The Platformization of gaming: An evaluation of the culture industry in regards to platform effects.
Nikiforos Pingouras Student Id: 11710039 Masters Thesis
New Media and Digital Culture University of Amsterdam Supervisor: Dr. Alex Gekker
Abstract:
This paper attempts to study the effects of the large platform corporations on the gaming industry, as part of the culture industry, on the common interdisciplinary ground created by Platform Theory, as proposed by Nieborg, Poell and van Dijck. This common ground is seen in the admission
throughout the literature that platform capitalism has significantly altered and continues to alter the production, distribution and monetization of cultural products in ways which are not clearly
understood and thus require further study. The study finds interesting platform effects within the examined market segment namely that, the PC gaming market is now subject to additional platform effects on the landscape created by the current tech giants. The thesis concludes on the premise that platformization entails interesting research opportunities for new media studies, but is also crucial in understanding and anticipating both negative and positive effects that large platform corporations can have on contemporary culture and consumer rights.
Key Words: Platform Theory, Platformization, Political Economy, Cultural Production, Culture Industry, Video-Games.
1. Introduction
2. (Another) Framework on researching platform capitalism in games
2.1 The importance of interdisciplinary approaches and the role of critique 2.2 The precarious position of the Personal Computer
2.3 Digital store platforms: The case of Valve's Steam Games 2.4 Game Publishers and video-games as platforms
2.5 The role of Immaterial labor in the platformization of gaming
3. Towards a User-Centered approach in examining the platformization of PC gaming 3.1 A walkthrough inspired method of identifying platformization
3.2 A step by step guide to the platformized gamer 4. The aspects of platformization in PC gaming
4.1 Monopoly (The Store not the game): Digital games stores on the PC 4.2 Multi platform(ized) gaming
4.3 The new in-game frontier
5 Conclusion: The future of the games industry and how to avoid it 6. Literature
1. Introduction
Studying cultural production has always been a challenge, considering the rapid and unprecedented changes (Jenkins and Deuze 5; Srnicek 3) in all of the facets of contemporary civilization, social, political, and economic ones. Yet the current post-industrial, fast evolving media landscape also poses new opportunities to research and understand these changes. While industrial Capitalism has shifted away from the western “developed” nations (Lazzarato in Pendakis, et al 85-86.), it has given way towards a new form of rapidly expanding service-based economy (ibid). The increased value gained by information, as a form of commodity exchange (Castells 75), has given incentive for unprecedented development in the realms of tech and media industries, this
development is indicative of the wider systemic changes within the current capitalist system (Betancourt 192). That is why, by taking a look at the most powerful actors behind these changes can shed light in the endeavor to map and understand -or perhaps even anticipate - how they affect politics, economics and culture (Gillespie 347–364).
These actors that are able to take full advantage of the current value given to digital information, by gathering, processing, and manipulating data, are none other than the large five, Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft, coequally known as GAFAM (Nieborg and Poell 4276). By studying the current tech giants, researchers have observed how the sheer power of these corporations can influence other parts of the service sector, in this case, cultural production (ibid). Therefore, a research opportunity exists in studying how large platform corporations influence cultural production through the theory of platformization.
Platformization, as proposed by Nieborg and Poell, is briefly explained as, the permeation “of economic and infrastructural extensions of online platforms” within the internet, intervening with the “production, distribution, and circulation of cultural content” (4276). The present thesis follows Nieborg and Poell's suggestion at the end of their article (4288) and acts as a contribution to the academic discussion on the platformization of cultural production by illustrating such instances in the cultural production of video-games.
Specifically, this paper focuses on the Personal Computer (PC) segment of the gaming industry, because of its observed state of transition towards a more heavily platformized market. This transitioning state is of critical value as part of the endeavor to gain a deeper insight on how platformization affects cultural production, in terms of creating, producing, and distributing (4275) “cultural artifacts” (Jenkins 120), in this case, video-games. A broader argument is additionally made throughout thesis on the ability of video-game focused research to serve as predictor to broader platformization processes in other media. Video-games are seen here as being as old as
computers themselves (Aarseth 1), and thus can be understood as a precursor to contemporary interactive media, like today's social media platforms. It is this state of being the oldest new media that is important as a means of understanding contemporary digital media, that may not have had the same time to mature and be studied in as much of a depth. Or even from an economic
perspective, the latest in digital media (again referring to social media platforms), are not yet as mature and thus not at the same level understood, with regards to their impact and changes within the global economy and audience.
Therefore, by examining the relatively well established gaming industry, I attempted to anticipate and understand the current and near future cultural production, and the ways with which it is fundamentally affected and thus increasingly “dependent” on the largest digital platforms that are affecting the “economic, governmental and infrastructural” (Nieborg and Poell 4276), aspects of contemporary culture. Consequentially, as part of the endeavor to study and understand digital culture via this project, I am attempting to illuminate platform effects, within contemporary video-games, on the PC platform, and extrapolate on how these effects are positioned within the wider academic dialogue on the platformization of cultural production.
In order to be able to shed as much light as possible on the platformization of cultural production on the PC platform, within the limitations of a master's thesis, a primary selection was made on some of the most prominent players of this market segment. Similarly to the tech industry's GAFAM, the PC gaming market has a small number of corporations competing for total control over it. For the needs of this thesis, tech companies with varying degrees of dependence on the PC gaming market have been selected as the primary focus of this endeavor. The selected cases are: Microsoft, Valve, Electronic Arts, ActivisionBlizzard, and Ubisoft.
To sum, this thesis uses the theory of Platformization as presented by Nieborg and Poell, as a means to shed light on the effects of major gaming companies on the culture industry. Video-games were selected as the focus of this attempt, because of their longevity compared to other more recent forms of digital media. The PC games market was consequently selected because of its
contemporary situation, being in transition towards a more platformized version of itself (this will be further justified in the next chapters), and thus allowing the researcher to gain insight on how large platform practices affect the culture industry, as these changes are currently happening in the PC market segment.
