Dissertation Improvement Grant: Videogaming, Work, and the Play of the New Economy

这项科学与社会论文改进资助研究了各种力量和活动，即法律、技术、协作和工作场所文化，这些力量和活动塑造了游戏机视频游戏的开发，并使其在当今的全球化经济中站得住脚。这项研究以美国和印度的视频游戏开发商和视频游戏开发为了解这些复杂问题的窗口。游戏公司的工作方式（无论是字面意思还是象征意义）、组织工作的方式以及围绕它们的市场力量提供了重新思考新经济理念的机会。 NSF 的资助支持通过参与者观察进行数据收集，并辅以访谈、内部文件、实践和协议。第二个数据集基于专利文件和法律案例，这将有助于进一步阐明技术实践和那些发展，这些实践和发展被重视或被认为是独特的，足以申请专利。最终的数据来源是新闻稿和美国证券交易委员会 (SEC) 文件，它们提供有关公司行为和公开事件类型的信息。美国和印度之间的跨文化分析提供了一个机会，可以看到这些力量和活动在最成熟的游戏产业之一和另一个新兴游戏产业之间展开。这项研究将检验的假设是：新经济中的工作与后工业化的工作有着明显的区别，并且游戏已经成为一个有用的区别核心类别。这项研究的智力价值在于游戏概念在新经济的分析、工作、工作组织以及市场和文化动态三个不同层面上的贡献。这项研究的广泛影响源于政策制定者对工作外包、工人移民、专利法、商业监管和媒体评级系统监管等问题的见解。

This Science and Society Dissertation Improvement Grant examines the diverse forces and activities, namely, laws, technologies, collaboration, and workplace cultures, that shape console video game development, and make it tenable in today's globalized economy. This study uses video game developers and video game development in the United States and India as a window into understanding these complex issues. The ways in which game companies work both literally and figuratively, organize work, and the market forces surrounding them offers an opportunity to rethink ideas about the new economy. NSF funding supports data collection through participant observation, supplemented by interviews, internal documentation, practices, and protocols. The second data set is based on patent documents and legal cases, which will serve to further illuminate the technological practices and those developments, which are valued or perceived unique enough to pursue a patent. The final data sources are press releases and SEC filings, which offer information about the corporate actions of companies and the kinds of events that are publicized. Cross cultural analysis between the United States and India provides an opportunity to see these forces and activities unfolding between one of the most well established game industries, and another newly emerging. The hypothesis that will be tested by this research is: the idea that there are distinguishing elements of work in the new economy, from post-industrial work, and that play has emerged as a useful distinguishing core category. The intellectual merit of this research is the contribution of the notion of play at three differing levels of analysis, work, work organization, and market and cultural dynamics of the new economy. The broad impact of this research stems from insights for policy makers regarding issues of work outsourcing, immigration of workers, patent law, business regulation, and the regulation of media ratings systems.