Market share competition in the Chinese online game industry.

This study investigates the impacts of pricing innovations and other non-pricing dimensions on the market share competition of dominant Chinese online game companies. The empirical context of my research is the strategic behaviour of online game operators (i.e. the companies who operate online games) in the Chinese online game market – the most active market in the world with strong network effects. According to the literature review, previous pricing studies have focused mainly on the evaluation of traditional pricing theories and their limited validity for the information economy. Velu (2005) pointed out how dominant firms in a market with strong network effects adopt business innovations to sustain their market dominance. This study first investigates the validity of Velu‟s theory and then aims to develop and expand the theory of pricing practice by discussing how dominant companies integrate pricing and other non-pricing dimensions during market share competition. With the application of an analytical synthesis, this study covers large parts of the traditional economy and information economy literature by linking the concepts of „within‟ and „across‟ theories of pricing and competition. It finally brings together different theories and adopts Bouwman and MacInnes‟ virtual web idea as an original conceptual framework to give an insight into how the pricing process and other internal and external factors impact differently on the market share competition. The study adopts a descriptive multiple-case study strategy including five dominant Chinese online game companies and employs qualitative data collected from 64 interviewees and reliable secondary data from documentations and archival records.The findings suggest that, instead of devoting all their efforts to pricing innovation, the companies have turned to an exploration of their internal resources to enhance their competitiveness. Superficially, as an influential external factor, government regulations have constrained the operation of imported games. The study also discusses two internal themes that influence each company‟s competitive strength. They are: how to deal with the exodus of talent and how to handle strategic alliance management. There seems to be no previous research concerning the relationship between pricing innovation and market dominance within a new economy‟s service sector. As a consequence, this research should provide insights into this academic blind spot and rationalize the diversity of strategic theory within the specific industry

The Labor of Play: the Political Economy of Computer Game Culture

This dissertation questions the relationship between computer game culture and ideologies of neoliberalism and financialization. It questions the role computer games play in cultivating neoliberal practices and how the industry develops games and systems making play and work indistinguishable activities. Chapter 1 examines how computer game inculcate players into neoliberal practice through play. In chapter 2, the project shows Blizzard Entertainment systematically redevelops their games to encourage perpetual play aimed at increasing the consumption of digital commodities and currencies. Chapter 3 considers the role of esports, or professional competitive computer game play, to disperse neoliberal ideologies amongst nonprofessional players. Chapter 4 examines the streaming platform Twitch and the transformation of computer gameplay into a consumable commodity. This chapter examines Twitch’s systems designed at making production and consumption inseparable practices. The dissertation concludes by examining the economic, conceptual, and theoretical collapses threatening game culture and the field of game studies

Market share competition in the Chinese online game industry

This study investigates the impacts of pricing innovations and other non-pricing dimensions on the market share competition of dominant Chinese online game companies. The empirical context of my research is the strategic behaviour of online game operators (i.e. the companies who operate online games) in the Chinese online game market – the most active market in the world with strong network effects. According to the literature review, previous pricing studies have focused mainly on the evaluation of traditional pricing theories and their limited validity for the information economy. Velu (2005) pointed out how dominant firms in a market with strong network effects adopt business innovations to sustain their market dominance. This study first investigates the validity of Velu‟s theory and then aims to develop and expand the theory of pricing practice by discussing how dominant companies integrate pricing and other non-pricing dimensions during market share competition. With the application of an analytical synthesis, this study covers large parts of the traditional economy and information economy literature by linking the concepts of „within‟ and „across‟ theories of pricing and competition. It finally brings together different theories and adopts Bouwman and MacInnes‟ virtual web idea as an original conceptual framework to give an insight into how the pricing process and other internal and external factors impact differently on the market share competition. The study adopts a descriptive multiple-case study strategy including five dominant Chinese online game companies and employs qualitative data collected from 64 interviewees and reliable secondary data from documentations and archival records.The findings suggest that, instead of devoting all their efforts to pricing innovation, the companies have turned to an exploration of their internal resources to enhance their competitiveness. Superficially, as an influential external factor, government regulations have constrained the operation of imported games. The study also discusses two internal themes that influence each company‟s competitive strength. They are: how to deal with the exodus of talent and how to handle strategic alliance management. There seems to be no previous research concerning the relationship between pricing innovation and market dominance within a new economy‟s service sector. As a consequence, this research should provide insights into this academic blind spot and rationalize the diversity of strategic theory within the specific industry.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