Chapter two, poses a framework on how this thesis tackles platformization, by presenting and justifying the selection of the PC gaming market. This thesis combines, political economic critique as the primary way with which the researcher is able to examine platformization, in the selected market segment, because of the ability to illustrate the primary forces that are responsible
for the platformization of cultural production. The primary reason identified in the literature is that of the increasing concentration of power at the hands of a few market players (Nieborg “Political Economy of the App” 236; Srnicek 8; Fuchs 21,129). In understanding the increasing concentration that leads to Economic, Governmental and Infrastructural (Nieborg, Poell and Van Dijck 6) effects on the production of culture, the use of business studies (Nieborg “Crushing Candy” 2), software studies (ibid 4281, 4285; ibid), and cultural studies was also key in being able to gain a
comprehensive insight into the “black boxes” of proprietary software (Zittrain 56) examined here. Afterwards, the selected Personal Computer market video-game segment, is dissected into its respective parts, so as to make the analysis more comprehensive. After defining the Personal Computer, I delve into a brief description of the Windows operating system, the de-facto monopoly on which the rest of the PC game cultural production takes place. The dominant digital web store, that of Steam Games, is briefly presented as the primary video-game distribution platform on the PC (Joseph iii), consequentially, three of the largest game publishers are also briefly presented, in order to enable the examination of platformization within video-games, on the creation segment. The monetization of games is examined in regards to both the game publishers and the web store owners as it can be affected in both of the market parts. Finally, additional focus is given on the role of immaterial labor in maintaining and making platformization and platform like attributes
profitable, and thus inherently infectious to other industries. Finally, I end the chapter by presenting the reason behind the platformization of cultural production. Immaterial labor, is seen in this paper as the main driving force behind Platform Capitalism's expansion in the sector of cultural
production and is justified with some relevant examples from the examined material. In this case, the PC video-game market segment is examined in regards to the profitability of immaterial labor with practices such as personal user data extraction and manipulation, personalized experiences, advertisements etc that are present in the selected cases.
Chapter three acts as as my methodology for this thesis, describing in detail the process that took place in selecting and examining the relevant material. The paper follows Light, Burges and Duguay's “Walkthrough Method” (881), as the data extraction and evaluation method, every step of the data gathering process is presented in line with the walkthrough approach. This method was selected because of it's flexibility and ability to be combined with other methods and approaches (884), in my case it was combined with the operationalization of platformization as proposed by Nieborg Poell and Van Dijck (2).
In chapter four I present some of the most relevant and recent examples of platformization on the PC market segment, in regards to the economic, governmental and infrastructural platform effects identified in the literature (Nieborg, Poell and Van Dijck 6). The cases consist of five studies,
Valve's Steam Games is the primary focus in studying platformization, in regards to the distribution sector of PC gaming, while Microsoft's Xbox, ActivisionBlizzard's Battlenet, Electronic Arts Origin and Ubisoft's Uplay are also examined. After examining the digital stores and platforms, I present some interesting findings in the form of platformization present (built-in) in the latest game tittles released by the aforementioned game companies. I conclude the chapter by summing up the observed relations between the economic, governmental, and infrastructural effects of
platformization, as identified by my examination of the selected cases. The primary findings are then correlated to the role of immaterial labor as the driving force behind the platformization of cultural production.
In the concluding chapter, I sum up the most relevant findings, and address the initial question. The thesis concludes that, the platformization of cultural production on the PC video-game market segment, in the examined cases, shows that, platformization is changing video-games, from important cultural artifacts, towards social media and digital store platforms, this transformation is also stampeding consumer rights and freedoms, and increasingly places the user in the position of the worker through various mechanisms of value extraction from immaterial labor (such as generation of personal user data for advertising).
2. (Another) Framework on researching platform capitalism in games
The main goal of this chapter is to present a framework of platformization, illustrating both my (personal) theoretical background and the relevant literature regarding the platformization of cultural production, as a way to position my study within the plethora of interdisciplinary work regarding new media studies. The framework presented here illustrates the ways with which interdisciplinary work comes together to act as a basis on which to study platformization in the current PC gaming market. The chapter briefly presents the relevant cases and their importance in regards to the thesis research goal, which is to identify instances of platformization within the contemporary PC gaming market and connect these observations to the wider discussion on the platformization of cultural production.
2.1 The importance of interdisciplinary approaches and the role of critique
Considering, the various disciplines and approaches involved in the study of New Media, how does any researcher go about studying a specific media object within such a diverse array of disciplines and subjects? From sociology, psychology, programming, and computer sciences with current subjects from social media platforms, large media corporations, government policy, and cultural producers. Positioning oneself within a specific part of this large and diverse field of study
is a necessary step in order to be as concise and reliable as possible. As briefly illustrated during the introduction, the theory on which the present endeavor builds upon, is that of “Platformization” (Nieborg and Poell 4275-4290; Nieborg Poell and Van Dijck 1-9), Platformization entails a useful research approach in regards to two main factors, (1) the interdisciplinary perspective it offers, (2) the important role placed on political-economic critique.
Firstly, on the importance of an interdisciplinary perspective in the study of cultural production, Nieborg and Poell underline “blind spots” characterizing individual approaches in studying cultural production (Nieborg and Poell, 4277), and that this weakness results in much of the discipline-specific research having only “partial insight” (4276), in regards to the complexity of the current platformized landscape of cultural production. Therefore, by combining different approaches and literature from different parts of the academia, the “obscured” (4276) nature of PC gaming's platform was, in this case, significantly more observable. It was observed well enough so as to provide useful insight into the “black boxes” of proprietary software (Zittrain 56). For
example, in regards to the ways with which platformization has changed market relations, without the use of business studies literature and the observations from Rochet and Tirole (990), the switch from two sided-markets, towards multi sided configurations, would be overlooked. This is paradigm shift towards an entire new market structure that is not limited to the relation between consumer and producer, but includes actors like, game publishers, game creators, advertisers, and platform owners (Niebrog and Poell 4278; Nieborg, Poell and Van Dijck 7), without including business studies, would not have been considered as driving the expansion of platform effects within cultural production.
Another example of the usefulness of combining different approaches, is seen in the
illumination of the three main aspects of platformization in cultural production, or as I like to call it platform effects. These platform effects are dissected into Economic, Governmental and
Infrastructural (Nieborg, Poell and Van Dijck 6). Summarily, the economic effects are discovered with the use of business studies approaches and illustrate the market's transformation towards “miltisidedness” (Nieborg “Crushing Candy” 2), bypassing the traditional two sided nature of economic transactions between consumers and producers (Nieborg and Poell 4277,4282; Nieborg, Poell and Van Dijck 6-9). The second platform effect, the infastructural, is identified with the use of software studies literature (ibid 4281, 4285; ibid), and delves into the dependency of contemporary technological apparatuses (Bucher “If...Then” 83) on interconnected modular designs and a vast infrastructural support of today's web-based technologies, like server farms and data-centers.
The third platform effect is illustrated with the use of political economy and cultural studies and it is the governmental effect (Nieborg and Poell 4280, 4287; Nieborg, Poell and Van Dijck 6-9).
To me this is by far the most interesting effect as it illustrates the influence of current tech giants over workers, consumers and producers of cultural content. As it will be illustrated throughout the thesis, the concentration of power in the hands of a few large platform corporations creates a cascading reaction that, cumulatively further increases the influence of these tech grands over the market. This concentration of capital is explained by political economists like Nieborg (“Political Economy of the App” 236), Srnicek (8) and Fuchs (21,129), as the primary reason for platform corporations capability to manipulate the market, in order to bar competition and encroach on consumer and worker rights (Nieborg and Poell 2479; Nieborg 6,12).
