자료유형  

 학위논문

Control Number  

0017164074

International Standard Book Number  

9798384054177

Dewey Decimal Classification Number  

384

Main Entry-Personal Name  

Welch, Tom.

Publication, Distribution, etc. (Imprint  

[S.l.] : The University of Wisconsin - Madison., 2024

Publication, Distribution, etc. (Imprint  

Ann Arbor : ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 2024

Physical Description  

267 p.

General Note  

Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 86-03, Section: A.

General Note  

Advisor: Johnson, Derek.

Dissertation Note  

Thesis (Ph.D.)--The University of Wisconsin - Madison, 2024.

Summary, Etc.  

요약Since their inception, and for a variety of reasons, developers, creators, and designers have released video games for free. In particular, the creation of the internet enabled the free distribution of game commodities online. Platforms like bulletin board systems, Flash portals, and the app store further enabled free game development and distribution. Yet these games, their audiences, and the labor required to make them have received little academic attention in comparison to traditionally distributed games. This dissertation analyzes and historicizes free games online from the late 1980s to the early 2010s in order to ask why developers might release games for free, and what value might be generated from that method of distribution. It theorizes and explains the multiple valences of value that are generated from free game distribution. The main argument surrounding value in the context of free games is that while free distribution enables a wider variety of game development and opens play to a wider audience, free distribution also carries with it specific challenges such as online harassment and a lack of guaranteed that can impede developer success. Ultimately, this dissertation assumes an ambivalent epistemology to investigate how free online game distribution generates value that is both economic and non-economic, often manifesting in the form of affective, communal, or cultural values that are dependent on the particular social context under which the game is released, and which also often develop hand in hand with ideas of race, gender, and sexuality.Using a combination of discourse analysis, platform studies, critical media industry studies, and internet archival work, this dissertation merges the historical contextualization of free game platforms with a political economic analysis of their generation of a multiplicity of values both monetary and otherwise alongside a discursive and critical analysis of the games themselves, the circulation of social value surrounding them, and their implication in the affective lives of users and developers.

Subject Added Entry-Topical Term  

Communication.

Subject Added Entry-Topical Term  

Gender studies.

Subject Added Entry-Topical Term  

Epistemology.

Subject Added Entry-Topical Term  

Film studies.

Index Term-Uncontrolled  

Internet studies

Index Term-Uncontrolled  

Labor

Index Term-Uncontrolled  

Media history

Index Term-Uncontrolled  

New media

Index Term-Uncontrolled  

Platform studies

Index Term-Uncontrolled  

Video game studies

Added Entry-Corporate Name  

The University of Wisconsin - Madison Communication Arts

Host Item Entry  

Dissertations Abstracts International. 86-03A.

Electronic Location and Access  

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Control Number  

joongbu:656331