Indie Dreams: Video Games, Creative Economy, and the Hyperindustrial Epoch

Abstract

This essay draws on research undertaken as part of a research network project exploring the growth of independent game producers in recent years and the associated changes in the technological and economic conditions of the games industry in the UK, Europe, and the North American continent. It reflects on the possibilities of and challenges to a critical and creative maturing of video games as a cultural medium, evaluating these in the context of contemporary developments in global technoculture and the digital economy. Bernard Stiegler’s critical analysis of hyperindustrial consumer culture is mobilized in evaluating the dreams for an indie future of video games as a creative force in digital cultural transformation.

One Year of #GamerGate: The Shared Twitter Link as Emblem of Masculinist Gamer Identity

“…Indie games constitute a watershed moment in the history of video games as a medium. With the passage of console game production toward “a more variegated and diversified sector” in which nearly half of game developers self-identified as independent, women play a key role in the “more culturally rich and less homogenous future for games as an expressive medium” (Crogan, 2018, p. 673). Masculinist gamers have responded by sharing links on Twitter with such hostility to gaming’s progressive feminist movement precisely because they perceive their pastime (and the subcultural identities built around it) to be directly under attack.…”

The impacts of live streaming and Twitch.tv on the video game industry

“…In all three of these cases, therefore, we show that Twitch and live streaming are transforming the standard distribution of visibility across competing games within the sector, the lifecycles of games and the communities that surround games -as well as the purchasing and leisure-time preferences of those communities. Independent video games have been one of the most important developments in the games industry of the last decade, exhibiting rapid growth (Crogan, 2018). Beginning with highly visible and highly successful titles such as Braid (2008) and World of Goo (2008), independent games have become noted for their creativity.…”

Technologie nostalgii. Analiza retrotopii w grze World of Warships

“…Ricoeurowskie rozumienie reprezentacji jako zastąpienia pozwala natomiast badać obiekty quasi-historyczne -retencję trzeciego stopnia -w perspektywie jego hermeneutyki pomyślanej jako ontologia egzystencjalna w celu poszerzenia naszego rozumienia relacji pomiędzy fikcją i historią. Za teoretykami gier wideo, takimi jak: James Ash (Ash 2012a(Ash , 2012b(Ash , 2013, Patrick Crogan (Crogan 2014(Crogan , 2018 i Ben Egliston (Egliston 2017), ujmuję mechaniki growe, obiekty i światy wirtualne w kategoriach retencji trzeciego stopnia, co stanowi otwarcie dla nowej hermeneutyki, która za swój przedmiot obiera kreowane na potrzeby gier złożone systemy zarządzania afektami graczy, czyli ekonomie afektywne (Ash 2012a, 6). Punktem wyjścia tego splotu hermeneutyki i postfenomenologii chciałbym uczynić interpretację konkretnego obiektu quasi-historycznego, którym jest właśnie ORP Błyskawica.…”