Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Cultural Capitalism

Hello, my blogpost today might be a little esoteric but stay with me - I promise it would be interesting :D

Berger and Luckmann discussed how knowledge shapes our society back in 1966. This idea is also captured somewhat in Gidden's (1984) idea of structuration. One of Gidden's point was domination, a description of how structures attempt to capture resources through the use of power. This leads to his two other points: legitimation and signification. I would use this ideas to explain what I see is going on with the professional gaming industry vis-a-vis modders.

We know that the professional gaming industry is one which is known to be a "supercreative sector". There is no doubt about it. But the emphasis on marketing now has pushed the cost of game production skyhigh. It is increasingly difficult to innovate and publish, without a huge risk of failure. This is also why games are constantly released with fixed formats, e.g. XX 1, XX 2.... and so on.

To legitatmite its existance as the creative institution, and to prevent negative feedback, there is a neccessity to bring out some forms of innovation that would not carry considerable economic risk. One of the ways devised is modding.

A number of scholars have discussed how modding is exploitative because it encourages 'free labour'. While these commercial imperatives are important, the cultural subsuming of the modding 'creative hive' is important as well. What happens is that the pro-industry uses its power to 'dominate' over the modding subculture, and absorbs its creative labor to legitmate its own existance. This can primarily happen because of a 'reading' (i.e. signification) that privileges the institution. In Mosco's words, only the commodity is seen, not the labor behind it - and to add to that - the commodity which is the 'core original product'.

For instance, the Lute Hero mod in Neverwinternights 2 (NWN2) is a very innovative mod that merges the combative RPG gameplay in NWN2 with the music type gameplay of Guitar Hero. Doing this sure is hard - clearly NWN2 (for those who played before) is not suited for a music-type gameplay, but Adam Miller did a super fabulous job I think. The Lute Hero mod, then becomes the innovation behind the core game 'NWN2', supplementing its creative logic.

What happens when a mod can 'outplay' its original? Defense of the Ancients could be used as a case study. DoTA, as it is more affectionately named, was just a strong form of innovation that it started to rival its original (Warcraft III) in popularity. Although commercially speaking, this was good for the company, the overwhelming success of mods - to the extent it can 'take over' the dominant game - could have implications on the cultural stronghold of institutions. Not surprisingly, the modders were roped in as full time staff, once again maintaining a hegemony of institutions.

Finally, Banks and Humphreys made an arguement that the relationship between producer and modders are dialogic as opposed to resistive. Jenkins also mentioned that such work tends to be affective rather than ideological. I would agree to them to some extent. Some of the blantant display of resistances are overstated, generally, modders do their craft just because they like it. However, I would also like to argue that resistance in modding exists, but is of the subtle, invisible, daily life sort. de Certeau claims that resistance in daily life is as such; a woman cooking for instance, could bemoan the work of her labor but the smells of her cooking, brings forth a sense of nostalgia and love that transports her, at least momentarily, out of the banality of cooking. In other words, the escape from alientation is a form of resistance, and this resistance 'dialogue', becomes the key capital of 'innovation' that is captured and used by institutions. Modders also, get transported out of the labor of their craft through the flow of fantasy and creative pleasures. None is clearer perhaps than the Lute Hero mod... what is more resistive than an effort to change the game for yourself?

Long post here, hope it makes sense :)

Posted by Ren at 7:24 PM

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