Digital labor turn: the impact of assetization in digital games
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11230%2F25%3A10503223" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11230/25:10503223 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=~GNEpmTOZ7" target="_blank" >https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=~GNEpmTOZ7</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15295036.2025.2547908" target="_blank" >10.1080/15295036.2025.2547908</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
Digital labor turn: the impact of assetization in digital games
Original language description
Labor practices in digital games have been conceptualized as playbor, highlighting their exploited yet voluntary nature. As digital play increasingly converges with assetization, it is becoming more closely associated with labor activities. This article investigates emergent player labor practices in the digital game World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment). It focuses on the practice of “boosting,” in which a player hires an organization to complete difficult team-based gameplay. Semi-structured interviews of players from the boosting organization Huokan reveal a highly optimized form of segregated work that has emerged from the game economy design. As a response, players adopt technological affordances of game-adjacent platforms to automate and “resist” gameplay perceived as toil. To push digital games as assets, they are increasingly made “tedious by design” through artificial barriers to prolong player retention. This approach marks a pivotal labor turn in digital games.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
J<sub>imp</sub> - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
50802 - Media and socio-cultural communication
Result continuities
Project
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Continuities
S - Specificky vyzkum na vysokych skolach<br>I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace
Others
Publication year
2025
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Name of the periodical
Critical Studies in Media Communication
ISSN
1529-5036
e-ISSN
1479-5809
Volume of the periodical
42
Issue of the periodical within the volume
3-4
Country of publishing house
US - UNITED STATES
Number of pages
15
Pages from-to
303-317
UT code for WoS article
001581737900001
EID of the result in the Scopus database
2-s2.0-105017410500