The Professional Identity of Gameworkers

Abstract

/ The lack of clear crediting standards is a constant concern in the computer and video game industry. On an academic level, this concern has a regrettable parallel: of all the hundreds of thousands of professional culture creators in the media world, the ones whose lives are studied the least are game developers. Our paper maps the key issues which inform and influence the working lives and professional identities of professionals in the global computer and videogame industry. In our analysis of gamework as an example of the production of culture, we synthesize interviews with game developers, scholarly and trade publications, game developers' weblogs and online forum postings, as well as informal discussions and exchanges with people inside the industry.