Article:
Video Game Modding and Money. From Precarious Playbor to Reimbursed Labor of Love

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dc.creatorWalsdorff, Finja
dc.date.accessioned2022-11-21T15:12:26Z
dc.date.available2022-11-21T15:12:26Z
dc.date.issued2022
dc.description.abstractAs hobbyist game developers, ‘modders’ transform video games by alter-ing and extending their content. Even though the labor they carry out of-ten contributes to the success of games, they usually do not get a monetary share of the value they enhance. Building upon this, modding has been discussed as a form of ‘precarious labor’ in the past, with authors drawing attention to the power imbalance between modders and official developers. At the same time, most efforts of reimbursing modders and ‘paid modding’ have caused controversy within the modding community, and modding is still seen as a voluntary, free-of-charge ‘labor of love’ by many fans. Among modders, however, increasing professionalization tendencies and commercial endeavors can be observed as well. Taking into account past and current efforts to commodify modding and in-depth interviews with modders of Bethesda Softworks games, this article explores different perspectives on modding and money and examines the strategies modders use to commercialize their derivative works and their fannish labor in general.en
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/19008
dc.identifier.urihttps://www.gamescoop.uni-siegen.de/spielformen/index.php/journal/article/view/23/18
dc.identifier.urihttps://mediarep.org/handle/doc/20171
dc.languageeng
dc.publisherMedienwissenschaftliches Seminar Uni Siegen
dc.publisher.placeSiegen
dc.relation.isPartOfissn:2748-6001
dc.relation.ispartofseriesSpiel|Formen
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 Generic
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
dc.subjectModdingen
dc.subjectPlaybouren
dc.subjectCommodificationen
dc.subjectCrowdfundingen
dc.subjectPaymenten
dc.subject.ddcddc:794
dc.titleVideo Game Modding and Money. From Precarious Playbor to Reimbursed Labor of Loveen
dc.typearticle
dc.type.statuspublishedVersion
dspace.entity.typeArticleen
local.coverpage2022-11-21T16:30:50
local.identifier.firstpublishedhttps://www.gamescoop.uni-siegen.de/spielformen/index.php/journal/article/view/23/18
local.source.epage188
local.source.issueTitleLudomaterialities
local.source.spage163
local.source.volume2

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2022 - Special Issue: Ludomaterialities