• Crafting is So Hardcore: Masculinized Making in Gaming Representations of Labor

    Author(s):
    Anastasia Salter (see profile) , Mel Stanfill, Anne Sullivan
    Date:
    2020
    Group(s):
    Digital Humanities, Electronic Literature, TC Popular Culture
    Subject(s):
    Games--Study and teaching, Labor
    Item Type:
    Conference proceeding
    Conf. Title:
    Foundations of Digital Games 2020
    Conf. Loc.:
    Virtual
    Conf. Date:
    September 15-18
    Tag(s):
    Game studies, Labour, Gender
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/3mkc-cg63
    Abstract:
    In this paper we examine the representation of crafts in video games, particularly in “crafting systems” – collections of mechanics that are described as crafting within a game's narrative. Real world crafting practitioners value creativity, expression, and mastery of material, but the act of crafting itself is often viewed by society as reproductive, feminized labor and therefore devalued. Because of this, crafting systems in games have been designed to more closely resemble masculinized, productive labor in the form of repetitive, manufacturing-like mechanics. These representational choices persist even across games lauded for their crafting systems, as our analysis demonstrates. Through an examination of both user-generated tutorials and game mechanics for three games that frequently appear on “best crafting games” lists, we show that games persist in devaluing the reproductive labor of crafting, reducing creative expression and material mastery to marginal and repetitive tasks while catering to the palates of masculine gamers by emphasizing stats-driven progression rather than creative making.
    Notes:
    Citation: Anne Sullivan, Mel Stanfill, and Anastasia Salter. 2020. Crafting is So Hardcore: Masculinized Making in Gaming Representations of Labor. In International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (FDG '20). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 34, 1–8. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1145/3402942.3402976
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Conference proceeding     Show details
    Pub. DOI:
    https://doi.org/10.1145/3402942.3402976
    Publisher:
    ACM
    Pub. Date:
    2020-9-17
    Proceeding:
    International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    3 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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