In regards to the ways with which critical political economists like Srnicek and Fuchs criticize platform capitalisms increasing concentration, critique itself, is seen here as one of the greatest forces driving change in capitalism (Boltanski and Chiapello, p.163). Because criticism is usually coming from a sense of betrayal as a result of the “capitalist process” (Boltanski and Chiapello, p.162) and therefore is oftentimes seen as an abandonment of social values as a result of capitalism permeating in societal structures (ibid). As such, critique under capitalism is oftentimes critique against capitalism or aspects of it. For my case study, this entails that, critique can be used not only in order to examine ethical issues like surveillance, imperialism and exploitation (Fuchs 121,183), but also as a means to offer solutions towards “platform imperialism's” (Jin 167) tendencies towards totalitarian control (Betancourt 176), enabled by the above-mentioned concentration of power.
Because of these totalitarian tendencies, Boltanski and Chiapello insist that capitalism cannot be sustained only on its primary merit, namely, its “capacity for accumulation” (163) and thus requires some form of critique, if not towards its eventual demise then, at-least in order to provide it with some sort of “moral foundations” (ibid), that capitalism itself does not inherently have. Therefore, independently from the end goal of criticism, there is value to be had in utilizing critical political economy in order to understand how contingent platform effects such as the “monopolistic tendencies of platform markets” (Nieborg and Poel 4280), can affect cultural production.
Contingency is Described by Morris and Zittrain as one of the primary aspects of
contemporary software platforms, where acts like listening to music and viewing movies, or in this case playing a game, no longer consist of owning a piece of media, but are now dependent on server and telemetry infrastructures, and other modular services (Morris 181-182; Zittrain 107,). This dependency on a variety of other modules, causes a shift of ownership, from owning the media to renting it on several software platforms (ibid). The resulting shift of ownership in combination with the increasing concentration, not only limits consumer rights, on the basis that it reduces the very
act of owning a cultural product, to renting it for a limited amount of time, but additionally, the co-dependency created by contingent platform effects, creates a web of control that keeps users and produces of cultural content bound on the platform, and bars further competition (Gereffi 41; Nieborg 106).
One example of contingent platform effects examined here, is seen in the case of Valve's Steam Games. Because of it's dominant position in the PC gaming market, the digital web store platform effectively forces game creators, publishers and gamers to be bound by the platform. For the game creators and publishers, avoiding steam, means avoiding the lion's share of the PC market and for the consumers not using steam, means being cut off from the largest game library available on the PC. Valve's death-grip over various aspects of the market (like for example, the game publishing sector), is referred throughout literature as “network effects” (Nieborg Poell and Van Dijck 6; McIntyre and Srinivasan 142; Bresnahan 2-30; Dolata 10). Network effects in combination with contingency, make the concentration of power in the hands of these few companies extremely detrimental to all other actors involved in the PC gaming market, and thus warrants further critical examination.
Another way with which platform effects are examined here, is by having a more user focused approach, because of the ability to see platform effects through the eyes of the
consumer/player, as opposed to trying to peer into the obscure and oftentimes vigorously legally defended black-boxes of corporate algorithms and data extraction strategies. Studying cultural production via a user centered perspective was also beneficial in helping me recognize the complexity of contemporary culture. Sometimes this is a discussion about the complexity of the audience (Ien Ang, 182), or the complexity of the global economy (Arjun Appadurai, 588), or the complexity of the “global contemporary media/culture spectrum” (Annabelle Sreberny, 620), whereas Jesper Juul talks about layers of complexity in the form of player psychology in gaming (10). Therefore, by studying culture from a user's perspective I was able to shed light in additional facets of media that would otherwise be obscured from view.
In conclusion, by following Nieborg and Poell's examples of incorporating “business studies, political economy and software studies” (4277) into my research, in combination with a user-centered critical approach, I hope to be able to shed as much light as possible to the
aforementioned concealed inner workings of platformization, in a way that will contribute to the wider discussion on the platformization of cultural production. As a starting point into this endeavor, the Personal Computer (PC), as the oldest form of computer still used in private and professional instances, acts here as the basis of my examination from which I analyzed the various gaming related software in regards to platformization.
2.2 The precarious position of the Personal Computer
The description of what amalgamation of software and hardware can be defined as a Personal Computer (PC), varies largely throughout the different disciplines that study technology. From the initial inception of “IBM's PC Standard” (Sumner 101), the PC has diverged significantly in both form and function, especially considering the current state of “ubiquitous computing” (ibid; Lyytinen and Yoo 63-96), with computers embedded in everything from toasters, to smartphones, and tablets in ways with which are not easily visible in everyday life. Even if a standard-common definition for the PC existed throughout all of the tech related disciplines, as with all the things relevant to technology, today's definition might be enough, but inadequate for tomorrow's new technological advances.
That is why a brief use of semiotics can help shed light on the elusive definition of the Personal Computer (PC). Because the PC is neither a smartphone nor a tablet (at-least not yet), it can be defined in regards to the various other objects (Hall 5), namely computing devices currently in use by both consumers and producers of cultural products. Continuing the semiotics based trail of though, a personal computer is “A computer for individual use, typically, is a box with separate keyboard and monitor, or else a flat notebook with a fold-out screen” (Sumner 101), generally a device associated with table-top use and incompatible with many of the smallest portable devices and microcomputers like smartphones and tablets, with the exception of Notebooks/Laptops. This table-top definition is coupled with an increase in computing power and size. Thus, for the needs of this paper, a PC is defined as not being part of any portable device category, barring that of laptop computers (particularly as gaming-focused laptops exist), and is generally understood as having much higher computing power than microcomputers found in mobile smart-devices.
Yet with all of the aforementioned computing devices like tablets and smartphones, why study the cultural production of video-games only via the PC? As this study will illustrate, the PC market is in a very interesting position with regards to platformization, it is effectively a market segment under intense platform effects. While the relevant literature tackles the larger markets of Apple and Google's digital stores and their effective duopoly (Nieborg and Poell 4288; Nieborg Poell and Van Dijck 8-9), when it comes to the PC, this is not the case (yet), because these large dominating platforms (Google and Apple) are currently largely contained within the
smart-phone/device market segment.
In fact, this is another reason why, when it comes to the cultural production of video-games, the PC market segment is far more interesting as it is still a largely contested territory. Unlike the case of the video-game console market, where Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft have asserted an
effective oligopoly (Nieborg 106), the PC market is still several steps behind this trajectory and thus poses an interesting opportunity to study platform capitalism's basic principle of “concentration of ownership” (Srnicek 50), as it takes shape within the PC market segment. Indeed, literature suggests that sooner or later this market segment will follow the console market to become an effective oligopoly, due to the platform effect of “concentration” (Nieborg and Poell 2479; Nieborg 6,12; Van Dijck 32). Usually in the form of capital, concentration entails a constant cycle of increasing power at the hands of a select few market players (ibid). Therefore, within the confines of this paper I attempted to illustrate the concentration of capital as direct a result of the PC gaming market's platformization.
