Digital labor turn: the impact of assetization in digital games

Kód výsledku v 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>

Výsledek na webu

<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>

Jazyk výsledku

angličtina

Název v původním jazyce

Digital labor turn: the impact of assetization in digital games

Popis výsledku v původním jazyce

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.

Název v anglickém jazyce

Digital labor turn: the impact of assetization in digital games

Popis výsledku anglicky

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.

Druh

J_imp - Článek v periodiku v databázi Web of Science

CEP obor

—

OECD FORD obor

50802 - Media and socio-cultural communication

Projekt

—

Návaznosti

S - Specificky vyzkum na vysokych skolach<br>I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Rok uplatnění

2025

Kód důvěrnosti údajů

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Název periodika

Critical Studies in Media Communication

ISSN

1529-5036

e-ISSN

1479-5809

Svazek periodika

42

Číslo periodika v rámci svazku

3-4

Stát vydavatele periodika

US - Spojené státy americké

Počet stran výsledku

15

Strana od-do

303-317

Kód UT WoS článku

001581737900001

EID výsledku v databázi Scopus

2-s2.0-105017410500