Game Design by Numbers: Instrumental Play and the Quantitative Shift in the Digital Game Industry by Jennifer R. Whitson A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario © 2012 Jennifer R. Whitson Abstract This dissertation chronicles ideological, technological and economic changes in the digital game industry, focusing on how games are transforming as play becomes instrumentalized. It pays particular attention to the struggles of developers as they search for creative freedom and autonomy in a risk-averse industry. It makes original contributions to the literature on games by situating and explaining industry-wide shifts in terms of the socio-economics of game development and the rationalities that drive individual developers. It contributes to social theory more generally by explaining how transformations in play, games, and creativity are linked to much wider adaptations in the operation of capitalism and how it is justified to both workers and consumers. I use ground-level accounts from those within the game industry to describe how new media technologies interact with socio-economic forces, detailing the adaptability of capitalist modes of production in the face of critique. I show how definitions of 'games' and 'play' are changing as they come into contact with technology, allowing games to be reformulated in powerful new ways, so games are not only tools of entertainment but also tools of governance. I argue that the collective valuation of objective quantitative data and the belief in the fallibility of individual creative autonomy has turned game design into "design by numbers". The complementary themes of this thesis are bound together by references to the "New Spirit of Capitalism" (Boltanski and Chiapello 2007, 2005), which explains how capitalism is continually reorganizing itself, adapting the language and spirit of 1960s counterculture and emphasizing freedom in order to drive though new, more efficient, work practices and more subtle forms of exploitation. This "New Spirit" accounts for the current upheavals in the game industry. Changes to the Spirit of Capitalism have initiated tectonic shifts, reforming the geography of the game industry and creating fissures in the landscape that allow new game sectors to emerge, while others struggle to avoid being buried. In turn, innovations from the game industry, particularly the emphasis on data- driven design, shore up the weaknesses in the New Spirit of Capitalism, allowing it to operate more successfully. keywords: digital games; game development; game industry; Instrumentalization of Play; New Spirit of Capitalism; governance; surveillance ii Acknowledgements I would like to thank Aron Kyle for being a staunch and stalwart supporter of my cause. I'm not sure he ever clued in that he was the key impetus for my focus on software developers. Perhaps it's better this way. I may continue observing, incognito. This journey was made immeasurably easier by my defence committee and examiners: Robert Biddle, Brian Greenspan, Sheryl Hamilton, Aphra Kerr, and Bart Simon. Many other people provided inspiration along the way, including Kevin Haggerty, Justin Piché, Jessica Aldred, Chris Eaket, Natalie King, Elise Vist, Lauren Burr, Phil Horwitz, Trish Corrigan, Pippin Barr, Rilla Khaled, Jason Della Rocca, and too many others to name. I want to also thank my department's administrators, Paula Whissell, Karen Tucker, and Marlene Brancato. I am eternally thankful for financial support from a number of bodies, including: the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC); Carleton University's Hypertext and Hypermedia Lab; the Graphics, Animation, and New Media Network of Centres of Excellence (GRAND NCE); and Carleton's Human Oriented Technology Laboratory (HOTLab). I never once lacked intriguing research projects to work on and fascinating people to work with. In particular, the Hyperlab and HotLab - and their founders - gave this sociology orphan a home in the digital media world. I am grateful. My habit of periodically changing both my research topic and theoretical framework might have been met with disastrous consequences. I would like to thank my supervisor, Aaron Doyle, for his iron constitution. He took this all in stride and always offered unconditional support. iii Table of Contents Preliminary Section ii Abstract ii Acknowledgements iii Table of Contents iv List of Tables viii List of Illustrations viii List of Appendices viii 1. Challenges and Change in the Digital Game Industry 1 1.1 Industry Upheavals 3 1.2 Why Study Games? 