When passion isn't enough: gender, affect and credibility in digital games design. (September 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Harvey, Alison; Shepherd, Tamara
• Is Part Of: International journal of cultural studies. Volume 20:Number 5(2017:Sep.)
• Page Start: 492
• Page End: 508
• Publication Date: 2017-09
• Subjects: affect -- creative industries -- credibility -- cultural production -- digital game design -- gender -- labour -- passion; Culture -- Periodicals; Mass media -- Periodicals; Popular culture -- Periodicals; 306.05
• DOI: 10.1177/1367877916636140
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1367-8779

Abstract

Recent controversies around identity and diversity in digital games culture indicate the heightened affective terrain for participants within this creative industry. While work in digital games production has been characterized as a form of passionate, affective labour, this article examines its specificities as a constraining and enabling force. Affect, particularly passion, serves to render forms of game development oriented towards professionalization and support of the existing industry norms as credible and legitimate, while relegating other types of participation, including that by women and other marginalized creators, to subordinate positions within hierarchies of production. Using the example of a women-in-games initiative in Montreal as a case study, we indicate how linkages between affect and competencies, specifically creativity and technical abilities, perpetuate a long-standing delegitimization of women's work in digital game design.