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Introduction: Video Game Industries
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Video Games – Industries
In this course, Dr Paolo Ruffino introduces us to the video game industry, with a particular focus on video game production cultures. In the first module, we explore the size, scope and profitability of the video game industry, as well as its global economic context, before moving on in the second module to discuss working conditions, such as “crunch” and other exploitative practices, in video game production cultures. In the third module we dive into the independent (“indie”) game production industry, before in the fourth module exploring how independent game producers develop and distribute their games. In the fifth module, we conclude our exploration of video game production cultures with a thorough recap.
Introduction: Video Game Industries
In this module Dr Paolo Ruffino introduces us to the video game industry, focusing in particular on: (i) video game production cultures; (ii) the size, scope and profitability of the video game industry; (iii) the status of video games as an art form; (iii) the global distribution of video games; (iv) the distribution of video games across mediums, e.g. PC, console and mobile gaming; (v) the importance of the global economic context for the video game industry.
Hello. I'm Paulo Rufino.
00:00:05I'm a senior lecturer at the department of
00:00:07Communication and Media at the University of Liverpool.
00:00:10So in this section, we are going to explore, uh, video game production cultures.
00:00:13Um, what does it mean?
00:00:19It means that we are no long not just looking at how video games are made,
00:00:20what kind of tools are used to
00:00:24to make games and how they are distributed.
00:00:26But we're also looking at the cultures surrounding production. So all the ideas,
00:00:29Uh um, and and ways of thinking about how video games should be, uh, uh,
00:00:34made and and and produce
00:00:40the sort of shape the the the environment of video game production.
00:00:42So as part of this, we're also looking at some of the issues that affect,
00:00:46uh, game workers
00:00:50issues concerning,
00:00:52uh, uh, game labour, labour in the video game industry.
00:00:53Uh, we're also looking at the idea of being making games independently,
00:00:57and we're gonna see, for instance,
00:01:02that this is not just a different ways of making games.
00:01:03It's also associated to,
00:01:06uh, some beliefs and ideas about,
00:01:08uh, how game making can also be emancipatory, how it can be used to
00:01:11express oneself and to
00:01:16communicate ideas that would be otherwise impossible
00:01:18to communicate by any other means.
00:01:21Um, so the video game industry, uh, it is quite huge.
00:01:24Actually, we hear a lot of stories about it in, uh, in the news.
00:01:29Uh, we are frequently told that the game industry is, uh,
00:01:33uh, generating profits, profits in the order of billions of of dollars or pounds
00:01:37that there are so many people working in the game industry.
00:01:42Uh, not only as programmers or designers, but also, for instance,
00:01:46working as artist,
00:01:50uh, producing artworks, animations,
00:01:52Um, that end up, uh uh uh
00:01:55uh. In the in the video games that we play.
00:01:57They're also actors involved in the production of a video game,
00:02:01Uh, actors who, for instance,
00:02:05are used for the motion capture of the animations of human characters,
00:02:07but also actors who work as a voice actors to dub the characters of a video game.
00:02:11Uh, and this, of course,
00:02:17still in excludes all those people who work
00:02:19in marketing distribution who work on the,
00:02:21uh, platforms of distribution.
00:02:24For instance,
00:02:26all those who work as a community managers of, uh,
00:02:26online video games or as market analysts and so on.
00:02:30It is a huge sector that hires,
00:02:33uh, a lot of people with the varied skills and expertise.
00:02:36And video games are also often discussed nowadays as forms of art.
00:02:39For instance, in 2012, the Museum of Modern Art
00:02:44in New York
00:02:48decided to acquire a collection of classic video games, including Pac Man and
00:02:49and this story made,
00:02:54uh, the headlines of many newspapers.
00:02:56Uh, it was claimed that video games now finally are a work of art.
00:02:58But, uh uh, on top of all of this,
00:03:03we also see video games now being produced from all over the world.
00:03:06Uh, I mean, they've always been produced from all over the world,
00:03:10but now we also see them circulating and
00:03:12being distributed globally and much more easily.
00:03:15Uh, think about, for instance, the, uh, the publisher 10 cent, uh, from China.
00:03:18They make some of the most popular video games for a smartphone, and, uh,
00:03:23some of the most important strategy games,
00:03:28uh, currently played also in the West. They are produced by 10 cent.
00:03:31Um,
00:03:37so we need to, uh, obviously look at all of these, uh, aspects,
00:03:37but we also need to be a bit more critical and trying to understand
00:03:41how, really, all these, uh, discourses are generated.
