Games-as-a-Disservice: Emergent value co-destruction in platform business models

Lehtonen, Miikka J.; Vesa, Mikko; Harviainen, J. Tuomas

doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.11.055

Cited by 11 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…Namely, mobile games—due to their inherent requirement for interaction—create peculiar and promising avenues for interaction between the digital and the physical. Building on this line of thought, since mobile games are nowadays treated as services (Lehtonen et al 2021 ), our findings in this paper illustrate how monetization mechanisms in mobile games can impact consumers’ identity formation processes.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 56%

“…This, we believe, lends itself to inauthentic experiences as game progression is not earned through play, but instead often bought. While players in certain computer games have outsourced resource gathering to other individuals (e.g., Wang et al 2009 ), in mobile games money is often spent to buy away boredom (e.g., Lehtonen et al 2021 ). Similarly, another interviewee describes how lack of closure makes it difficult to become fully immersed in the game.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As Hamari and Lehdonvirta ( 2010 , p. 26) argue, “virtual world operators find themselves in a situation where revenue generation logic is distanced from the design of the service itself” (see also Lehtonen et al 2021 ). Game design has a long tradition of conjuring engaging experiences, yet the decade-or-so old microtransactions are still searching for their shape.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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How monetization mechanisms in mobile games influence consumers’ identity extensions

2022

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Digital distribution and new business models have transformed mobile games from products to services. This servitization turn has enabled consumers to extend their identity in mobile games through prolonged engagement. Drawing on a qualitative study of 17 consumers and 16 producers of mobile games, we elucidate how servitization can have certain negative implications for consumers’ identities. Our findings reveal four interrelated facets through which consumers can extend their identity in mobile games and four corresponding monetization mechanisms. Overt monetization can create identity disconnections and we offer suggestions on re-establishing the connection.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 56%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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How monetization mechanisms in mobile games influence consumers’ identity extensions

2022

Self Cite

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“…This approach is important in multiplayer games in general, such as RPGs, which exist in a continuous state of (co-)production labeled 'games-as-a-service' (Zagal & Björk, 2018, 326). When continuous game production becomes directly profitdriven, it eventually starts churning out "games-as-a-disservice" (Lehtonen, Vesa, & Harviainen, 2022), which are games that do not have value for the player. Blockchain-based games may follow the same trend, unless they offer legitimate means of value co-creation, in which financial capital is not the end goal.…”

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confidence: 99%

Fancies explained

Serada

2023

EJCGC

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The concept of symbolic capital, introduced by Pierre Bourdieu (1986), has been applied to explain the circulation of value between game communities and the industry. The bottom-up approach can be found in the studies of so-called “gaming capital” accumulated by gamers (Consalvo, 2009), while the top-down approach focuses on the agents who hold the most power in the gaming industry (Nichols, 2013). These perspectives may require reconfiguration today: since the end of the 2010s, traditional power relations have been contested by ‘decentralized’ gaming that uses blockchain technologies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Their early adopters suggest that NFTs may disrupt traditional circulation of value to the benefit of players as opposed to major corporations. Many gamers, however, vehemently oppose NFTs in games. By combining these top-down and the bottom-up approaches, this article explains that the specific symbolic gaming capital remains systematically underappreciated in blockchain gaming, which operates along different vectors of power. To support my argument, I turn to the longest-running blockchain-based game CryptoKitties (Axiom Zen, 2017), and analyze the elements of the role-playing genre that appeared in the game during the collective process of continuous development. In the first case, these elements (‘fancies’) were added by the developers of the game, and in the second case, an RPG-like extension emerged as one of its fan spin-offs (KotoWars). I conclude that symbolic capital is community-specific in the case of blockchain gaming. It is only available to those who already possess considerable symbolic, and, much more importantly, financial capital within the crypto community.

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Strategies for urban cycling: an analysis through generalized analytic induction

Medina-Molina,

Pérez-Macías,

Rey-Tienda

2024

Int Rev Public Nonprofit Mark

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Games-as-a-Disservice: Emergent value co-destruction in platform business models

Cited by 11 publications

References 62 publications

How monetization mechanisms in mobile games influence consumers’ identity extensions

How monetization mechanisms in mobile games influence consumers’ identity extensions

Fancies explained

Strategies for urban cycling: an analysis through generalized analytic induction

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