6 1.3 A Brief Overview of Game Studies 9 1.4 Thesis Overview 17 Part I. Theorizing and Researching Game Development 17 Part II. The Game Development Landscape 20 Part III. Welcome to the Projective Cité 23 Part I. Theorizing and Researching Game Development 27 2. The New Spirit of Capitalism in the Game Industry 28 2.1 Shifts in the Spirit of Capitalism 29 2.2 Defining the Cité 32 2.3 The Role of Criticism and Adaptations to Capitalism 34 2.4 Critiquing the New Spirit of Capitalism 35 2.5 Applying the New Spirit of Capitalism to the Game Industry 40 3. Games, Gamification and Governance 43 3.1 The New Spirit of Capitalism and Governing Through Freedom 43 3.2 Gamification 50 The Emergence of Gamification 52 What is Gamification? 54 3.3 The Hype Cycle and Critiques of Gamification 60 3.4 Case Study: Gamifying the Call Centre 64 iv 3.5 The Theoretical Implications of Gamification 71 Feedback Mechanisms in Games 72 The Role of Surveillance 74 The Quantification of the Self 77 The Implications of Objective Quantification 80 3.6 Conclusion 83 4. The Instrumentalization of Play 85 4.1 Instrumental Play 87 4.2 Miguel Sicart and the Rules of the Game 92 4.3 T.L. Taylor and Power Gamers 96 4.4 Grimes and Feenberg's Theory of Ludification 105 Reflexivity 111 Boundedness 113 Rule-governedness 114 Precision 116 Playfulness 118 4.5 Conclusion 121 5. Researching Game Development 123 5.1 The Paucity of Developer-Centric Research 123 5.2 Methodology and The New Spirit of Capitalism 128 5.3 Interpretation 137 5.4 Conclusion 141 Part II. The Game Development Landscape 142 6. Console Developers: Cogs in a broken machine 143 6.1 Core vs Casual 145 6.2 Core and the Second Spirit of Capitalism 148 6.3 The Rationalization of Console Game Development Processes 151 Console Manufacturers 156 Publishers 159 Developers 161 6.4 The Console Life Cycle 163 v Emerging Phase 165 Engage Phase 165 Extract Phase 166 Decline Phase 166 6.5 Conclusion 167 7. Maintaining the Machine: Game developers and Core culture 170 7.1 Developers and Instrumental Play 171 7.2 Core Culture and the Working Conditions of the Power Gamer 175 7.3 Core Communities of Practice 180 7.4 Conclusion 185 8. Blueprints for New Machines: Shifts in game development landscapes 188 8.1 Game Industry Sectors 189 8.2 Detailing the 2011 Game Development Landscape 196 Casual 196 Core 201 Console 201 Handhelds 209 PC - Full Size 210 MMOs 213 Indie 215 8.3 Situating Industry Shifts as Displacements in the Spirit of Capitalism 219 8.4 Conclusion 223 Part III. Welcome to the Projective Cité 225 9. New Economies of Play: Casual, social and mobile games 226 9.1 Defining Social Games and their Relationship to Casual and Mobile 227 9.2 Funding the Casual Revolution: The Economics of Development 233 Core Development 233 Casual Development 238 The Particular Economics of Social Games 244 9.3 Opposing the Revolution: Critiques of social games 251 9.4 Responding to Criticisms 256 vi 9.5 Criticism, Tests and the New Spirit of Capitalism 260 9.6 Conclusion 263 10. Game Design by Numbers 265 10.1 Metrics: From Core to Casual 266 Metrics in Core Sectors 270 Metrics in Casual Sectors 273 10.2 Who Counts in Game Design? Why surveillance and god games matter 280 10.3 Innovations to the New Spirit of Capitalism 287 10.4 What this Means for Game Design 293 From Individual to Dividual 294 Designing Out Designers 299 Playing the Numbers Game 303 10.5 Conclusion 310 11. End Game 312 11.1 Retracing Our Steps 312 11.2 What This Thesis Means for Game Development and Beyond 317 11.3 Ways Forward 319 Appendices 323 A. Ethics Clearance Form 323 B. Interview Question Guide 325 C. List and Description of Online Sources 328 D. Bibliography of Primary Data Only 334 Ludology 355 Bibliography 359 vii List of Tables 2.1 Comparing the 2nd Spirit of Capitalism to the New Spirit of Capitalism 30 8.1 Key sectors of the digital games industry 192 10.1 Quantitative vs qualitative methods of evaluating player behaviour 268 List of Illustrations 3.1 Gartner hype cycle 61 4.1 Ludification and the rationalization of games 108 6.1 Five stages of the digital game industry 152 6.2 Production stages and increases in staff on a 24-month project 152 6.3 Profit distributions for a $60 game 155 6.4 Game development's actors and interconnections 162 6.5 The variable bargaining power of game developers 164 8.1 The gaming landscape in 2011 191 8.2 Global digital games sector revenue ($B) 195 8.3 The reach of casual sectors in the U.S. 199 8.4 Profit distribution for retail vs downloadable games 205 8.5 Integrated console and downloadable game development cycle 208 10.1 "Narrows" Halo 3 heat map 271 10.2 The shift from web analytics to social analytics 275 10.3 Ninja Metrics and a player's true worth 284 11.1 Data and predictive governance in the game industry 316 List of Appendices A Ethics Clearance Form 323 B Interview Question Guide 325 C List and Description of Online Sources 328 D Bibliography of Primary Data Only 334 viii Chapter 1.