Keywords
- Massively Multiplayer Online Games
- Video Game Engagement
- Digital Prosumption
- Active Prosumers
- Computer Gaming
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
Synonyms
Definitions
Game prosumption refers to the process of both production and consumption of computer games rather than focusing on either one (production) or the other (consumption).
Introduction
Concept of prosumption was first introduced by Toffler (1980) as part of his futuristic outlook to the post-industrial age. Kotler (1986) found the idea of involving individuals in the production of the goods and services they consume rather provocative. Yet, it took a while for consumers not to be considered as passive responders but active creative actors contributing to the value creating process (Xie et al. 2008).
Key Principles and Concepts
In its contemporary use, prosumption implies that consumer participate in the production of the goods that they consume (Ritzer and Jurgenson 2010). Accordingly, presumption involves more than just a single act. It is an integration of participatory physical, mental, and/or social actions in the process of creating desired products. These roles of consumer and producer blended and blurred even more with the introduction of digital media (Pathak-Shelat 2014).
Digital Prosumption
In the digital and online world, prosumption actions are not necessarily solely physical, but may also be virtual. Digital technologies provided more opportunity and visibility to consumer’s input in various design, manufacturing, and distribution dimensions of prosumption (Rayna and Striukova 2016). The emerging network economy enabled further prosumption possibilities for market participants and consumers alike (Grün et al. 2011). Individuals, on the other hand, not always wanted to engage in co-creation by contributing their valuable time. Indeed, some argued that vast majority were happy to be only passive consumers at the lack of incentives (Haque 2010). However, games provided the much-needed incentive.
Contemporary Computer Game Prosumption
Most computer gaming experience involves the gamer’s engagement in the production of an episode of game play, which is then simultaneously consumed (Harwood 2011). Gaming itself is a prosumption activity. Furthermore, gamers consuming multi-player e-games not only buy and play but also observe other players actions. This collective action produced is then called a virtual game. The integrated experience of online play containing labor during virtual gaming is also referred as playbor (Kücklich 2005; Ritzer 2014; Schott 2010).
Examples
There are some players who choose to dedicate an extra effort to modify the games they play, such as the creators of Counter-Strike, Minh Le, and Jess Cliffe (Kücklich 2005). With the advent of highly profitable sandbox games, more players are introduced to prosumption of their own story as they interact with the game world, decide for themselves what they want to play.
References
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Haque, N.: Playbor: when work and fun coincide. Wikinomics. Available http://www.wikinomics.com/blog/index.php/2010/02/25/playbor-when-work-and-fun-coincide/ (2010). Accessed 29 Jan 2018
Harwood, T.: Convergence of online gaming and e-commerce. In: Virtual Worlds and E-Commerce: Technologies and Applications for Building, pp. 60–89. Business Science Reference, Hershey (2011)
Kotler, P.: The prosumer movement : a new challenge for marketers. In: Lutz, R.J., Provo, U. (eds.) Advances in Consumer Research, pp. 510–513. Association for Consumer Research, Provo (1986)
Kücklich, J.: Precarious playbour: modders and the digital games industry. In: Brett Neilson and Ned Rossiter (eds.) Fibreculture J. (5), Open Humanities Press. (2005). http://five.fibreculturejournal.org/fcj-025-precarious-playbour-modders-and-the-digital-games-industry/
Pathak-Shelat, M.: Media literacy and well-being of young people. In: Ben-Arieh, A., Casas, F., Frønes, I., Korbin, J.E. (eds.) Handbook of Child Well-Being: Theories, Methods and Policies in Global Perspective, pp. 2057–2092. Springer, Dordrecht (2014)
Rayna, T., Striukova, L.: Involving consumers: the role of digital technologies in promoting ‘prosumption’ and user innovation. J. Knowl. Econ. 1, 1–20. Springer, US. (2016). https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13132-016-0390-8
Ritzer, G.: e-Games and Prosumption. Available https://georgeritzer.wordpress.com/2014/09/10/e-games-and-prosumption/ (2014). Accessed 29 Jan 2018
Ritzer, G., Jurgenson, N.: Production, consumption, prosumption: the nature of capitalism in the age of the digital ‘prosumer’. J. Consum. Cult. 10, 13–36 (2010)
Schott, B.: Playbor. The New York Times. Available https://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/12/playbor/ (2010). Accessed 29 Jan 2018
Toffler, A.: The Third Wave. Bantam Books, New York (1980)
Xie, C., Bagozzi, R.P., Troye, S.V.: Trying to prosume: toward a theory of consumers as co-creators of value. J. Acad. Mark. Sci. 36, 109–122 (2008)
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Ozturkcan, S. (2018). Game Prosumption. In: Lee, N. (eds) Encyclopedia of Computer Graphics and Games. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08234-9_133-1
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