The value chain in the Asian online gaming industry: a case study of Taiwan

This research examines the changing nature of the Asian online gaming industry and the position of Taiwan in the regional market. The evidence used was gathered through fieldwork conducted in Taiwan, Beijing and Shanghai from January to October in 2007. Firstly, it explores the situation from the perspective of political economy in order to understand the process of commodification, including production, marketing and distribution. The research establishes that the game industry operates within a highly competitive market requiring substantial investments. Since game production requires complex technological skills, there is a high capital cost, and the process is very time consuming. Today's online gaining business has segmented into different sectors with varying roles, i.e. developer, publisher, distributor and operator, controlled by different players in the business. The research shows that Asian game firms seek vertical synergies by expanding complex collaborative networks of production, marketing and operation in order to minimize costs and maximize profits. This implies that an international value chain has been established within the regional economy due to that the capacity of modern East Asian cities to accelerate the integration of the online gaming industry into regional economic activity. Secondly, online gaming overall is a popular form of interactive entertainment in the intra-Asian market. The key theories used to understand digital games are debated between narratology and ludology. However, neither is capable of providing an explanation for the Asian gaming culture. On further examination, certain types of game genres, 'wuxia' and 'cute' games, are found to have a particular appeal for Asian users. The wuxia genre is exclusively circulated in the greater Chinese cultural arena. The 'cute' game originates from the protagonists and themes of Japanese video games. This genre is well accepted by Asian users living in urban environments, and has become a force to unite city gainers in different Asian countries. Lastly, the thesis explores the unique position of Taiwan's game industry, which has been transformed from a test-bed for games aimed at the Chinese market into an intermediary between China and the rest of the world. Before 2002, Taiwan was regarded as a springboard for foreign firms wishing to enter the big Chinese market. Now, China's game industry has emerged and Chinese games have been exported to other Asian countries. Currently Taiwan is the biggest export market. The sophisticated features of the Taiwanese market mean that it can act as a stepping stone for Chinese game firms wishing to expand into wider regional and global markets

Knowledge extraction from the behaviour of players in a web browser game

Dissertação de mestrado em Informatics EngineeringThe analysis of the player’s behaviour is a requirement with growing popularity in the traditional computer games segment and has been proven to aid the developers create better and more profitable games. There is now interest in trying to replicate this attainment in a less conventional genre of games known as web browser games. The main objective of this work is to analyse and create a technique for the analysis of the behaviour of the players inside a web browser game. For this analysis a system to automatically collect, process and store the relevant data for the referred analysis was developed. The web browser game used as a case study for this work is developed by 5DLab and is called Wack-a- Doo. The work developed focused on creating short-term prediction models using the information collected during the first days of playing for each player. The objectives of these models are to predict the time played or the conversion state of the players. With the study of the created models it was possible to extract results that provide potentially useful information to increase the profitability of Wack-a-Doo.A análise do comportamento de jogadores é uma prática com crescente popularidade no segmento dos jogos de vídeo tradicionais. Esta técnica foi já aprovada como capaz de ajudar os criadores a desenvolver melhores e mais lucrativos jogos. Existe agora interesse em tentar replicar este sucesso num género de jogos de vídeo menos convencionais normalmente referidos como jogos de browser web. O objetivo deste trabalho é analisar e criar uma técnica para essa análise do comportamento dos jogadores de um jogo de browser web. Para isto um sistema automático de recolha, processamento e armazenamento dos dados relacionados com o comportamento dos jogadores foi desenvolvido. O jogo de browser web usado para este estudo foi criado pela empresa 5DLab e dá pelo nome de Wack-a-Doo. O trabalho desenvolvido centrou-se em fazer modelos de previsão de curto prazo usando as informações recolhidas durante os primeiros dias de jogo de cada jogador. Estes modelos têm como objetivo prever o tempo jogado e o estado de conversão do jogador. Estudando os modelos criados foi possível extrair resultados que fornecem informação potencialmente útil para melhorar a rentabilidade do Wack-a-Doo

