoni Roig, Gemma San Cornelio, Jordi Sánchez Navarro & Elisenda Ardèvol will present a paper for crossroads conference in Hong-Kong, entitled (provisionally) Fans, Gamers and Creative Communities: Productivity and Creative Labour in Game Appropriations. Here the abstract:
The aim of this paper is to further extend our previous research on videogames as media practice focusing on the notion of ‘productivity’ related to the player experience and the similarities, but also the differences, between the activity of media fans and that of engaged players, as it has been stated by Wirman (2007,2009). Drawing from theories of practice, we want to analyze user-generated appropriations related to videogames, particularly gamer-made alterations -like in modding practices- and machinima. Through this analysis we want also to take into account the relationship between commercial strategies and community-based productivity in terms of copyright and conditions of creative labour (Hesmondhalgh, 2008; Hartley, 2008; Ross, 2009). We will focus on a specific case study the stand-alone machinima tool Moviestorm, which benefits from an active modding community. The empirical data is centred in a debate in different electronic forums among its users and founders around the introduction of a subscription fee and the change of the business model, which will arise a discussion about modders rewards and motivations.