Construction and Negotiation of Entrepreneurial Subjectivities in the Polish Video Game Industry

Ozimek, Anna

doi:10.2307/j.ctv1hp5hqw.16

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

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“…(See Chia, 2021, for an exploration of games culture as an example of a possible post-work society, and also Bulut 2020 on some of the complex ethical challenges this can give rise to. To put this social in context, note that work in the games sector is secured largely through personal contacts – Ozimek, 2021).…”

Section: Charming Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This rejection is affective work, in two senses. First, it is a business strategy emerging under conditions which include the growth of a global ‘indie’ scene and the fracturing into niche markets of the games industry, the shift from games as commodities into platform-based services, and the espousal of digital content creation as a craft for self-presentation rather than the display of rarefied, professional expertise (Ozimek, 2021). These developments have altered the alliances and oppositions by which game, and digital culture more broadly, are constituted, with charming taking up the cause of a minority ethos.…”

Section: The Consolation Of Enchantmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Charming work: An ethnography of an indie game studio

Pelletier¹

2022

Convergence

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Based on data generated from an ethnography in a video game studio, this article contributes to research on gender and game work by presenting an analysis of the studio’s ethos and aesthetics. The studio’s employees described the company and the games it made in terms of their charm, and related this explicitly to its ‘diverse’ hiring practices and the company’s identity as ‘indie’. I explore how the notion of charm was applied to a game, a game company, and game developer or employee, by tracing continuities and discontinuities across three types of data: field memos written whilst visiting the studio; conversations with employees; and a game diary based on a play through of one of the studio’s games under development during fieldwork. Drawing on Sontag’s notes on camp, Ngai’s work on cute aesthetics and Born’s research on the institutionalization of aesthetic discourse, I analyse ‘charming’ as a distinct sensibility within contemporary game culture which is symptomatic of the breakdown of straightforward gender binaries and the commercialization of ‘amateur’ or independent game-making. The article builds on existing research about the social significance of aesthetic genres in game culture, notably retrogrames and the appeal of nostalgia in indie games. It also locates games within debates about contemporary aesthetic experiences shaped and sustained by global digital media and their associated production cultures.

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Section: Charming Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Consolation Of Enchantmentmentioning

confidence: 99%