L337 Soccer Moms: Conceptions of Hardcore and Casual in the Digital Games Medium

As digital games have become increasingly significant in the entertainment media landscape, the terms “casual” and “hardcore” have become the primary ways to describe gaming audiences, genres, and gameplay. However, these terms are saturated with outdated stereotypes involving gender, age, and class. Focusing on industrial discourse, this thesis examines this dichotomy, emphasizing areas of discontinuity and overlap to question why these terms have become so ubiquitous in gaming discourse and what functions they fulfill for a variety of groups including the industry, advertisers, and audience members. Ultimately, I suggest that these terms need to be replaced in order to move beyond restrictive stereotypes, proposing a new framework for digital games that takes into consideration user motivation, personal investment, and historical specificity

BUILDING THE VIRTUAL WORLD: SOFTWARE, BETA TESTING, AND THE BIRTH AND DEATH OF THE SIMS ONLINE

Originally released in 2002, The Sims Online (TSO) was one of the most hyped online games ever brought to market. Many critics believed its connection to The Sims would ensure its success. However, this potential was never reached, and in August of 2008, EA/Maxis shut down TSO, terminating users' accounts and removing all traces of it from the Internet. Despite its failure, TSO remains an interesting text for analysis, especially as a case study of the growing importance of virtual worlds on the Internet, and as a cautionary tale for future virtual world development. Combining a cultural studies approach with the emerging media studies' subfields of "ludology" and "software studies" this dissertation examines the formative period of TSO's development--how was the game developed, created, and used in its earliest stages (especially its beta test, in which users play the game before the official release in order to uncover problems with the software). Whereas previous examples of the Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) genre were fantasy-based, TSO fashioned a world very much modeled on the familiar; players would navigate their Sim avatar through a landscape filled with simulacrums of the material artifacts, cultural rituals, and social practices that are common in American culture. TSO was not a game about battle and conquest--it was a game about the meaning of production and consumption in our lives and leisure. The dissertation focuses on the overlapping and even blurring meaning of consumption and production in users' experience of TSO, as well as in the architecture of the game. The analysis of the crucial beta test phase provides a particularly focused examination of the collision of these terms

The Convergence of Structure and Design Between Video Games and Video Gambling

This study looks at the incorporation of video game design and structure into contemporary slot machines. The investigation was guided by theoretical and empirical works from a range of scholarly fields: gambling studies, video-game studies, digital communication, psychology, and sociology. Two methodological designs were employed. The first phase used a content analysis that identified the distribution of video-game styles and design in the most recent slot games on display at a major industry conference. The second phase employed semi-structured interviews with both experienced and inexperienced slot players to assess the impact of different design elements on their playing experience and motivation to play. Findings indicate that current slot machines share some similarities with video game mechanics through the introduction of more complex structure and multiple goals or games within games. Slot machines can resemble the immersive elements video games with the use of sophisticated graphics and sound design as well as the incorporation of complex themes and interactive animated characters. Eight gamblers with experience ranging from novice to highly experience participated in in-depth interviews. The interviews suggest that, like with video game players, some slot players might be more attracted to complex game mechanics in slot machines while other players are more interested in the immersive elements. The implications for the future of slot machine design, the study of slot machine design on problem gambling, and the use of digital space to introduce play into gambling are discussed

Organizacijsko modeliranje višeagentnih sustava velikih razmjera s primjenom na računalne igre

