eprintid: 10146832
rev_number: 9
eprint_status: archive
userid: 699
dir: disk0/10/14/68/32
datestamp: 2022-04-20 08:04:16
lastmod: 2022-04-20 08:04:16
status_changed: 2022-04-20 08:04:16
type: article
metadata_visibility: show
sword_depositor: 699
creators_name: Pelletier, C
title: Charming work: An ethnography of an indie game studio
ispublished: inpress
divisions: B14
divisions: J77
divisions: B16
divisions: UCL
keywords: Social Sciences, Communication, Aesthetics, cute studies, digital games, ethnography, gender, media institutions, subjectivity, production culture, studio studies, VIDEO GAMES
note: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
abstract: Based on data generated from an ethnography in a video game studio, this article contributes to research on gender and game work by presenting an analysis of the studio’s ethos and aesthetics. The studio’s employees described the company and the games it made in terms of their charm, and related this explicitly to its ‘diverse’ hiring practices and the company’s identity as ‘indie’. I explore how the notion of charm was applied to a game, a game company, and game developer or employee, by tracing continuities and discontinuities across three types of data: field memos written whilst visiting the studio; conversations with employees; and a game diary based on a play through of one of the studio’s games under development during fieldwork. Drawing on Sontag’s notes on camp, Ngai’s work on cute aesthetics and Born’s research on the institutionalization of aesthetic discourse, I analyse ‘charming’ as a distinct sensibility within contemporary game culture which is symptomatic of the breakdown of straightforward gender binaries and the commercialization of ‘amateur’ or independent game-making. The article builds on existing research about the social significance of aesthetic genres in game culture, notably retrogrames and the appeal of nostalgia in indie games. It also locates games within debates about contemporary aesthetic experiences shaped and sustained by global digital media and their associated production cultures.
date: 2022-02-24
date_type: published
publisher: SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC
official_url: https://doi.org/10.1177%2F13548565211072636
oa_status: green
full_text_type: other
language: eng
primo: open
primo_central: open_green
verified: verified_manual
elements_id: 1944727
doi: 10.1177/13548565211072636
lyricists_name: Pelletier, Caroline
lyricists_id: CPELL97
actors_name: Pelletier, Caroline
actors_id: CPELL97
actors_role: owner
full_text_status: public
publication: Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies
pages: 18
citation:        Pelletier, C;      (2022)    Charming work: An ethnography of an indie game studio.                   Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies        10.1177/13548565211072636 <https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565211072636>.    (In press).    Green open access   
 
document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10146832/3/Pelletier_Charming%20work_AAM.pdf