Trading Frames: Interface Operations and Social Exchanges in Video Games by Adam Benn A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English Language and Literature Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario © 2017, Adam Benn Abstract This dissertation examines trade affordances across three different video games and one novel: The Realm Online (1995), World of Warcraft (2004), Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (2012), and Neal Stephenson's Reamde (2011). By trade affordances, I refer to those interfaces which facilitate the transition of digital items from one player to another. While the study of online economies has an established history, the broader social impact of trade affordances remains largely unexplored despite their ubiquity. I align these aforementioned video games with an increasing automation of trade practices within contemporary multi-user online games, as well as the growing relationship between online and offline economies. In order to demonstrate these connections, I provide a summary of early trade practices collected through blogs, playthroughs, developer notes, patches, and other ethnographic sources such as interviews and forum posts. After describing these trade practices, I survey key economic, ethical, political, and social theories relevant to the act of trading and consuming in online spaces. My critique is influenced by autonomist Marxist theory regarding the automation of work and the cycles of struggle central the relationship between labour and capital. This positions my dissertation in relation to other game studies scholars who have assessed the relationship between play and labour in video games, such as Nick Dyer-Witherford, Alexander Galloway, and McKenzie Wark. I contend that trade in online games is an increasingly capitalized act reflective of conditions of capital outside the games. In order to demonstrate this phenomenon, I provide close-readings of the previously mentioned video games and novel, as well as two single-player games that directly critique the relationship between trade, capital, and play. ii Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Brian Greenspan, for his tireless effort in supervising me throughout my degree. His input has been invaluable, and I can only hope in vain to replicate his work effort and expertise. In addition to guiding this dissertation, Dr. Greenspan's supervision brought me to conferences, workshops, and design seminars I would never have had the opportunity to visit otherwise. I would also like to thank Dr. Sarah Brouillette for her support. Her insight has been crucial to me finishing this work. She read drafts and provided commentary long before she needed to, and went above and beyond her role as a member of my supervisory committee. I wish to thank Dr. Travis DeCook, as well, for supervising my comprehensive exams. I am also grateful to Dr. Bart Simon and Dr. Shawn Graham for agreeing to act as external examiners at my defense. I am thankful to my colleagues, as well, who have helped me throughout my degree. Chris Reid, Bradley Weiers, Ron Mackenzie, David Wintle, Ryan Prager, Eve Robinson, Jan Michael, Cameron Ruether, Steve Mcleod, Adrien Robertson, and Alexander Grammatikos all provided, at some time or another, much needed technical, intellectual, or emotional support. I am certainly missing names and I apologize for that. You know who you are, and I am thankful for your help. I am eternally grateful to my mother, Belinda, who worked harder than anyone to ensure I could finish this degree. iii Table of Contents Abstract..............................................................................................................................ii Acknowledgements...........................................................................................................iii Table of Contents………..................................................................................................iv Introduction........................................................................................................................1 The Realm Online and Early MMOs.......................................................................6 World of Warcraft and Advancements in Trade Affordances...............................14 Reamde and the Growth of Digital Trade..............................................................19 The Steam Marketplace‘s Organizational Structure, Esports, and Skin Gambling................................................................................................................21 Trading Games.......................................................................................................30 Chapter Breakdown...............................................................................................34 Chapter 1: A Review Concerning Economics, Interfaces, Players, and Ethics.........36 1.1 Demographics to Set the Stage of Exchange………………….......................36 1.2 Economic Perspectives, Old and New.… …………………...........................46 1.2.1 Classical Economics and Trade Motivations...................................47 1.2.2 Trade Affordances as Institutional Forms........................................53 1.3 The Influence of Interface and the Role of the Player.....................................65 1.3.1 Interface as Rhetoric. .......................................................................65 1.3.2 Video Game Mechanics and Interfaces............................................69 1.3.3 Players, Ethics, and Interface............................................................75 1.4 Marxisms and Historical Materialisms............................................................91 iv 1.4.1 Technology, Labour, and Production................................................92 1.4.2 Mass Media, Networks, and Culture.................................................98 Chapter 2: Interpersonal Exchange in The Realm and World of Warcraft...............109 2.1 The Realm and the Socialised Exchange.......................................................112 2.2 The Material, Social, and Cultural Implications of the Auction House........120 Chapter 3: Total Market Control.................................................................................130 3.1 Reamde Predicts The Future.........................................................................131 3.2 Brokering the Steam Market.........................................................................139 Chapter 4: The Avant-Garde, the Monetization of Play, and Evil...........................160 4.1 Trucking Along in Papers, Please.................................................................169 4.2 Bartering With Evil in Recettear...................................................................173 Conclusion......................................................................................................................179 Works Cited....................................................................................................................183 v Introduction This dissertation examines the cultural, economic, and political impact of three different video game trade affordances. These games or trade interface are separated by almost a decade, and each demonstrates distinct properties which align it historically with broader transformations in virtual trade and consumption. While other games and interfaces enter the discussion, the major objects of study in this dissertation are The Realm Online (1995), World of Warcraft (2004), and the Steam Market. The Steam Market is not itself a game (although users have treated it as one), but a market created to govern various in-game economies. Steam itself is a digital platform for distributing thousands of games from various developers. In order to provide a meaningful and focused discussion of its operations, however, I will address the Steam Market in relation to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (2012) and the game's associated esports scene. Additionally, I provide close-readings of two single-player games (Papers, Please and Recettear) and one novel (Reamde) that comment critically on the conditions of exchange in video games. Each object of study marks technical and cultural shifts that are described in relation to their particular trade affordances. Throughout this dissertation I show that advancements in video game technologies have resulted in increasingly automated trade practices. Video game technologies here refers to software, hardware, and networks. For example, increased internet access and speed, server memory, and computer power are all contributing factors for massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) such as World of Warcraft (WoW) to produce a boisterous and active trading economy. Moreover, auction houses relieved players of having to manually chat and meet in avatar to trade, thereby 1 automating elements of trade practises found in early games such as The Realm Online (The Realm). These practices are described in detail in the object description section. The World of Warcraft auction house has evolved since its inception, and its programming has been consistently modified to decrease the need for player-to-player interaction as far as trading. Transcending a single game, the Steam Market is an umbrella institution which enables players to trade items across a variety of games distributed by Steam. This dissertation does not provide any formal description of