Category:Productive Play: Difference between revisions

Introduction

Social media, language learning apps, dating apps, mood-tracking apps, etc: the language of games repurposed in the context of data-extractivist software are just some of the examples of the blurring lines between play, leisure and labour releasing our collective dopamine for profit.
This trimester, gamification in its many forms will serve as a stepping stone to explore the many ways videogames, explicitly or implicitly, are making us more, not less, productive: predatory monetization schemes ( in-game advertising, micro-transactions, loot boxes, downloadable content, etc.), aspects of mod and fan culture, gold mining, etc.
Furthermore, according to author Vicky Osterweil, even when considered outside the direct sphere of production, videogames perform a reproductive role through the representation of capitalism as a system of natural laws through the dissemination of dominant ideologies, helping people function in an otherwise dysfunctional economy and society. Moreover, they may provide necessary down time and relaxation, allowing the worker to be regenerated and ready for another day.
Nonetheless, leisure is a contested space which is still unequally distributed. Associate professor Shira Chess proposes that feminist work must not only pay attention to leisure, but also to improving the quality of said leisure.
As such, how can we contribute to this project? Get ready to turn some of your leisure time into homework instead as we prod and poke the billion-dollar industry that always wants more.

Week 1

Tuesday, January 11th

• Kick-off Special Issue #17

Watching:

• "Roblox Pressured Us to Delete Our Video. So We Dug Deeper" : https://inv.riverside.rocks/watch?v=vTMF6xEiAaY

Assignment:

• In preparation for our class next week, read File:Rules-of-play-defining-games.pdf of "Rules of Play - Game Design Fundamentals" by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman

Week 2

Tuesday, January 18th

With: Lidia, Manetta, Michael and Steve

• Defining play and games
• Blurrying the lines between labour and play: gamification and playbour
• Getting started on a glossary of productive play

Today's pad: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/18012022
One sentence game ideas pad: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/2022_onesentencegameideas

Reading:

• File:Taylorism-gamification.pdf, by Jennifer Dewinter, Carly A. Kocurek and Randall Nichols
• File:Fuchs2014.pdf by Mathias Fuchs
• "Selfwork" by Karen Gregory, Kirsty Hendry, Jake Watts and Dave Young: https://reallifemag.com/selfwork/

Assignment:

• In preparation for next week's session, please read the article 'Well Played" by Vicky Osterweil: https://reallifemag.com/well-played/

Wednesday, January 19th

• Reading, Writing and Research Methods (RW&RM) session with Steve. Ideology, Old and New; in the aquarium 11:00-17:00

Pad:https://pad.xpub.nl/p/19012022

1) Today we will be looking at the development of the idea of ideology, referring to these three historical texts:

Marx and Engels (19th Century) - The Ruling Class and Ruling Ideas

File:Marx & EngelsRuling ClassRuling ideas.pdf

Gramsci (early 20th Century)- The History of the Subaltern Classes

File:Antonio-Gramsci-Selections-from-the-Prison-Notebooks.pdf

Hebdidge (Late 20th Century) - Subculture: The Meaning of Style

File:Dick Hebdige - Subculture The Meaning of Style -Routledge (1979).pdf

2) Reading ideology in everyday objects. We will break our day of reading and annotation with considerations of how ideologies are expressed in our day to day life.

Artwork:

Chad McCail robots run zombies for wealthy parasites...

http://www.chadmccail.co.uk/legacy/snake/snake.html

Notion publicity material: The Story of Tools and the Future of Work.

https://www.notion.so/about

How to organise your academic life: Notion for Students

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-1xk5jtCEc

Conrad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyTRORCMqME

16:00 Presentations = reading objects as objects of ideology

OUTCOMES:

Group 1 HAIR https://app.mural.co/t/gersandeschellinx5347/m/gersandeschellinx5347/1642602730710/9fa932915525c1806f1d42d6fca16d1850460ca0?fromVisitorModal=true&sender=uf53cc463fcfb1378069c3578

Group 2 NOISE CANCELLING DEVICES (kamo chae grgr mitsa) https://pad.xpub.nl/p/noice_cancelling_devices_turns_off_also_your_inner

HOMEWORK: Between now and your next session with Lidia, form reading groups and review the texts we have been looking at so far...make sure record is made of notes and discussions arising from your readings...