The most popular and frequent methods of conducting a system of agents, of smallor large-scale, are those based on swarm intelligence, and organisational models. Organisational models for multi-agent systems are being developed alongside their role in the modern world. Technological improvements lead to creation of systems comprising thousands, or millions, of agents – large-scale multiagent system (LSMAS). Numerous LSMAS application domains (Internet of Everything (IoE), massively multi-player online games (MMOGs), smart cities, etc.) make LSMAS a genuinely useful concept in the modern era. Recent studies argue higher efficiency of LSMAS with imposed organisation, as opposed to systems with emerging intelligence. This makes organisational modelling of LSMAS a particularly interesting research subject. Organisational model based on ontology comprising LSMAS-related organisational concepts, built conforming to modern organisational perspectives for LSMAS, is a step towards easier LSMAS modelling. The ontology is basis for an organisational metamodel for LSMAS, which, coupled with graph grammars and logic, is suitable for modelling organisational dynamics, especially in the domain of massively multi-player online role-playing games (MMORPGs).Najpoznatiji i najučestaliji oblici uređenja sustava agenata, velikog ili malog razmjera, su oni koji se temelje na inteligenciji roja i oni koji svoje osnove vuku iz organizacijskih modela. Organizacijski modeli višeagentnih sustava razvijaju se usporedno s ulogom takvih sustava u modernom svijetu. Razvojem tehnologije stvaraju se sustavi koji broje tisuće ili milijuneagenata–višeagentnisustavivelikihrazmjera(VASVR).Mnogobrojneaplikacijske domene za VASVR (Internet svega, mrežne računalne igre namijenjene većem broju igrača (MMORPG), pametni gradovi i sl.) čine VASVR realno potrebnim konceptom u moderno doba. Recentna istraživanja ukazuju na veću učinkovitost VASVR uređenih temeljem organizacijske teorije, od onih koji prate inteligencija roja, te je stoga organizacijsko modeliranje VASVR iznimno interesantno podučje za istraživanje. Organizacijski model temeljen na ontologiji organizacijskih koncepata i modernim načelima organizacije VASVR korak je prema lakšem oblikovanju VASVR. Ontologija je baza za organizacijski metamodel za VASVR koji, spojen s gramatikama grafova i logikom, dobiva na prikladnosti za modeliranje organizacijske dinamike, naročito u domeni MMORPG

Organizacijsko modeliranje višeagentnih sustava velikih razmjera s primjenom na računalne igre

The most popular and frequent methods of conducting a system of agents, of smallor large-scale, are those based on swarm intelligence, and organisational models. Organisational models for multi-agent systems are being developed alongside their role in the modern world. Technological improvements lead to creation of systems comprising thousands, or millions, of agents – large-scale multiagent system (LSMAS). Numerous LSMAS application domains (Internet of Everything (IoE), massively multi-player online games (MMOGs), smart cities, etc.) make LSMAS a genuinely useful concept in the modern era. Recent studies argue higher efficiency of LSMAS with imposed organisation, as opposed to systems with emerging intelligence. This makes organisational modelling of LSMAS a particularly interesting research subject. Organisational model based on ontology comprising LSMAS-related organisational concepts, built conforming to modern organisational perspectives for LSMAS, is a step towards easier LSMAS modelling. The ontology is basis for an organisational metamodel for LSMAS, which, coupled with graph grammars and logic, is suitable for modelling organisational dynamics, especially in the domain of massively multi-player online role-playing games (MMORPGs).Najpoznatiji i najučestaliji oblici uređenja sustava agenata, velikog ili malog razmjera, su oni koji se temelje na inteligenciji roja i oni koji svoje osnove vuku iz organizacijskih modela. Organizacijski modeli višeagentnih sustava razvijaju se usporedno s ulogom takvih sustava u modernom svijetu. Razvojem tehnologije stvaraju se sustavi koji broje tisuće ili milijuneagenata–višeagentnisustavivelikihrazmjera(VASVR).Mnogobrojneaplikacijske domene za VASVR (Internet svega, mrežne računalne igre namijenjene većem broju igrača (MMORPG), pametni gradovi i sl.) čine VASVR realno potrebnim konceptom u moderno doba. Recentna istraživanja ukazuju na veću učinkovitost VASVR uređenih temeljem organizacijske teorije, od onih koji prate inteligencija roja, te je stoga organizacijsko modeliranje VASVR iznimno interesantno podučje za istraživanje. Organizacijski model temeljen na ontologiji organizacijskih koncepata i modernim načelima organizacije VASVR korak je prema lakšem oblikovanju VASVR. Ontologija je baza za organizacijski metamodel za VASVR koji, spojen s gramatikama grafova i logikom, dobiva na prikladnosti za modeliranje organizacijske dinamike, naročito u domeni MMORPG