COPYRIGHT AND USE OF THIS THESIS This thesis must be used in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. Reproduction of material protected by copyright may be an infringement of copyright and copyright owners may be entitled to take legal action against persons who infringe their copyright. Section 51 (2) of the Copyright Act permits an authorized officer of a university library or archives to provide a copy (by communication or otherwise) of an unpublished thesis kept in the library or archives, to a person who satisfies the authorized officer that he or she requires the reproduction for the purposes of research or study. The Copyright Act grants the creator of a work a number of moral rights, specifically the right of attribution, the right against false attribution and the right of integrity. You may infringe the author’s moral rights if you: - fail to acknowledge the author of this thesis if you quote sections from the work - attribute this thesis to another author - subject this thesis to derogatory treatment which may prejudice the author’s reputation For further information contact the University’s Director of Copyright Services sydney.edu.au/copyright Value in Play: Game Items in Digital Environments Ping-I Ho BA (Philosophy) National Chung Cheng University MA (Telecommunications) National Chung Cheng University Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Digital Cultures Program, Department of Media and Communications, School of Letters, Art, and Media, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, The University of Sydney, Supervisor: Dr Chris Chesher Associate Supervisor: Dr Kathy Cleland March 2014 For my beloved family & In memory of my dear mum, Ping Table of contents Value in Play: Game Items in Digital Environments ................................................... i Table of contents ....................................................................................................... i Illustrations .............................................................................................................. iii Abstract ....................................................................................................................iv Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................vi Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1 Background........................................................................................................ 1 Research questions .......................................................................................... 11 How to study game items ................................................................................ 13 Methodologies ................................................................................................ 25 The structure of this thesis .............................................................................. 37 Chapter 1: What valuable game items are .............................................................. 44 1.1 Why game items instead of virtual items? ............................................ 45 1.2 What game items are ........................................................................... 56 1.3 Game items in different types of platforms and environments ............. 67 1.3.1 Game items in platforms ................................................................. 68 1.3.2 Game items in non-digital environments ......................................... 78 1.3.3 Game items in digital environments ................................................ 82 1.4 The value of game items ...................................................................... 97 1.4.1 Different types of value ................................................................... 98 1.4.2 How something is valuable in economics ....................................... 105 1.4.3 Why game items are valuable ........................................................ 107 1.5 Summary ............................................................................................ 128 Chapter 2: How game design affects the value of game items.............................. 131 2.1 Systems of storage and exchange ............................................................. 134 2.1.1 Systems of Storage ........................................................................ 135 2.1.2 Systems of Exchange ..................................................................... 138 2.2 Functionality and Aesthetics .................................................................... 141 2.2.1 Functionality ................................................................................. 141 2.2.2 Aesthetics...................................................................................... 145 2.3 Artificial scarcity and randomness ............................................................ 149 2.3.1 Artificial Scarcity ............................................................................ 150 2.3.2 Artificial Randomness .................................................................... 153 2.4 Sociality ................................................................................................... 157 2.5 Summary ................................................................................................. 161 i Chapter 3: The role of game items in digital performing environments ............... 164 3.1 Performance, avatars, and identities in digital environments ................... 166 3.1.1 Performance in digital environments ............................................. 166 3.1.2 Avatars .......................................................................................... 169 3.1.3 Player identity ............................................................................... 172 3.2 How players perform through avatars and game items............................. 182 3.2.1 Different ways of performing through avatars ............................... 184 3.2.2 Game items as valuable props, costumes, and expressive equipment .............................................................................................................. 192 3.3 Spectacles in digital environments ........................................................... 201 3.4 Summary ................................................................................................. 209 Chapter 4: The influence of player groups on game items .................................... 211 4.1 The power of players ................................................................................ 213 4.2 Players’ collective agreements ................................................................. 217 4.3 The shared information in social worlds ................................................... 224 4.4 Competitive atmosphere among players .................................................. 231 4.5 Collaboration and gifts in social gaming ................................................... 238 4.6 Summary ................................................................................................. 250 Conclusion and discussion .................................................................................... 254 The diverse values of valuable game items in different contexts .................... 254 The hybrid value of valuable game items ....................................................... 260 Research contributions and implications ........................................................ 264 The trends of valuable game items ................................................................ 267 References and Bibliography ................................................................................ 274 Game Appendix .................................................................................................... 308 ii Illustrations Figures: Figure 1: Circuit of culture ....................................................................................... 27 Tables: Table 1: Applying Erving Goffman’s concept of personal front in digital environments ....................................................................................................... 188 iii Abstract Game items have become valuable objects that can be traded by both players and game companies. However, valuable game items are typically misunderstood by the public as something unreal or unserious that should not be treated as something valuable. In this thesis, I examine how game items play a significant role as valuable objects in the culturally situated contexts of gameplay and beyond. In current mainstream discourses, the reasons why game items are so valuable to players can be understood from two main perspectives derived from two traditional approaches: the labour theory of value and the subjective theory of value. On the one hand, followers of the labour theory of value argue that the value of game items is manifest when players make efforts to obtain them. On the other hand, advocators of the subjective theory of value suggest that this value is given by players’ subjective personal preferences. Although these two perspectives provide useful insights for understanding the value of game items, neither on its own is enough to provide sophisticated explanations for how the value of game items is created and used in different contexts of gameplay that involve much more complexity. This thesis argues that the