Social Class in Online Gaming
...in the “freemium” economy, one’s expendable income really does determine whether one can join certain “Clash” clans, because many only accept members who have advanced to a level that can only be achieved through the in-app purchase of “gems.” On Twitch, income divides social communities into haves and have-nots who must constantly hustle for the former’s patronage. And in an AI-driven setting – as on social media – one can never be too sure where the fun stops and the exploitation begins. In any case, a potential realm of equal opportunity has been replaced by a congeries of unequal, transactional power relations.
Notes:
We see this in collectible card and dice games as well.
Folksonomies: gaming economics game economics
Taxonomies:
/hobbies and interests/games/card games (0.585926)
/society/crime/personal offense/human trafficking (0.173937)
/travel/transports/public transport (0.152530)
Keywords:
transactional power relations (0.925045 (:0.000000)), expendable income (0.755893 (:0.000000)), income divides (0.729291 (:0.000000)), dice games (0.690024 (:0.000000)), collectible card (0.688077 (:0.000000)), Online Gaming (0.651436 (:0.000000)), Social Class (0.629044 (:0.000000)), equal opportunity (0.614784 (:0.000000)), in-app purchase (0.599029 (:0.000000)), potential realm (0.595234 (:0.000000)), AI-driven setting (0.578996 (:0.000000)), social communities (0.574830 (:0.000000)), social media (0.557784 (:0.000000)), have-nots (0.375662 (:0.000000)), congeries (0.367655 (:0.000000)), haves (0.353079 (:0.000000)), Twitch (0.345583 (:0.000000)), patronage (0.330153 (:0.000000)), Clash (0.317890 (:0.000000)), clans (0.305918 (:0.000000)), exploitation (0.302021 (:0.000000)), economy (0.290454 (:0.000000)), freemium (0.267294 (:0.000000)), members (0.265925 (:0.000000)), level (0.265596 (:0.000000)), gems. (0.264939 (:0.000000))
Concepts:
Social class (0.962455): dbpedia_resource
Sociology (0.663761): dbpedia_resource
Achieved status (0.608878): dbpedia_resource
Social status (0.584878): dbpedia_resource
Relations of production (0.569606): dbpedia_resource
Working class (0.568759): dbpedia_resource
Social sciences (0.555503): dbpedia_resource
Bourgeoisie (0.551680): dbpedia_resource
Digital Capitalism’s War on Leisure