Analyzing the PC gaming market, also entails understanding (at-least on a basic level), how software works on this platform. Similarly to Montfort and Bogost's breakdown of the “underlying computer systems”, in their examination of the Atari video computer system (vii), in this case these, apart from the hardware systems, exist in three distinct levels of software: The Operating System (OS), the digital marketplace segment, and within the cultural product (video-games) itself. On the Operating System level, the effective monopoly of Microsoft's operating systems (Salop and Romaine 4, 51) creates an interesting dynamic for control over the PC gaming market segment. While there are other operating systems based on Linux, BSD, MacOS etc, when it comes to gaming on the PC the majority of video-games, especially the triple A tittles are exclusively available on Windows OS thus, the corporation can assert control over a key aspect of the market supply chain (Doyle 23 [2013]), in this case by controlling the operating system on which the entire PC gaming market depends on. According to Stat Counter, Statista and Net Market Share (2020), Microsoft's Windows operating systems consist of eighty-six percent of the PC and laptop OS global market share.
At similar instances of operating system monopolies, the platform effects are mediated by corporations owning the OS. For example, Nieborg, Poell, and Van Dijck, primarily content with the examples of Apple and Google. Yet, Microsoft is also part of GAFAM, therefore this thesis contributes to the discussion of platformization by covering one of the primary mediators of
platformization, not extensively illustrated in the relevant literature (in regards to platform effects). Microsoft, being one of the largest tech companies means that, Microsoft's platformizing attributes can potentially affect other parts of the economy. In this case, Microsoft is involved in both digital store ownership and video-game publishing, meaning that, the company's practices can potentially affect facets of production, distribution, and monetization of video-games on the PC, within the OS, the digital marketplace, and the cultural production sectors respectively (Nieborg and Poell 4284).
In conclusion, because of its importance as part of GAFAM (ibid), its size permeating and affecting many different parts of the tech market and all of the facets of production, distribution and monetization of video-games. Microsoft is also considered as a case study here, as it can potentially influence over all aspects of cultural production because of its OS being a primary infrastructure for web-store owners like Valve, and game publishers like Electronic Arts, Ubisoft and
BlizzardActivision.
2.3 Digital Store Platforms: The case of Valve's Steam Games
The distribution and monetization sectors of the PC gaming market are directly linked to, the digital stores on the PC. The earliest attempt at a web store on the PC was that of Valve's Steam digital store. Steam Games as it is more commonly known, was one of the first examples of the emerging production and distribution models characterizing online platforms (Whitson 789). This new model (new for the PC games market segment), pioneered by Valve's Steam on the PC
platform, has data driven design as its main platform attribute (792), this entails the use of player's personal data as a means to drive game design and distribution. This also entails interesting
ramifications about the effects of user data driven design on the video-game market.
For example, in the case of the “big five platform corporations” (Van Dijck and Poell 32), the use of personal data becomes a staple attribute of data-driven design (ibid) similarly, since Steam is the earliest instance of a marketplace for digital only games, it would be interesting to observe if and how personal user data is used in order to alter and improve the design of the
platform. In the case of steam design altered by “datafied user feedback” (Nieborg and Poell 4276), could entail easily observable changes (from the users perspective), like changes of the Graphical User Interface (GUI) (Sumner 117), or more subtle changes like alterations of the product
recommendation algorithms. Werning (103) suggests that, by manipulating user data in order to make it's features more appealing to the end user (Bucher and Helmond 1), Steam has gradually become a social media platform as a result of “datafied user feedback” (Nieborg and Poell 4276). This can be illustrated by comparing Steam's user affordances to those of other Online Social Networks (OSNs), like for example Facebook and twitter. For instance, Steam is highly dependent on user-generated content that adds value to the platform (Jöckel, Will, and Schwarzer 105), similarly to Facebook and Twitter's dependence on user generated content that is creating value for their respective platforms. In regards to the effect of user generated content, it would be interesting to observe instances of affordance manipulation, mainly within the GUI by manipulating buttons, menus and interfaces (Toyama 59; Sun and Hart-Davidson 3533-3540), along with the ramifications that come with this effect for both the user and Valve as a platform corporation.
This dependence on user generated content also affects the market relations of Steam's platform, adhering to more platform-like attributes (infrastructural level), like the multi-leveled market configurations, and (governmental level) encroachment on consumer rights (Van Dijck, Poell and De Waal “Platform Society”, Nieborg and Poell 2479), by essentially taking advantage of their free labor in order to promote the platform's commercial interests (Postigo 2). Instead of the two sided relation of the seller and the buyer, the actions of the user-base, such as user generated reviews and workshop items, contribute to Steam's profitability by working for valve, precisely like users in other social media platforms acting more as workers instead of buyers. Therefore, a Steam user can also act as a worker for Valve by creating content and thus increasing the value of the platform.
In conclusion, Steam being the first of its kind on the PC platform entails an interesting research opportunity in examining the ways with which (for example by taking advantage of user data), it has come to dominate the current digital games market as a result of platform effects.
2.4 Game Publishers and Video-Games as Platforms
Apart from potential platform effects in the operating system and digital web-store areas of the PC gaming market, the third and perhaps the most interesting part of this thesis, lies within the evaluation of platform effects on the products themselves, as it offers various new ways with which platform effects take root within contemporary culture. For example, while Sony's and Microsoft's respective gaming platforms have forced creators into co-dependent agreements, in order to be able to have access to their respectively large markets (Nieborg 91), the PC remains comparatively free in regards to the ability to create and run games on Windows. Up until relatively recently anyone with the basic tools of the OS could create and publish a game, yet as platform effects continue to permeate in this market segment, literature suggests that this will become an increasingly difficult task, remedied only to the most financially powerful actors (Nieborg 106).
Specifically, while it is relatively easy and inexpensive to publish a game on the Windows OS, making the game visible to a large enough audience is an entirely different story, because this is where platformization comes to force creators and users into “walled gardens” (Betancourt 86). What I mean by that is that, in order to make their games available to a large amount of users so as to be profitable enough, creators are forced into exclusivity deals, and/or complete buyouts of their companies by the largest game publishers. See for example the acquisition of Dice by EA, now incorporated into its Origin digital web store platform, or the majority of independent (Indie) creators bound within Valve's Steam, as their only means of reaching a significant customer base.
