The Discourse of Digital Dispossession: Paid Modifications and Community Crisis on Steam. Issue 7 (November 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Joseph, Daniel James
• Other Names: Harvey Alison guest-editor.; Giddings Seth guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Games and culture. Volume 13:Issue 7(2018)
• Page Start: 690
• Page End: 707
• Publication Date: 2018-11
• Subjects: digital labor -- play -- Steam -- platform studies -- digital distribution -- game studies -- discourse analysis; Games -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Video games -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Computer games -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Interactive multimedia -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; 303.4834
• DOI: 10.1177/1555412018756488
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1555-4120

Abstract

This article is a chronicle and analysis of a community crisis in digital space that took place on Valve Corporation's digital distribution platform, Steam. When Valve and Bethesda (publisher and developer of Skyrim ) decided to allow mods to be sold by mod makers themselves, there ensued a community revolt against the commodification of leisure and play. I put this crisis of play and work in dialogue with Harvey's concept of "accumulation by dispossession, " firmly placing it within a longer history of disruptive capital accumulation strategies. I then conduct a discourse analysis of community members on reddit, as they make sense of and come to terms with this process of dispossession. Arising in the discourse was not class consciousness per se, but instead a pervasive feeling of helplessness and frustration as games, play, and leisure began to feel like work.