toward economic platform studies

toward economic platform studies

Sebastian Deterding (@dingstweets) Digital Creativity Labs, University of York

April 18, 2016 cb

how do economic conditions

game aesthetics

afford ?

economic platform studies

constrain

why should we study this?

»I’ve come to see sustainability as the most pressing issue for keeping the margins of indie games from fraying ... Support for games as an artform ... means recognizing the importance of creating an infrastructure to support the medium and not just the commerce.«

- john sharp on why he left indiecade

what do i mean?

economic conditions

game aesthetics

economic conditions

game aesthetics

Taboo

»There’s no other word for it except evil.« - jonathan blow on social games

game design

game play

game design

game play

game design

game play

game design

game play

micropayment

friend recruitment

business data

monetisation

social games

social game designers openly “talk shop”

social games

economic conditions aesthetic forms

• Freemium revenue model • Game-as-a-service • Rich user analytics • High economies of scale • Vast reach

• Free-to-play • Hyper-casual difficulty,

positive themes • “Dark patterns” that

drive acquisition, retention, monetisation

• Maximise user acquisition and lifetime monetisation

nothing new under the sun

nothing new under the sun

nothing new under the sun

microtransaction

moral outrage

design response

coin-op arcade games

economic conditions aesthetic forms

• Luck-based gambling outlawed • Extracting money from public

space passer-byes• Flashy exterior • Skill-based gameplay, no

monetary payout • Limited attempts of

short duration • Easy to pick up • Steep difficulty curve • High replay value

• Pay-per-play revenue model

• Maximise desire to start and continue

• Minimise play per pay

aaa games

137 mio. US$ development 128 mio. US$ marketing 60 mio. copies shipped since 2013 1 bn. US$ revenue in first 3 days

aaa games

economic conditions aesthetic forms

• One-time, upfront purchase • high economies of scale • high purchase risk for consumers • saturated market

Heavily marketed blockbusters to reduce risk

• Few titles • Established genres,

stories, mechanics • Sequeling established IP • High production values • Marketable, “flashy”

features

• high risk/reward for producers

game design

game play

aaa games

economic conditions

how do we theorise this?

context text

a contextualising question

text ???

context ???

economic platform studies

game

platform

platform studies

film style

mode of production

production studies

business models

a suggestion

business ecosystems

conventions

styles, genres

how do we study this?

initial suggestions

• Comparing across cases, times, cultures, places, media surfaces the taken-for-granted.

• We need to identify in what wholes economic conditions and aesthetic forms occur “in the wild” and then taxonomise those.

• We need to trace in empirical detail how one affects the other.

1. All game aesthetics are affected by economic conditions. 2. At any given point, certain forms and degrees of economic impact is normalised; deviations are met with moral outrage. 3. “how?” is the question of economic platform studies. 4. Answering it can help nurture the aesthetic forms we find desirable. 5. Economic conditions can be traced as functional wholes within functional wholes: business models in ecosystems. 6. Aesthetic forms can be traced as wholes of conventions: styles, genres. 7. Next steps are taxonomising the two and tracing their linkage.

in summary

sebastian@codingconduct.cc

@dingstweets

codingconduct.cc

thank you.