This is a direct result of the “concentration” platform effect where the larger the corporate entity is, the harder it is to escape (Nieborg “Political Economy of the App” 236; Doyle 9; Fuchs 21; Mosco 15; Van Dijck, Poell and De Waal 37; Van Dijck 136). In this case it is extremely hard for game creators to escape the strong “network effects” created by the largest of these entities (Nieborg Poell and Van Dijck 6; McIntyre and Srinivasan 142; Bresnahan 2-30; Dolata 10).
In regards to the concentration of power under the larges game publishers, currently, only the largest game companies are able to maintain and expand digital stores. In this case Electronic Arts with their Origin platform, ActivisionBlizzard with Battlenet and Ubisoft with Uplay. By examining the respective digital platforms of these three large game publishers, it would be interesting to see how platformization has made its way into the production, distribution and monetization (Nieborg and Poell 4276,4289) of their products. Yet apart from the well-covered influence of the large five tech companies on all facets of cultural production mentioned above, I would like to shed light on a relatively new frontier of platform effects not as extensively covered in the relevant literature.
Unlike other contemporary digital media that are platformized in regards to their owning corporations, like in the case of Netflix's movie streaming platform and Spotify's music streaming one, platformization in games can be directly implemented within video-games. This is enabled by the property of games as as highly interactive and dynamic media, giving countless opportunities for corporations to expand and increase profits through the use of various platform effects in their own products. For example, literature underlines the countless opportunities for story telling
because of games interactivity: In studying games as ideologically charged cultural artifacts (Bogost 128), a game is dissected into areas of study oftentimes spawning entire academic branches. One such example exists in the study of, the narrative of the game or the storytelling (Jenkins 120), which can be delivered with a variety of ways such as, cut-scenes, in game dialogue, Easter eggs, in game text or even as part of the art like digital assets and soundtrack. Additionally, game-play can also be used as a way with which the game can transfer ideological and cultural meaning to the player. Consequently, I would argue that, these paths towards storytelling can also be regarded as paths towards the incorporation of platformization within the digital worlds.
Considering the above-mentioned ways with which a game can have ideological meaning, I would like to transfer that trail of thought into the ways with which a game can have
platformization embedded within in it. If you change the ways with which ideological meaning can be transferred in games, to the ways with which platform effects can be embedded, I argue that, precisely because of their interactivity, video-games hide countless opportunities for
platformization. For example, many social media attributes are being implemented not only in digital web store platforms like Steam, but also in game launchers and games like
BlizzardActivision's game launcher, and Blizzard's World of Warcraft game title. Attributes like friends lists, chat rooms, social media share buttons, but most importantly on the back end of all of this, an extensive data gathering infrastructure built into the games and the game launchers running in the background and also internet connectivity (Nieborg 155) built into the game's engine.
While relevant literature covers platformization in the case of both multiplayer and single player free to play games, I will argue that significant platform effects currently exist in Triple A single player games that until recently, because of their single player nature, have eluded some of the most intense platform effects. This whole situation has changed with the introduction of various telemetry and network-based internet connectivity apparatuses, oftentimes fused within the game's code (Nieborg 155). Single player games are now connected to the gaming platform of the owning company and there are various opportunities for platformization that come with that. Indeed the reason for this strategy can be traced back to the ability of the company to maintain longer periods of monetization and thus increase the profitability window of the product (Nieborg 60), either directly, by implementing additional content in the form of Paid For Downloadable Content (PDLC) (Lizardi 34) or indirectly by maintaining accumulation of personal user and interaction data for marketing and other purposes (Poell and Van Dijck 33-35).
In conclusion, when talking about the effects of platforms on the PC video-game market the effects can interfere with games in various stages of existence, from conceptualization and
production to monetization and distribution (Nieborg, “Triple A” 215, 44, 11; Nieborg and Poell 4276), both within the game world itself and outside on digital marketplace the likes of Steam and Microsoft stores. Therefore, in this dissertation the examination of platform effects happens in distinct levels, on the digital web-store level examining the dominance of Valve's Steam, and on the game publisher level examining the ways with which platformization takes hold within games.
2.5 The role of Immaterial labor in the platformization of gaming
A central theme arises when examining platform effects in PC gaming namely, the use of personal data in the examples set by GAFAM. The large five have been using “datafication” (Van Dijck, Poell and De Waal 33-35), as a means to increase their power by transforming the market relations themselves into multi-layered configurations not bound by traditional systems of
exchange. In this case, this use of data is entirely made possible by “commodification of user data” (ibid 38). This data is seen here as a “a valuable crop, grown by users, harvested by platform
owners, then processed, repackaged, and resold mostly to advertising or marketing companies” (Van Dijck 179).
Yet if the users are growing such a valuable resource, aren't they workers? What is the difference between the feudal farm workers and this new method of data growing? Well, the workers of today are not getting payed at all for this work, unlike the farmers of the middle ages, also their produce is much more profitable for their all powerful overlords. So I would like to say it as clearly and as directly as possible here. The main reason behind platform capitalism's
profitability and subsequent permeation within all the facets of cultural production, is the profitability of user data. Without user data, platformization's negative impact on contemporary cultural production will cease because it will no longer be commercially viable.
Under digital capitalism, work and leisure mold into an amalgamation, a blurry mess of gamified labor and laborious gaming better known as “playbor” (Witheford and de Peuter 23), that enables further exploitation of immaterial labor. The apparent “magic” properties of immaterial goods that seem to enable production without consumption of resources (Betancourt 1). Thus, immaterial labor, as defined by Lazzarato (1996) as “the labor that produces the informational and cultural content of the commodity” (77) is seen here as the one of the primary driving forces behind platform capitalism's inherent financial viability. What is interesting about immaterial labor, in regards to this research, is its ability to not be bound by classic definitions of work (22), and therefore defy the separation between worker, creator and consumer, as part of immaterial cultural production the consumer “no longer limited to consuming commodities”, but is also expected to be “productive” (84) and as such they are expected to create value for the company. That is precisely why immaterial labor is important to this study, specifically because through immaterial labor in the digitized culture industry, the “worker” is no longer just an employ of the company but also the consumer. The dilution of the meaning of labor and the dulling of the very separation between work and leisure (ibid), not only with workers, but also with consumers, is seen here as the catalyst, enabling the blending together of production and consumption within the contemporary economy (83).
Immaterial labor acts as a bridge in understanding that, when it comes to cultural
production, the market structures are shifted and entangled (Nieborg and Poell 4281), with no clear definition on what can be defined as labor, this subsequently, changes the very meaning of labor. Even back in the late nineties Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri outlined the significant changes in the dynamic of labor in their book “Empire”. The factory labor transformed into a more social form of labor and thus revealed the shift of the global economy towards “biopolitical production” (Hardt
and Negri, “Empire”, p.xiii). It is this apparent social side of contemporary labor that is the key to understanding late stage capitalist power relations between companies, workers and consumers as the lines of separation between these three economic actors becomes increasingly blurry.
