Thoughts Of Subjectivity In Play:Gameplayers’ Hobby Creations And Digital Labor

Starting from the player’s labor production and labor process experience in the game,this paper explores whether the digital labor practice of gameplay is participatory or exploitative.Focusing on the core discourse point of "game-labor-subjectivity",research is carried out,and "pure play" and "labor play" are distinguished.In the digital age,game participants have two forms of identity,following different labor production logics: one is audience labor production as "producers and sellers";The other is "labor work" that follows the development of the professionalization of games.In the age of flow,these two kinds of labor are different from each other and related to each other.On the one hand,the participants in the game are also engaged in labor production in the process of the game,the background of the digital age and media changes have included the vast audience of the game into the digital production link,and the game "producers and sellers" have produced certain value in the production process of play and creation,but have not obtained actual material returns;On the other hand,with the development of the game industry,some new occupations have emerged,such as game streamers,game companions,etc.,and there is a certain affinity between this kind of work-oriented professional labor and the audience labor as a "producer and marketer",because their identities are evolved from the identity of "players" and carry out corresponding labor due to interest.Player identity is their common source of identity,and at certain times,players can also change from a simple "producer" identity to a "professional" identity,and playing games has become a means for them to make profits and make money.The emergence of "playmanship" means the work-oriented nature of the game.The development of Internet technology has made it possible to transform hobby labor into a primary job,and this article focuses on its internal evolutionary dynamics.The labor nature between "audience labor" and real "game work" follows different logics.The final foothold of audience labor in the game is on "interest production",and the real game work that becomes the main job is controlled by the labor process.This paper specifically analyzes the differences in the internal mechanisms and driving forces of unpaid labor and paid labor in the game world.The traditional digital labor exploitation framework sees these free laborers giving their own practical energy without realizing that their products are also included in the entire capital cycle system and become the objects of exploitation.However,this paper believes that in addition to exploitation,we should also start from the experience and motivation of players’ practice,and see the participatory and subjective side of free labor production.This means that the player’s productive activity is a conscious activity that serves their own specific needs.In the unpaid labor of game workers,this paper argues that the participatory narrative of the game makes players think that it is a game of their own choice,which strengthens the initiative of the subject.Emotional experience is the source of players’ creativity and the driving force of digital generation;In the process of creation,players also enrich their own experience,bring about the improvement of their own skills and generate a culture that belongs to their own circle of interest;Behind the altruism of players’ unpaid labor data is also for better self-interest,production creation also improves the player’s play experience,and reproduces a community participation culture.In this link,playmen are still individuals full of subjective initiative,and their creations serve their own needs.But behind the player’s play,capital sees its productivity and wants to normalize it in some way.The leisure time and production capacity of the gamer group are concerned by some operators,and the play activities are at risk of being absorbed by capital,and the players spend a lot of time and energy on game promotion activities,but the income is not high.Unlike the traditional labor control theory emphasized by the organizational management mode control,only a small part of the game anchors in the digital age are organized management,and the vast majority of game anchors are difficult to really take the game as a long-term main job,when play becomes a means of making money,their "game" practice evolves towards the "work" path,but it is not long-term.Game anchors often have the dream of freedom at the beginning of the industry,but in the labor process is deeply bound by traffic domination,the use and presentation of media makes the production process of game anchors in a panoramic monitoring environment,they use digital bodies to shape the performance to the outside world,digital labor and emotional labor performance,their labor production process is governed by traffic logic,but gradually deviates from the original interest labor original intention.