This book presents a study of so-called indie video game developers that are widely regarded as the creative and innovative fringe of the video game industry. The video game industry is an exemplary entrepreneurial high growth industry that combines digital media, cinematographic representations and interactive gaming technologies, and uses global digital distribution channels to reach local gaming communities. The study examines a number of issues, concerns, challenges, and opportunities that indie developers are handling as part of their development work. The love of gaming and video games more specifically is the shared and unifying force of both so-called Triple-A developers and the indie developer community. Still, issues such as how to raise financial capital or otherwise fund the development work, or how to optimize the return on investment when video games are released on digital platforms are issues that indie developers need to cope with. The study is theoretically framedas a case of an innovation-led sector of the economy, yet being anchored in the Swedish welfare state model, wherein e.g., free tertiary education and social insurances and health case at low cost are provided and supportive of enterprising.

This book will be valuable reading for academics working in the fields of knowledge management, innovation, and the creative economy.

Auteur

Alexander Styhre, Ph.D. is chair of management and organization, Dept. of Business Administration, School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Styhre has published widely in the field of organization and his work has appeared in Journal of Management Studies, Organization Studies, and Academy of Management Review.

Contenu

Introduction 15 pages, 6,000 words

The ethnographer's dilemma: To understand a world that is not your own while avoiding to misrepresent it

The introduction addresses methodological concerns pertaining to an ethnographic study of a professional community that take pride in being integrated on basis of the shared love of video games. Referencing e.g., anthropological literature, the introduction emphasizes how the video game community has been systematically portrayed as being engaged in a pastime that is determined by a masculine adolescent culture, and that this community is treated as a subculture of geeks, making fantasy and escapism a source of entertainment. This overtly skeptical view of video games should per se be subject to scholarly reflection, and consequently the ethnographer's challenge is to account for the development activities in ways that move beyond such ready-made and inherited images of the industry. As these methodological and study design related issues is central to the study and the volume, this concern is addressed in the very beginning of the volume rather than being located in an appendix or as a separate methodology chapter.

PART I: THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES

Chapter One 25 pages, 10,000 words Governing innovation-led economies: The economics of business creation

The first chapter of the theoretical part of the volume discuss the concept of innovation-led growth (as opposed to imitation-led growth) as an economic regime that demand certain economic policies and an institutional framework supportive of risk taking and enterprising. To stage the video game industry and the indie developer as a knowledge-intensive and professional domain of development work and economic value creation, the broader institutional framework needs to be sketched. The chapter addresses entrepreneurial activities, venture capital supply, and the various state-controlled support activities that are part of an innovation-led growth regime. By and large, Chapter One provides the economic and financial background for the video game industry and indie development activities.

Chapter Two 25 pages, 10,000 words

Deeply meaningful work and the passionate worker

The second chapter of Part I examines the motivational and affective conditions that pertain to video game development activities. Virtually all interviewees argued that they had a dream of becoming a video game developer at an early age, and their career choice is thus consistent with what has been called deeply meaningful work. The scholarly literature indicates that innovation-led economic growth is premised on the enterprising individual's capacity to commit him or herself to activities that are uncertain and rewarded only after the fact. In this situation, a commitment to a line of work reduces entry barriers and nourishes an industry or community culture wherein identities and passion are key analytical components, potentially explaining long-term success and economic growth in a sector of the economy. The chapter thus examines the sociological and behavioural aspects of indie development ...