Indie and Dōjin Games: a Multilayered Cross-Cultural Comparison by Mikhail Fiadotau, 39
Issue 10 (2019) articles “How video games changed my life”: Life-Changing Testimonies and The Last of Us by Heidi Rautalahti, 1 Indie and Dōjin Games: A Multilayered Cross-Cultural Comparison by Mikhail Fiadotau, 39 Decoding Fantasy Football: A Ludic Perspective by Aditya Deshbandhu, 85 interview Interview with Matthias Kempke on Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth by gamevironments, 117 Indie and Dōjin Games: A Multilayered Cross-Cultural Comparisoni Mikhail Fiadotau Abstract The article provides a comparative account of two paradigms of independent videogame production: the Japanese dōjin (doujin) games and the increasingly global indie games. Through a multilayered analysis, it expounds the conceptual metaphors associated with indie and dōjin games, traces the two movements’ respective histories, situates them in wider media environments, and compares their characteristic traits. Keywords: Indie games, Dōjin games, Participatory culture, Cultural history, Gaming in Japan, Hobbyist game development, gamevironments To cite this article: Fiadotau, M., 2019. Indie and dōjin games: a multilayered cross- cultural comparison. gamevironments 10, 39-84. Available at http://www.gamevironments.uni-bremen.de. 39_______ Introduction When a study of independent videogame production touches upon the issue of cultural variation, one concept that comes up often is dōjin gēmu (alternatively rendered as doujin geemu or doujin soft): a term denoting the Japanese tradition of hobbyist game making, which is assumed to be either the Japanese equivalent of the predominantly Western phenomenon of indie gaming or at least something comparable to it. In Japan, as well, the term indīzu (indie) commonly occurs in conjunction with dōjin, though perhaps more often in juxtaposition than in analogy.
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