Platform Studies’ Epistemic Threshold

Apperley, Thomas; Parikka, Jussi

doi:10.1177/1555412015616509

Cited by 53 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…As a consequence, online discourses, user-generated content (UGC), and performances hosted are influenced, as well as their impact on game perceptions and understandings. The concept of ''platform'' was already used in Game Studies, 26,27 yet it was not applied to current online platforms related to gaming nor empirical researches (for an exception, see Consalvo and Vazquez 28 ), and the focus was mainly on technical/hardware aspects. Conversely, in this article, the interplay between users' activities/performing practices and ludic features is under the spotlight with the support of visualization techniques.…”

Section: Visualizing Gaming Service Platformsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enjoying death among gamers, viewers, and users: A network visualization of Dark Souls 3’s trends on Twitch.tv and Steam platforms

Gandolfi

2017

Information Visualization

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In current Game Research, gaming service platforms such as PlayStation Network, Steam, and Twitch.tv represent a still poorly investigated topic. Despite the millions of monthly viewers and members, little efforts have been done to shed light on their dynamics and trends. This article aims to address such a lack by presenting the findings of an empirical inquiry guided by the key concepts of “platform” and “actor–network theory” with the support of a novel network visualization technique. Specifically, the role-playing game Dark Souls 3–related activity on Steam and Twitch.tv was collected for the first 20 days from the release (12 April–1 May 2016). Targeted data concerned several variables among which: most viewed streamers, streaming types, debating topics and reviews’ highlights on Steam (etc.) through screenshots, user-generated content, and text gathering. Data were processed and then visualized with the network-oriented software Gephi for uncovering associations and patterns in the targeted online environments. The action game The Division worked as an exploratory case study and counter-example for stressing the proposal. Although with some limitations, the visualization strategy adopted (four networks for each platform) proved to be effective in framing and communicating the results in a straightforward way. Finally, findings enlightened a phenomenon (i.e. gaming service platforms), that is, getting increasingly central in digital entertainment, and might inform further investigations with alternative designs and focuses.

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Section: Visualizing Gaming Service Platformsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enjoying death among gamers, viewers, and users: A network visualization of Dark Souls 3’s trends on Twitch.tv and Steam platforms

Gandolfi

2017

Information Visualization

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“…In this paper, I have focused on infrastructure studies, given that the scope of its analysis includes users' experiences, whereas platform studies have so far focused more on the materiality of the platforms and the intentions of their designers (Apperley and Parikka 2018). Focusing on infrastructure, I suggest, fits consistently with the analytic framework laid out earlier that includes different stakeholders-particularly when the fifth reflexive and interventionist step is introduced, so as to engage with questions of power.…”

Section: Infrastructures As 'Things'mentioning

confidence: 87%

Infrastructure and the Post-Truth Era: is Trump Twitter’s Fault?

Oliver¹

2019

Postdigit Sci Educ

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This paper explores the relationship between social media and political rhetoric. Social media platforms are frequently discussed in relation to ‘post-truth’ politics, but it is less clear exactly what their role is in these developments. Specifically, this paper focuses on Twitter as a case, exploring the kinds of rhetoric encouraged or discouraged on this platform. To do this, I will draw on work from infrastructure studies, an area of Science and Technology Studies; and in particular, on Ford and Wajcman’s analysis of the relationships between infrastructure, knowledge claims and politics on Wikipedia. This theoretical analysis will be supplemented with evidence from previous studies and in the public domain, to illustrate the points made. This analysis echoes wider doubts about the credibility of technologically deterministic accounts of technology’s relationship with society, but suggests however that while Twitter may not be the cause of shifts in public discourse, it is implicated in them, in that it both creates new norms for discourse and enables new forms of power and inequality to operate.

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“…The analysis of boundary resources relies on documentation provided by the platform and includes developer documentation, product documentation, and financial disclosures, which collectively functions as an archive that enables a reconstruction of a platform’s evolution (Apperley and Parikka, 2018; Eaton et al, 2015). This material does come with its own set of issues, as archives from websites, platforms, and apps are often incomplete and old documentation has been moved, overwritten, or simply deleted (Brügger, 2015).…”

Section: Methodology: Studying Facebook’s Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The political economy of Facebook’s platformization in the mobile ecosystem: Facebook Messenger as a platform instance

Nieborg

Helmond

2018

Media, Culture & Society

136

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Facebook’s usage has reached a point that the platform’s infrastructural ambitions are to be taken very seriously. To understand the company’s evolution in the age of mobile media, we critically engage with the political economy of platformization. This article puts forward a conceptual framework and methodological apparatus to study Facebook’s economic growth and expanding platform boundaries in the mobile ecosystem through an analysis of the Facebook Messenger app. Through financial and institutional analysis, we examine Messenger’s business dimension and draw on platform studies and information systems research to survey its technical dimension. By retracing how Facebook, through Messenger, operationalizes platform power, this article attempts to bridge the gap between these various disciplines by demonstrating how platforms emerge and how their apps may evolve into platforms of their own, thereby gaining infrastructural properties. It is argued that Messenger functions as a ‘platform instance’ that facilitates transactions with a wide range of institutions within the boundaries of the app and far beyond.

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Platform Studies’ Epistemic Threshold

Cited by 53 publications

References 38 publications

Enjoying death among gamers, viewers, and users: A network visualization of Dark Souls 3’s trends on Twitch.tv and Steam platforms

Enjoying death among gamers, viewers, and users: A network visualization of Dark Souls 3’s trends on Twitch.tv and Steam platforms

Infrastructure and the Post-Truth Era: is Trump Twitter’s Fault?

The political economy of Facebook’s platformization in the mobile ecosystem: Facebook Messenger as a platform instance

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