Biopolitical production is defined by Hardt and Negri as the “production of social life itself in which the economic, the political and the cultural increasingly overlap” with each other it is this overlapping of the three main aspects of contemporary society that is also underlined in platform theory, when Nieborg and Poell talk about the shifting of market structures, because under capitalism, when the market shifts, other aspects of society are also affected. And when we talk about a global “Empire” like capitalist economy (Hardt and Negri, “Empire”) dominated by “contingent” platformization with significant cultural ramifications (Nieborg and Poell, p.4276), then an argument is also made about the transformation and the new dynamics of labor under the new realities posed by platformization and a globalized digital economy.
But if platforms depend on user created content in order to exist and even more so in order to be profitable, then what is really the role of the user? The user cannot really be defined as a customer anymore, since the customers of online platforms are usually corporations buying user data, therefore another theory is required in order to explain the role of the modern platform user. That is where Maurizio Lazzarato illustrates that instead of “a growth of services we are
experiencing” we are experiencing transformations of the work relations within the service sector ("Immaterial labour." 86), where the customer can oftentimes be seen as the worker by creating value and profit, through their content contributions, especially in the case of social media platforms. Therefore the consumer can no longer be adequately described as such because of the attributes of “immaterial labor” (ibid).
Summarily, within the contemporary culture industry, immaterial labor is one of the main factors making platform capitalism profitable. Data gathered via the immaterial labor of consumers and workers is transformed by the quickly changing market dynamics that make for ludicrous profit extraction from data accumulation and manipulation. This (oftentimes personal) data is largely produced by consumers as a byproduct of the consumption of cultural products. An interesting research perspective on the study immaterial labor, can be found in observing how immaterial labor enables the perpetuating of platform-like effects in gaming.
For example in this case, the practice of downloadable content (DLC), while seemingly an attempt to extend the life of a game, only acts to increase the exploitation of the consumer through a “perpetual cycle of commodification and extraction of value” (Lizardi 43). Additionally the modern
practice of releasing merely unfinished games and then using the buyers experiences to improve and fix bugs and exploits in the game, effectively uses the consumer as a game tester (ibid).
In conclusion, for the needs of this thesis, immaterial labor is seen as the main force behind platform capitalism expansion towards the culture industry. As such, part of the focus, of this research is to identify such instances and categorize them within the three different (economic, governmental, and infrastructural) aspects of platformization (more details in chapter four). In regards to the selected segment of the PC market, this research focuses on the digital-web stores and some of the largest game publishers and their respective games and platforms, that have shown to be more affected by platformization. By studying the economic, governmental and infrastructural effects of platformization as seen via the eyes of the users of these products, I hope to anticipate platform capitalism's present and near future ramifications on the production of culture on the PC gaming market and extrapolate my findings as part of the wider discussion on the platformization of cultural production.
3. Towards a User-Centered approach in examining the platformization of PC gaming
In regards to the examined part of the PC gaming Industry, the thesis focuses on Microsoft, Valve, BlizzardActivision, Electronic Arts and Ubisoft, which own their respective digital web-store platforms. These five were selected for the following reasons: First and foremost, their observed platformization is highly visible from a user's/consumer's perspective, as it will be illustrated with examples the next chapter. Secondly my experience with their products. Essentially I've been a customer of these companies since their first products were available and thus have accumulated a very long experience on the changes gradually brought upon them as a result of platformization. For example, in regards to ActivisionBlizzard's largest tittle on the PC World of Warcraft, I have been playing the game since 2008, thus I have accumulated more than twelve years of experience in observing first hand the transformation of the game throughout the past decade. Similarly, In the case of Electronic Arts, I have been playing the Battlefield series since its first installment
Battlefield 1942 to its current form Battlefield V, yet considering the large blockbuster library of EA that includes the larger (customer base wise) Madden and FIFA series, why focus on Battlefield? This comes back to the limitations and issues of the present research such as, the budget constraints of the thesis.
This research received no external funding and as such, this project is limited by my
personal financial situation. As such I had to focus on the games I already had in my library and on games I could borrow. Considering the ways with which platformization is responsible for the erosion of consumer rights, in this case, the erosion of ownership towards a more renting-service
based system of consumption (Morris 186) and the increasing legal and infrastructural control that owning companies have over digital information (Srnicek “Platform Capitalism” 23-50) means that, borrowing digital versions of games, that are bound on other persons platform accounts was made all the more challenging, considering that sharing accounts is illegal, according to all of the above company mentioned Terms of Use (with the exception of Valve's Steam, that allows the sharing of an account's game library but not the account itself), this puts the whole endeavor in a gray legal area, simply by the act of gaining access to a game on a borrowed account.
Company Digital Platform Games (Latest tittles released on the PC platform)
Access to the platform (Owned/Borrowed)
Microsoft Xbox Halo: The Master Chief
Collection Owned
Valve Steam Games - Owned
ActivisionBlizzard Battlenet World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth/Call of Duty Modern Warfare (2019)
Owned/Borrowed
Electronic Arts Origin Battlefield V Borrowed
Ubisoft Uplay Assassins Creed
Odyssey
Owned
Table 1. The entirety of the examined material: The selected company cases with their respective digital platforms and the games examined in the thesis.
Since the point of the thesis is not to identify outliers but to examine industry trends in regards to platformization, the selection of specific games is not very relevant as I am looking for industry wide practices visible in all of the current tittles and corporate practices. Therefore the focus of the thesis lies in observing the most contemporary examples, the latest and largest titles available to me either via borrowing or by buying them. In regards to Blizzard entertainment, the game World of Warcraft in its current expansion “Battle for Azeroth” was selected, along with Activision's Modern Warfare (2019) so as to represent both game publishers under
ActivisionBlizzards ownership. In regards to Electronic Arts, Battlefield V was selected as its latest release on the PC gaming market. Lastly, as a single player example of a triple A title, Ubisoft's latest Assassins Creed Odyssey was selected. Apart from the games, the respective digital platforms of these publishers were examined, because the games are inaccessible without an account on Battlenet (ActivisionBlizzard), Origin (Electronic Arts), and Uplay (Ubisoft). Lastly the current effective monopoly of Valve on the digital web-store was examined in the form of Steam as the primary distribution platform on the PC gaming market.
The issues arising from budgeting do not apply to the examination of the digital web store market segment, as the creation of accounts for the purposes of accessing the stores is free in the examined cases. As far as issues in examining platformization in digital web stores, comes from their dynamic structure, along the lines of contemporary technologies (Plantin, et al 20), this dynamic nature of current web based tech is a significant limiting factor, because, even projects like the Wayback Machine, developed in order to preserve a history of the web (including in this case the history of digital web stores), are problematic in capturing dynamically interchangeable
JavaScript pages that vary depending on the user's personalized information. Therefore, in order to be able to capture as much useful information as possible I had to be present during significant changes on these web-stores, like in the case of observing the steam summer sale event, that ended on July 9th 2020. The example of the steam sales event includes interesting observations on how
platformization affects the dynamic nature of these platforms, towards ultimately promoting the platforms interests by driving profits (Postigo 2).
