Advanced seminar in media technology by Anna M. Ozimek, postdoctoral research fellow at Tallinn University.

Topic

The success of independent game developers has always been associated with their developing relationships with player communities. However, as competition increases in the global videogame market, unequal access to development and marketing resources and the monopolistic position of key online distribution platforms are increasingly influential factors. Therefore, ‘relational labour’ has become a prerogative in all stages of the game development process. According to Baym (2019:18), relational labour is ‘the ongoing, interactive, affective, material, and cognitive work of communicating with people over time to create structures that support continued work’. Baym (2019) discussed the concept of relational labour in the context of independent musicians and their audiences, thereby demonstrating the complexities and struggles of constant communication, the development of genuine relationships and the setting of boundaries. Whitson et al. (2018) expanded Baym’s concept of relational labour by discussing the work of independent game developers beyond their focus on relationships with audiences.

Their investigation underscored the importance of other actors in the independent game development ecosystem, including investors, cultural intermediaries and broader communities. In this presentation, I engage further with this concept and focus on the dynamics of relational labour outside the main game production regions (such as North America and the Asia-Pacific region) by discussing relational labour of independent game developers in Poland and Estonia. In short, this presentation expands the understanding of relationships between local labour and the global videogame market.

Drawing on analyses of game development blogs, developers’ social media engagement and 67 in-depth interviews, I will illustrate how independent game developers establish, learn about and maintain relationships with their audiences and broader communities of independent developers. My talk will explore three elements of relational labour: communication with audiences, setting boundaries and developing skills to perform relational labour.

First, I will discuss communication practices between developers and their audiences. Independent game developers constantly inform their audiences of their development process, establishing rapport and inviting people to provide feedback. They communicate with a variety of online platforms, from Twitter to Twitch. They also use offline platforms, such as conferences. This process of constant communication requires emotional labour and relies on the construction of authenticity associated with independent game development.

Second, players’ communities sometimes have very strong opinions about games or development processes, and development teams must therefore set the boundaries of their engagement with these audiences. Third, I will demonstrate how game developers acquire skills and knowledge about production, distribution, business development and community formation. Relational labour not only extends to different actors within the independent game production ecosystem, it is also based on unequally distributed resources. Therefore, this presentation discusses how developers positioned on the periphery of game production learn about and approach relational labour to understand and develop their own work practices.

References

• Baym, N. 2018. Playing to the Crowd. Musicians, Audiences, and the Intimate Work of Connection. New York: New York University Press.

Bio

Anna M. Ozimek is a postdoctoral research fellow at Tallinn University. Anna received her PhD from the School of Media and Communication in the University of Leeds. Her thesis Videogame Work in Poland: Investigating Creative Labour in a Post-socialist Cultural industry explored the construction of entrepreneurial subjectivities among Polish game workers. Her research interests include: creative labour, the political economy of cultural industries and development of videogame industries in the Central and Eastern Europe.

Fika will be served generously.