User-Generated Video Gaming

Abstract

Digital technology users are growingly involved in what has been described as convergence culture or participatory cultures. In this context, a major role is played by user-generated content. This article focuses on the participatory practices related to Little Big Planet (LBP) 1, a PlayStation platform video game that encourages users to create and share their own gaming levels. Our theoretical framework refers both to convergence culture and to a specific perspective of game studies that focuses on the cultural and social dimensions that are to be found in gaming and modding practices. A total of 8,829 Italian PlayStation Network (PSN) users were surveyed regarding their gaming practices, their attitude toward digital technology, and their LBP usage experiences. The results show that familiarity with digital technology and a socially oriented attitude to digital technology are clearly related to ''active LBP engagement.'' Moreover, PSN users are more likely than other digital platforms users to create their own content.

Malleable Games - A Literature Review on Communities of Game Modders

“…Anecdotely, some games players have only been waiting for its official release so they can start modding them. This new (and mostly free) source of innovation [18] can hence benefit game development both from a financial perspective -quantitatively assessed and confirmed by [53] -but also in a way of enhancing player experience [9]. Scholars have thus called for a wider and more open acceptance of players' co-creative role in game development [76].…”

“…Given the strong sense of community among game modders and the value they attribute to both (social) interaction and collaboration [51,62], scholars have described modding communities as spaces for socializing and interaction [57]. Scholars have also described these communities as safe spaces [43] or "third places" [2,9] where people could be more open about their interests than they would towards their offline friends [51]. Highlighting the importance of interaction and collaboration as well as creative production, Marone argues that modding communities serve as "discoursive studio" where members share and build on each others' competence to devise outcomes that will contribute to their own and other's play experience [43].…”

“…Others talked more general about fan-art [15,79]. Another type of mod that was featured quite often are levels [9,22,43,45]. User-interface modifications were picked as a central theme by [62,66,74].…”

“…For both games three papers each exclusively focused on modding practices related to that game. Other games that were featured in game modding research are Little Big Planet [9,43], Skyrim [57,66], Minecraft [5,46], Super Mario [45,48], Battlefield [14,54], League of Legends [14], Civilization [49], Counter-Strike [83], Grand Theft Auto [38] and Dark Souls [20]. From this (non-exhaustive) list we can infer the different game genres that are being discussed in research as examples of game modding practices.…”

“…The majority of publications merely stated that they reviewed games, blog posts, forums or other places modders and gamers posted feedback regarding game mods. Empirical studies were also conducted to broaden our understanding of game modding, interviewing game modders was thereby the most common (9), followed by surveys [9,26,51,74] and observations [24,61,86]. Three publications specific to have conducted ethnographic research [3,4,86].…”