The difficulty in capturing information of a dynamic nature has now permeated into the cultural products, as dynamic events come and go without any realistic opportunity capture, barring that of direct observation during the event. For example in order to examine the various weekly events that happen in all of the selected games (even the single player ones), I had to have access to the game during the week of the event. Having access to the dynamic content of the game is
important, because the implementation of such systems is a direct result of platformization (Nieborg, Poell and Van Dijck 4), thus to bypass an examination of the dynamic events both in-game and in-store would mean to leave out a significant platform effect tied to issues of governance (controlling access to information), and platform infrastructures (dynamic infrastructures of
contemporary platforms) (ibid).
The procedure of recording and illustrating platform effects in the production of video-games on the PC can happen in a variety of ways according to the literature. From observing players in an attempt to study immaterial labor in games, like in the case of Taylor (365), to taking the position of an active user in Light, Burgess, and Duguay's “Walkthrough method” (881). In this case, the walkthrough method was selected because of the multi faceted nature of this examination. Because platform effects are not confined to to the games themselves but can affect many parts of the supply chain, like the digital web stores (Steam) selling the games, a gaming specific approach would be problematic in examining the other software related parts of the market.
3.1 A walkthrough inspired method of identifying platform effects
In order to counter the difficulties described above, walkthrough method was used as the basis of my method on which data gathering took place. Inspired by this, I was able to gather the required data that would help me identify platform effects in the PC gaming market segment of cultural production. Walkthrough method is briefly described by Light, Burges and Duguay, as examining an app by:
“identifying and describing its vision, operating model and modes of governance. It then deploys a walkthrough technique to systematically and forensically step through the various stages of app registration, entry and everyday use”
In this case walkthrough method is useful because of the direct ways the observations can be made as the researcher uses the application in a typical user scenario (893), in cooperation with other methods of examining material (884). It is this direct approach and the flexibility of the approach (ibid), that made it useful for the needs of this thesis, in my case it was combined with the operationalization of platformization as proposed by Nieborg Poell and Van Dijck (2). Walkthrough method focuses on these main aspects when examining apps: context, vision, operating model, governance and “expectations of ideal use” (896). For example, walkthrough method is used in their article as a way to study the game “Pet Rescue”, from how the game menu changes and interacts with the player (893), to how the affordances of the game affect a players experience (894). Specifically, in the case of the thesis, the main menu in the game's Battlefield V and Assassins Creed Odyssey tries to promote the new games from each company by placing visible
advertisements both within the menu sidebars and as a “buy now” choice in the center of the screen. While Light, Burges and Duguay go into depth describing the usefulness of these different aspects, of particular use to the present endeavor is the examination of an app's governance (891), which is essentially the same thing as platformization's governance (Nieborg Poell and Van Dijck 8) aspect, were the owning company attempts to take control of a user's activities and interactions on the app/platform through the use of terms of service and license agreements and through datafied manipulation of aspects like the user interface (UI), and application programming languages (APIs) (Light, Burges and Duguay 891; Nieborg Poell and Van Dijck 8). The governance aspect of
platformization usually encompasses issues of consumer privacy and rights (891; Van Dijck, Poell and De Waal 3,9), important issues arising from the platformization of culture.
Apart from governance, “context” and “operating model” (896) are also useful (in regards to the goals of this thesis) aspects of an app examined via the walkthrough method. Context here, is
understood as the examination of the elements in an apps “technical interface” (882). In this case this encompasses a close examination of all of the menus and UI's both “diegetic” and “non diegetic” (Galloway 6-7) in regards to platform effects. For example, in the game Battlefield V the social media aspects of the user interface are apparent with a friends squad menu on the bottom right corner of the screen visible in every menu, same with the upper right corner of the menus of Halo Master Chef Collection and Call of Duty. The presence of social media like attributes in designated corners of each one of these latest triple A releases illustrates platformization's standardization effect (Nieborg and Poell 4278) and the PC game's industry trend towards more social media platform like structures and market models (more specific examples in the next chapter).
The second relevant aspect of apps examined via the walkthrough method is that of operating model. According to Light, Burges and Duguay, “an app's operating model involves its business strategy and revenue sources” (890), which in the case of the thesis is entailed in the study of the economic aspect of platformization. For example walkthrough method helped shed light on instances of multi-sided markets (Nieborg 2), visible via the Privacy Policies of the game platform apps that have to be installed in order to have access to any of the examined games. Specifically the EA privacy policy clearly states in section 4 that personal information collected is shared towards “Advertising Partners”, thus supporting literature underlining of the transition towards multi-sided markets that use advertisers as additional side to consumer-producer relations (Niebrog and Poell 4278; Nieborg, Poell and Van Dijck 7).
Last but not least, the Walkthrough method was used in order to illuminate instances of the last aspect of platformization, the infrastructural (Nieborg and Poell 4277,4282; Nieborg, Poell and Van Dijck 6-9). This is described as being the first part of the process, the registration and entry procedure in order for a user to be able to use an app (Light, Burges and Duguay 893). From following the steps required in order to create an account, to reading and accepting the Terms of Use (ToS) by clicking “I agree”, careful examination of the “registration and entry” process can shed light into the underlying infrastructures of apps (892), or in this case the platforms on which these apps are based on. For example when logging into the Origin service for the first time, the player is greeted with a message: “Personalizing your experience”. This message presented
prominently in the center of the loading screen illustrates the presence of personalization algorithms either based in EA's data-centers or built into the Origin app itself. This illustrates platformization's infrastructural effect, were underlying infrastructures like servers and hidden algorithms, act in order to personalize content, so as to attract users based in individual interests, similarly to the way
Facebook's algorithm personalizes its news feed in order to retain and engage users (Van Dijck, Poell, and De Waal 33).
In conclusion, by using the walkthrough method, I was able to shed light to specific attributes of these games that adhere to all three of the aspects of platformization examined here (Economic, Governmental and Infrastructural). Light, Burges and Duguay underline how the usefulness of the walkthrough method lies in its versatility and systematic approach (897). Within this sub-chapter I briefly illustrated how the versatility of the approach was useful in identifying the three main aspects of platformization within the examined platforms. In the next part I will illustrate the systematic examination of the relevant material, that was necessary in order to gain a useful user's perspective view of platformization, within the selected cases.
