Fools gold? Developer dilemmas in a closed mobile application market platform

In this paper, we outline some potential conflicts that platform owners and software developers face in mobile application markets. Our arguments are based on comments captured in specialized online discussion forums, in which developers gather to share knowledge and experiences. The key findings indicate conflicts of interests, including 1) intra-platform competition, 2) discriminative promotion, 3) entry prevention, 4) restricted monetization, 5) restricted knowledge sharing, 6) substitution, and 7) strategic technology selection. Opportunistic platform owners may use their power to discriminate between third-part software developers. However, there are also potential strategic solutions that developers can apply; for example diversification (multi-homing), syndication and brand building.Comment: Presented at the 15th International Conference on Electronic Commerce, ICEC 2013, Turku, Finland, August 13-15, 201

A monument to the player: Preserving a landscape of socio-cultural capital in the transitional MMORPG

This is the pre-print version of the Article. The official published version can be accessed from the links below - Copyright @ 2012 Taylor & Francis LtdMassively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) produce dynamic socio-ludic worlds that nurture both culture and gameplay to shape experiences. Despite the persistent nature of these games, however, the virtual spaces that anchor these worlds may not always be able to exist in perpetuity. Encouraging a community to migrate from one space to another is a challenge now facing some game developers. This paper examines the case of Guild Wars® and its “Hall of Monuments”, a feature that bridges the accomplishments of players from the current game to the forthcoming sequel. Two factor analyses describe the perspectives of 105 and 187 self-selected participants. The results reveal four factors affecting attitudes towards the feature, but they do not strongly correlate with existing motivational frameworks, and significant differences were found between different cultures within the game. This informs a discussion about the implications and facilitation of such transitions, investigating themes of capital, value perception and assumptive worlds. It is concluded that the way subcultures produce meaning needs to be considered when attempting to preserve the socio-cultural landscape

The economics of free: freemium games, branding and the impatience economy

The gaming industry has seen dramatic change and expansion with the emergence of ‘casual’ games that promote shorter periods of game play. Free to download, but structured around micro-payments, these games raise the complex relationship between game design and commercial strategies. Although offering a free gameplay experience in line with open access philosophies, these games also create systems that offer control over the temporal dynamics of that experience to monetise player attention and inattention. This article will examine three ‘freemium’ games, Snoopy Street Fair, The Simpsons’ Tapped Out and Dragonvale, to explore how they combine established branding strategies with gameplay methods that monetise player impatience. In examining these games, this article will ultimately indicate the need for game studies to interrogate the intersection between commercial motivations and game design 2 and a broader need for media and cultural studies to consider the social, cultural, economic and political implications of impatience

Good Gig, Bad Gig: Autonomy and Algorithmic Control in the Global Gig Economy

This article evaluates the job quality of work in the remote gig economy. Such work consists of the remote provision of a wide variety of digital services mediated by online labour platforms. Focusing on workers in Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, the article draws on semi-structured interviews in six countries (N = 107) and a cross-regional survey (N = 679) to detail the manner in which remote gig work is shaped by platform-based algorithmic control. Despite varying country contexts and types of work, we show that algorithmic control is central to the operation of online labour platforms. Algorithmic management techniques tend to offer workers high levels of flexibility, autonomy, task variety and complexity. However, these mechanisms of control can also result in low pay, social isolation, working unsocial and irregular hours, overwork, sleep deprivation and exhaustion

Materializing digital collecting: an extended view of digital materiality

If digital objects are abundant and ubiquitous, why should consumers pay for, much less collect them? The qualities of digital code present numerous challenges for collecting, yet digital collecting can and does occur. We explore the role of companies in constructing digital consumption objects that encourage and support collecting behaviours, identifying material configuration techniques that materialise these objects as elusive and authentic. Such techniques, we argue, may facilitate those pleasures of collecting otherwise absent in the digital realm. We extend theories of collecting by highlighting the role of objects and the companies that construct them in materialising digital collecting. More broadly, we extend theories of digital materiality by highlighting processes of digital material configuration that occur in the pre-objectification phase of materialisation, acknowledging the role of marketing and design in shaping the qualities exhibited by digital consumption objects and consequently related consumption behaviours and experiences

Valuation of Participation in Social Gaming

National Research Foundation (NRF) Singapore under International Research Centre @ Singapore Funding Initiativ

The relationship between ownership and possession: observations from the context of digital virtual goods

This theoretical article highlights limitations in the current trend towards dichotomizing full ownership and access-based consumption by recognizing a broader, more complex array of ‘fragmented’ ownership configurations in the context of digital virtual goods 10 (DVGs). In challenging this dichotomy, we recognise that the relationship between ownership and possession becomes particularly significant. We therefore consider how prominent DVG ownership configurations may shape the way in which possession is assembled, potentially reducing consumers’ scope of action rela- 15 tive to DVGs and leaving possession susceptible to disruption. Conversely, we acknowledge ways in which consumers’ continued attempts at possession may impinge upon the agency of ownership mechanisms within the market. Our analysis ultimately builds upon existing understandings of both ownership and possession, 20 theorizing their often overlooked relation in consumptio

Crowdsourcing: A new tool for policy-making?

Crowdsourcing is rapidly evolving and applied in situations where ideas, labour, opinion or expertise of large groups of people are used. Crowdsourcing is now used in various policy-making initiatives; however, this use has usually focused on open collaboration platforms and specific stages of the policy process, such as agenda-setting and policy evaluations. Other forms of crowdsourcing have been neglected in policy-making, with a few exceptions. This article examines crowdsourcing as a tool for policy-making, and explores the nuances of the technology and its use and implications for different stages of the policy process. The article addresses questions surrounding the role of crowdsourcing and whether it can be considered as a policy tool or as a technological enabler and investigates the current trends and future directions of crowdsourcing. Keywords: Crowdsourcing, Public Policy, Policy Instrument, Policy Tool, Policy Process, Policy Cycle, Open Collaboration, Virtual Labour Markets, Tournaments, Competition

Real-Money Trade of Virtual Assets: New Strategies for Virtual World Operators

Game assets such as characters, currencies and items are increasingly being traded for real money. Game operators have reacted in various ways: some attempt to curtail the trade, while others encourage it. A growing number are getting involved in the trade themselves. In this paper I develop a classification based on marketstructures that maps the range of strategies available to an operator for dealing with real­money virtual asset trade. I apply the classification in four case studies and explore the implications of the various strategies on business, design and customer satisfaction. The case titles are EverQuest, Ultima Online, Habbo Hotel and Project Entropia. The results aim to help designers and business developers deal with the real­money trade phenomenon in a more structured manner