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Am I Mod or Not? - An analysis of First Person Shooter modification culture

Curtis Conkey - Sun, 21/10/2007 - 17:48
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New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:

The aim of this paper is to mainly look at the current trends regarding co-created content for First Person Shooter games. The question what constitutes a mod and if there is a need for a definition of mods seems neglected by many authors who simply use the term ‘mod’ for a wide array of user-created game texts. The agency of gamers and the power they can wield when they are collaborative results in implications in relation to the game industry and the content and themes of user-created game modifications. Analysis of the Unreal Universe show game developers and game publishers tapping into the open-source ethos of mod communities and appropriating and institutionalising the mod community. The Battlefield franchise shows the creative energy of modders using original themes in a creative fashion but also the implications of using existing Intellectual Property.

Using the Crytek Game Engine in the Dublin Institute of Technology

Curtis Conkey - Mon, 15/10/2007 - 11:13
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New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:

It is envisaged that within the next 10 years. the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), Ireland’s largest third level university, will move to a new campus in Grangegorman, located in the north inner city of Dublin This site is currently being used as a hospital. It has twelve listed buildings and is located in a densely populated urban community. This paper describes how the Crytek 3D Game engine is being used to create a game MOD (modification) of the current hospital site, how it will be used in the construction and public consultation process of the new campus and how students in the DIT are learning computer science in an new way.

From Pong to Planet Quake: Post-Industrial Transitions from Leisure to Work

Jason Rutter - Thu, 12/04/2007 - 04:41
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New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:

In the closing weeks of 2002, video games were featured in various popular American news publications and media outlets such as Wired, Entertainment Weekly, Newsweek and Time Magazine. It is becoming increasingly apparent that video games are no longer child's play, but rather that they are poised to become a major entertainment form for the twenty-first century. Social analysts and media scholars must begin to formulate an understanding of this emerging mass-consumer phenomenon because it will increasingly impact social and economic structures of post-industrial societies. Part of the tremendous value generated by the American video-game industry is tied into broad global economic shifts that have created a space where services and ephemeral products, such as software, can be created and cheaply distributed. The predominance of " high-tech' production, the rise of the Internet, and the cultural capital associated with computerization all have contributed to the rise of hobbyist software developers that currently tinker with commercial video games and freely add to them increasing levels of sophistication. This paper sees video-game programmer hobbyists as a source of some of the significant value that the video-game industry generates, and understands the role of the programmer hobbyists through the lens of theories on post-industrial work. My analysis situates the work of hobbyists on the Internet within the context of post-Fordism and explores some of the motivations for this unwaged work. In the sections that follow, I will analyse the potential value of the work hobbyist do as well as analyse its transition to paid work as some commercial software developers experiment with incorporating these fan bases into the game design process.

'Have Fun Working with Our Product!': Critical Perspectives On Computer Game Mod Competitions

Jason Rutter - Thu, 22/03/2007 - 10:51
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New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:

This paper suggests that the digital games industry products are not limited to games-related
hardware and software or the related spin-off industry products. Further, consumers “labour”
with games is transformed into a product that is sold to advertisers and sponsors. In case of
gamer-made modifications, this commodification of leisure is taken into extreme. It is obvious
that the cultivation of unpaid modder labour necessitates different methods than the traditional
forms of labour. It is suggested that mod competitions are used as a strategy of control over the
hobbyist developers. Through competitions modders become interpellated as important members
of the industry and simultaneously end up surprisingly comfortably harnessed. Finally, the paper
suggests that the competitions that offer an attractive means to monitor the mod scene,
paradoxically also work against industry’s advantages by revealing the laborious nature of
computer game development to the hobbyists.

Armageddon Army: Playing God, God Mode Mods, and the Rhetorical Task of Ludology

Jason Rutter - Fri, 09/03/2007 - 21:07
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New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:

Scholars are witnessing a dramatic confluence of faith, politics, and gaming. On the stage of this war theater, the players are indistinguishable, the simulations just one mission removed from real war. One is immersed in war as game, the other in war as eternal battle. The military has invested millions in developing games as strategic communications tools, hiring real soldiers and officers as consultants to ensure optimal realism in game play. Nowthat the harmonic convergence of faith, politics, and computer games has been graphically (and brutally) realized, specifically, made real in the dueling holy wars-- ours and theirs (jihad)--what now? This article proposes a game modification of the god mode of the game, America's Army, as a critical response to the reality ofwar and the use of computer games as military recruitment tools.

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