3.2 A step by step guide to the platformized gamer
Following walkthrough method's approach to examining apps, I started the “registration and entry” point (892), by going through the creation of user accounts for all of the selected game company platforms: Microsoft, Valve, ActivisionBlizzard, Electronic Arts and Ubisoft. I did this even for companies that I owned accounts for years in order to be able to evaluate the current situation (as of writing this) in regards to the steps required in order to be able to play a game on the PC platform. Throughout all of the five cases, ten same steps were identified: Accessing the
localized version of the company's web site → creating an account on the page by entering all of the required personal and financial information →confirming the validity of the created account via email → downloading the application of the respective digital platform → installing the application on a test computer → logging into the digital platform via the downloaded application → buying the required game(s) → downloading the game(s) → (depending on the game) logging into the account again once in game → and finally playing the game.
1) Accessing the company's web page 2) Creating an account on the page 3) Confirming the validity of the account
4) Downloading the application of the digital platform 5) Installing the application
6) Logging into the digital platform 7) Buying the required game(s) 8) Downloading the game(s)
9) Logging into the account again once in game 10) Playing the game
Table 2: The procedure for gaining access to a game in 2020 on the PC platform.
These ten steps have their own sub-steps that were similar in all of the five examined cases. For example, in step five, installing the application, all of the cases had me agreeing to their Terms of Use (ToS) and Privacy Policies in order to be able to install and use their apps. From Valve's digital store, to ActivisionBlizzard's game launcher, this was the same step. These contracts were saved and examined in regards to platformization, as they can be useful in illuminating them. For example economic effects can be seen in how the privacy policies describe the use of personal data for advertising purposes, thus illustrating that the transition toward multi sided markets is already in effect in the PC gaming market segment (Niebrog and Poell 4278; Nieborg, Poell and Van Dijck 7). Also, the effect of governance, were corporations attempt to dictate and govern user interactions via the ToS (Gillespie "The platform metaphor, revisited." 3), also illustrating that game companies follow the practices of Apple and Google in trying to gain complete control of their users actions (Nieborg, Poell and Van Dijck 8).
Apart from examining the various steps necessary in order to gain access to a current triple A game tittle on the PC, studying platformization also encompasses, examining the interfaces of the apps and or digital platforms themselves, in this case, Valve's Steam, Microsoft's Microsoft Store, BlizzardActivisions Battlenet, EA's Origin and Ubisofts Uplay. These are the apps used by players in order to have access to their respective games, hosted on these platforms, therefore, I examined them according to the guidance of the walkthrough method. Their User Interfaces (UI's), “Functions and Features” and “Textual Contexts” were examined (Light, Burges and Duguay 891), in regards to, if and what of the three aspects of platformization are visible from a users perspective. For example, in Battlenet, the “Social” part of the platform that encompasses the latest social media like attributes of the platform, is featured in the top part of the app's window prominently, right next to the “Games” button and before the “Shop” and “News” ones. This illustrates the attention given by the company at implementing social media like structures in their platform, second only to the gaming products themselves in contextual priority.
In addition to examining the apps in regards to the guidance of the walkthrough method, I had to examine the in game interfaces, in the form of in game menus, as well as, in game “non diegetic” and “diegetic” features (Galloway 6-7), that consist of similarities across many examined games. Specifically, all of the main menus of the examined games are connected via the interface to their game company's digital web stores via menu buttons and options. For example the games Battlefield V, Call of Duty, and Assassins Creed Odyssey, all have built in shop sections
prominently featured in either the main menu top, or side bars (depending on the layout of the game).
Via the examination of the selected applications in “everyday use” scenarios, meaning trying to emulate how a typical user would interact with these programs, I was able to identify the most prominent effects that platformization has on current PC games and illustrate them in the next chapter.
Digital Web
Stores Registration steps Social Features UI ToS, PrivacyPolicies, EULA Other Functions and Features -Apps and
platforms Registration steps Social Features UI ToS, PrivacyPolicies, EULA Other Functions and Features -Games - Social Features UI - Other Functions and Features Dietetic and non diegetic in game features Table 3: What parts of relevant material were examined.
In conclusion, walkthrough method was used as guidance on how to examine the relevant material, in order to be able to identify platform effects, from a users perspective. On an a first level, I examined the procedure of gaining access to a video-game, by analyzing the creation of the account and examining the Privacy Policies and End User License Agreements (ToS) in each case, in an attempt to identify platform effects. On a second level, I tried to identify platform effects by playing the latest games from each of the selected cases. This hands on way of examining material means that, this research is the result of my subjective experience engaging with these platforms and games. While informed by the relevant academic discussion on the platformization of cultural production and reinforced by years of experience by being a customer of these companies and using their products, this is still a result of a single person's experiences. This means it is still relatively subjective and the observations made here could be different if the same research was conducted by a different person, especially considering how personalization increasingly differentiates the gaming experience from person to person (Nieborg and Poell 4289). One way to bypass this limitation, would be the addition of more research conducted by many more researchers and by observations of non-researcher players. Meanwhile, as a masters thesis this dissertation, acts as a first stepping stone towards “developing in-depth case studies of how platformization unfolds in particular [...] instances of cultural production” (Nieborg and Poell 4288), this particular instance being, the PC video-game market.
4. The three aspects of platformization in PC gaming
Platform effects on the PC gaming market, are layered in their permeation within all the facets of production, distribution and monetization of video-games. As illustrated by Nieborg and Poell in their paper on the platformization of cultural production, contemporary platform effects observed within culture industry act on three different levels (Nieborg, Poell and Van Dijck 6). Firstly the economic aspect (Nieborg and Poell 4277,4282; ibid 6-9), secondly the Governmental (ibid 4281, 4285; ibid) and thirdly the Infrastructural (ibid 4280, 4287; ibid).
Similarly to how Monofort and Bogost see video-game consoles as multi layered
configurations, consisting of different layers of hardware, software, operating systems, peripherals and modular components (3), I argue that the PC platform consists of similar modular structure. When talking about the PC games industry, platform effects are observed in two primary levels: (a) On the digital web store level, since Valve has effective monopoly on the digital PC games market, I will evaluate platformization both within Steam as the main digital web store and in regards to attempts from competitors. (b) Within the cultural product. The highly interactive nature of video-games, while giving countless opportunities for innovative storytelling, also gives countless opportunities for platform effects to take hold within the medium itself thus, as the second
dimension, I would like to examine, what aspects of platformization have been incorporated within the cultural products thus far.
Summarily, the the aspects of platformization (economic, governmental, and infrastructural) will be identified within the three different market segments connected to the PC video-game market (operating system, digital marketplace, video-games as cultural products). Thus, I will illustrate some cases in which these effects are remarkably visible, and in action in contemporary examples.
Web Store Games
Valve Steam Games
-Microsoft Microsoft Store and Xbox
Platforms
Halo: The master chief collection
ActivisionBlizzard Battlenet World of Warcraft/Call
of Duty (2019)
Electronic Arts Origin Battlefield V
Ubisoft Uplay Assassins Creed
