2021
Apperley, Thomas H.; Ozimek, Anna (Ed.)
Special Issue on Disco Elysium
Baltic Screen Media Review, vol. 9, 2021.
Special issue Open access
Abstract | Links | Tags: Absurdity, Affect, Digital distribution, Disco Elysium, Dissonant development, Estonia, Film noir, Game production, Game production studies, Gothic fiction, Hermeneutics of objects, Political economy, Polyphony, Posthumanism, Rhizome, Software commons
@collection{Apperley2021,
title = {Special Issue on Disco Elysium},
editor = {Thomas H. Apperley and Anna Ozimek
},
url = {https://sciendo.com/issue/BSMR/9/1},
year = {2021},
date = {2021-12-14},
booktitle = {Baltic Screen Media Review},
volume = {9},
issue = {1},
abstract = {Disco Elysium is a highly praised game that is widely recognized for its innovation and quality. In December 2019, writing for Time magazine, Matthew Gault named Disco Elysium one of the ten most important games of the decade (2010–2019) along-side the likes of Fortnite (Epic Games 2017–), Minecraft (Mojang 2011), and Pokémon GO (2016). Gault (2019) characterizes the dec-ade as one in which “artists broke free of the business side and produced works of astounding beauty on par with any prestige television show.” Disco Elysium is included on his list as “proof” that “all video games are art” (ibid.). While critical and commer-cial success, as well as the invocation of “art,” are not themselves crucial reasons for scholars to explore a particular digital game, in the case of Disco Elysium there are many other ways that it is significant.},
keywords = {Absurdity, Affect, Digital distribution, Disco Elysium, Dissonant development, Estonia, Film noir, Game production, Game production studies, Gothic fiction, Hermeneutics of objects, Political economy, Polyphony, Posthumanism, Rhizome, Software commons},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {collection}
}
Disco Elysium is a highly praised game that is widely recognized for its innovation and quality. In December 2019, writing for Time magazine, Matthew Gault named Disco Elysium one of the ten most important games of the decade (2010–2019) along-side the likes of Fortnite (Epic Games 2017–), Minecraft (Mojang 2011), and Pokémon GO (2016). Gault (2019) characterizes the dec-ade as one in which “artists broke free of the business side and produced works of astounding beauty on par with any prestige television show.” Disco Elysium is included on his list as “proof” that “all video games are art” (ibid.). While critical and commer-cial success, as well as the invocation of “art,” are not themselves crucial reasons for scholars to explore a particular digital game, in the case of Disco Elysium there are many other ways that it is significant.
2019
Švelch, Jan
Resisting the Perpetual Update: Struggles Against Protocological Power in Video Games
In: New Media & Society, vol. 21, iss. 7, pp. 1594-1612, 2019, ISSN: 1461-4448.
Journal article Open access
Abstract | Links | Tags: Contingent commodity, Digital distribution, Patch, Platform, Protocol, Protocological power, Update, User resistance, Video games
@article{Švelch2019,
title = {Resisting the Perpetual Update: Struggles Against Protocological Power in Video Games},
author = {Jan Švelch},
url = {https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-201908293061},
doi = {10.1177/1461444819828987},
issn = {1461-4448},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-07-01},
journal = {New Media & Society},
volume = {21},
issue = {7},
pages = {1594-1612},
abstract = {This article explores the evolution of video game updates and patches from a mechanism of customer support to a tool of control over the way games are played in the ecosystem of digital gaming platforms. It charts a historical trajectory across various cultural industries, including literary publishing, screen industries, and music, to show a shift from multiplicity of editions to one perpetually updated contingent commodity. Focusing on the issues of power and control enabled by the always-online platforms, the analysis shows that previously updating was often voluntary. However, now players must actively resist patches if they wish to play the game on their own terms. As illustrated by three case studies of update resistance, developers, publishers, and platform holders wield protocological power, which can be successfully opposed—although the outcome often remains localized and tends to alter a specific iteration of protocol and not the underlying infrastructure},
keywords = {Contingent commodity, Digital distribution, Patch, Platform, Protocol, Protocological power, Update, User resistance, Video games},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
This article explores the evolution of video game updates and patches from a mechanism of customer support to a tool of control over the way games are played in the ecosystem of digital gaming platforms. It charts a historical trajectory across various cultural industries, including literary publishing, screen industries, and music, to show a shift from multiplicity of editions to one perpetually updated contingent commodity. Focusing on the issues of power and control enabled by the always-online platforms, the analysis shows that previously updating was often voluntary. However, now players must actively resist patches if they wish to play the game on their own terms. As illustrated by three case studies of update resistance, developers, publishers, and platform holders wield protocological power, which can be successfully opposed—although the outcome often remains localized and tends to alter a specific iteration of protocol and not the underlying infrastructure