Consent And Resistance: Research On Digital Labour Of Mobile Game Playbour

While people are enjoying the digital boom created by digital technology,digital capital is also intervening and influencing human social practices.Users’ media use behaviour is incorporated into digital production relations,resulting in a new form of labour,digital labour.Currently,the gaming industry has been fully integrated into the wave of digital economic development,with mobile games dominating the mainstream of the market.The proliferation of mobile players and the continuous expansion of the market scale have made players’ gaming activities and consumption a driving force for value growth.Players have been swept up in the capital operation system,and a group of game "playbour" has emerged.Based on this,this study takes the perspective of digital labour and combines the labour process theory of Brewin as an entry point.The study further unpacks the logic of manufacturing consent and hidden exploitation in the players’ labour process.The study finds that digital capital has quietly transformed mobile games into a new kind of digital factory,transforming players’ identities from ordinary game users to producers and consumers of the game space.the surreal experience of the IP meta-story world gives players the opportunity to immerse themselves in the game world and step into the digital labour process,justifying the logic of game labour.The pre-programmed tasks and free-imagination customisation of the gameplay that implies "rush production" shape the players’ sense of labour and create their consent to labour.At the same time,the emotional ties created by the game community further strengthen the players’ identity,and the labour order of the game world is thus formed.On the other hand,the exploitative logic of digital capital has been silently concealed in the game world,and the heavy workload of the game runs counter to its original purpose of leisure and fun.The unequal labour relations expose the players to both physical and emotional exploitation.Faced with the negative emotions triggered by the game’s many irrational game mechanics,the players are aware that the fun of the game is fading away,thus inspiring an awakening of consciousness and resistance.Finally,by rethinking the hidden exploitation,the possibility of improving the labour situation of game plabour is explored in four dimensions: technology,game companies,policies and users.