00:03:45First of all,
00:03:48why is it that we hear all those stories about the game industry being so uh, uh,
00:03:49important, so large And so
00:03:54uh, uh, influential and so strong economically.
00:03:56And this. We need to, uh, understand.
00:04:01First of all, that many of these, uh, arguments, uh,
00:04:04are very often presented by the game industry itself that tries sometimes to
00:04:06to promote itself, to communicate its success stories.
00:04:11Um, and obviously, this does not mean that these stories are not true.
00:04:15Uh, but they are presented sometimes instrumentally to tell us a sort of,
00:04:19uh uh a nice Give us a nice picture of how game production looks like and how good it is.
00:04:24Uh, now, unfortunately, the, um,
00:04:31issues currently affecting game production game labour, uh,
00:04:33are much more complex and cannot be reduced in terms of like, the
00:04:36the profits that games are making or how artistic allegedly
00:04:41they are.
00:04:45Um, we have also heard a lot of stories during the pandemic about how video games, uh,
00:04:46help people socialise, uh, during the pandemic.
00:04:51Uh, and now also, this, uh,
00:04:55eventually brought to larger revenues and profits from the game industry.
00:04:57But again,
00:05:01we need to look a bit more critically about who is
00:05:02really kind of releasing these stories and what is really,
00:05:04uh, behind these stories.
00:05:07And, for instance,
00:05:09what has been taken out of the picture is
00:05:09that the conditions of labour of the game industry
00:05:12have always been very exploitative and became
00:05:14even more exploitative during the pandemic,
00:05:16when many workers were suddenly had to work
00:05:19from home and and to increase their workload.
00:05:22As part of that
00:05:24in the book, uh, Global Games, uh, Production,
00:05:26circulation and Policy in the Network Era by
00:05:29AFCA,
00:05:33published in 2017.
00:05:34The author, uh,
00:05:36makes the claim that we need to understand all these stories through,
00:05:37uh, a
00:05:41deeper analysis of the economic system in which video games are,
00:05:42uh, uh, emerging,
00:05:47uh, video games to should be understood, as the author argues,
00:05:49to the late capitalist economic systems
00:05:53from which they emerge
00:05:56and the political, social cultural context in which they are produced.
00:05:58So the, um, the fact that video games are now a global phenomena for reason,
00:06:03they are made and circulate from a variety of geographical, uh, locations.
00:06:07Um, suggest that we need to, uh, also investigate the specific, uh,
00:06:13economies and specific policies that regulate
00:06:18the game industry in that particular region, but also
00:06:21how they sort of dictate the possibility of circulating this tax globally.
00:06:24So we look need to look beyond the narratives of success
00:06:31and enthusiasm that often circulate around the medium of the video game
00:06:35Looking at the conditions of labour of the workforce.
00:06:39Uh, looking at how video games are part of a global economic system.
00:06:43Also,
00:06:48how they generate value economically but also from
00:06:48an aesthetic point of point of view,
00:06:51how these systems of production also enable to present new,
00:06:53innovative ways of representing prisons interactive storytelling.
00:06:58We should ask ourselves who really makes games
00:07:03and, um, how diverse is the sector and where really do they work as we're gonna see?
00:07:07Sometimes it's not sufficient to analyse a game
00:07:13studio because those studios often involve outsourced labour.
00:07:16So it becomes difficult to really understand where exactly
00:07:20the main character of a video game really are where they're from.
00:07:24Um,
00:07:28there are also huge issues regarding the demographics of of the of game workers.
00:07:29There are issues of inclusivity
00:07:33in the sector.
00:07:35And some game makers are or have been
00:07:36made less visible than others throughout history.
00:07:39So in these, uh, videos, uh, we're gonna look at all these issues.
00:07:44Uh, we're gonna discuss, uh uh how video game production cultures, um,
00:07:47shape the video games that we play with these days.
00:07:52And we are.
00:07:55Hopefully, uh,
00:07:56this is gonna give you some sort of a a sort of critical lens to
00:07:57analyse not just how a video game looks like and how it is played,
00:08:01but also how it has been made. And what kind of ideas were,
00:08:05uh, um,
00:08:09pre present in the in the design and development of the game.
00:08:10
Cite this Lecture
APA style
Ruffino, P. (2023, June 08). Video Games – Industries - Introduction: Video Game Industries [Video]. MASSOLIT. https://massolit.io/courses/video-games-industries/conclusion-video-game-production-cultures
MLA style
Ruffino, P. "Video Games – Industries – Introduction: Video Game Industries." MASSOLIT, uploaded by MASSOLIT, 08 Jun 2023, https://massolit.io/courses/video-games-industries/conclusion-video-game-production-cultures