Week 3

Tuesday, January 25th

With: Lidia, Manetta, Michael and Steve

• Games as reproductive technologies: the base-superstructure model, Adorno and Horkheimer's critique of the cultural industry, Stuart Hall's deconstruction of the popular
• "Turning players into payers" / Predatory monetization schemes: in-game advertising, micro-transactions, loot boxes, downloadable content, NFTs, etc.

Reading/Watching:

• "Notes on Deconstructing 'The Popular'" by Stuart Hall
• "The Addictive Cost Of Predatory Videogame Monetization (The Jimquisition)": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S-DGTBZU14
• "Predatory monetization schemes in video games (e.g. 'loot boxes') and internet gaming disorder", by Daniel L. King and Paul H. Delfabbro
• http://icantbelieveitsnotgambling.com/
• "Super Mario Bros. 3: Pick a box; its contents will deceive you?": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJASn5J4uO8

Further Reading:

• "The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception" from Dialectic of Enlightenment by Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer
• File:Basesuperstructure.pdf "Base and Superstructure in Marxist Cultural Theory" by Raymond Williams
• "Encoding, Decoding" by Stuart Hall
• File:Digitalplay.pdf "Digital play: the interaction of technology, culture, and marketing" by Stephen Kline, Nick Dyer-Witheford, Greig de Peuter
• "We Are All Very Anxious" by the Institute for Precarious Consciousness

Today's pad: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/25012022

Assignment: Go into the reading or/and the mapping groups and further process the materials in the way you find the most helpful. And don't forget the weekly one-sentence game idea: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/2022_onesentencegameideas

Week 4

Tuesday, February 1th

With: Lidia, Manetta, Michael and Steve

• Digestive morning: Crystallizing thoughts on gamification, predatory monetization schemes in videogames, ideology and counter-hegemony
• Individual tutorials for discussing first thoughts and ideas

Today's pad: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/01022022

Wednesday, February 2nd

RW&RM Session with Steve

NO NEW STUFF = we spend some time with the things we have already looked at.

11:00-13:00 we compile a glossary of terms.

AM: Glossary of terms (a definition; including examples from our own experience)

14:00-16:30 We go back to the texts we have read so far and look at them in more detail

PM: reading / annotation groups of 3 (relate to own experience)

16:30 group feedback session.

Week 5

Tuesday, February 8th

• Modding, machinima and fan culture: ambivalence between incorporated prosumerism and tactical media
• From gold farming to Gamergate and the alt-right

Reading:

• "Productive Play: Game Culture From the Bottom Up" by Celia Pearce vs "The Multitude and the Media" from "Games of Empire" by Nick Dyer-Witheford and Greig de Peuter
• Chapter 2: "Game Modding: Cross-Over Mutation and Unwelcome Gifts" from "The Player’s Power to Change the Game" by Anne-Marie Schleiner
• "Smart Play: Social Stereotypes, Identity Building, and Counter Narratives of Gold Farmers in China" by Zixue Tai and Fengbin Hu in Woke Gaming (ed. Kishonna Gray and David Leonard)
• "Steve Bannon Saw the ‘Monster Power’ of Angry Gamers While Farming Gold in World of Warcraft" https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/07/steve-bannon-world-of-warcraft-gold-farming.html
• "Ctrl-Alt-Del: GamerGate as a precursor to the rise of the alt-right" by Kirstin MS Bezio

Wednesday, February 9th

Public Lecture:

• (TBC): Paolo Pedercini: http://paolo.molleindustria.org/

Week 6

Tuesday, February 15th

• Videogames as a possible arena for contesting feminist leisure
• Production mode: engage

Reading:

• "Chapter 2: PWNing Leisure" in "Play like a Feminist", by Shira Chess
• "Feminist game environment" by Natacha Roussel

Wednesday, February 16th

• RW&RM with Steve

Week 7

Study Week

Wednesday, February 23rd

Public Lecture:

• Shira Chess: https://grady.uga.edu/faculty/shira-chess/

Week 8

Spring Holiday

Week 9

Tuesday, March 8th

• Production mode: engage

Public Lecture:

• Cory Arcangel: https://coryarcangel.com/

Week 10

Tuesday, March 15th

• Editorial support

Week 11

Tuesday, March 22th

• Editorial support

Friday, March 25th

• Launch!