“We don’t sell blocks” exploring Minecraft’s commissioning market
In recent years, we have experienced the proliferation of videogames that have, as their main mode of play, the creation of in-game content. Even though existing literature has looked into various characteristics of these games, one of their aspects that warrants further exploration is the monetisat...
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| Format: | Conference or Workshop Item |
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2016
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32986/ |
| _version_ | 1848794533934923776 |
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| author | Koutsouras, Panagiotis Martindale, Sarah Crabtree, Andy |
| author_facet | Koutsouras, Panagiotis Martindale, Sarah Crabtree, Andy |
| author_sort | Koutsouras, Panagiotis |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | In recent years, we have experienced the proliferation of videogames that have, as their main mode of play, the creation of in-game content. Even though existing literature has looked into various characteristics of these games, one of their aspects that warrants further exploration is the monetisation practices that can emerge in their context. Through our ongoing ethnographic study, we became aware of a vivid commissioning market in Minecraft’s creative community. Our findings point out the 3 main actors that constitute this market: the clients, who own Minecraft servers; the contractors, who handle the clients’ orders of Minecraft maps; and the builders, who are responsible for the creation of said maps. Furthermore, our work has revealed that the commodity at play is not the in-game content, as one would expect, but the service of creating this content. These findings suggest that commissioning in Minecraft – a well-organised process, initiated and sustained solely by the members of the game’s community – plays a crucial role in the game’s current structure. Moreover, they challenge the belief that content generation in gaming settings is free-labour that is exploited by the developers of those games. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:17:43Z |
| format | Conference or Workshop Item |
| id | nottingham-32986 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:17:43Z |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-329862020-05-04T18:07:41Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32986/ “We don’t sell blocks” exploring Minecraft’s commissioning market Koutsouras, Panagiotis Martindale, Sarah Crabtree, Andy In recent years, we have experienced the proliferation of videogames that have, as their main mode of play, the creation of in-game content. Even though existing literature has looked into various characteristics of these games, one of their aspects that warrants further exploration is the monetisation practices that can emerge in their context. Through our ongoing ethnographic study, we became aware of a vivid commissioning market in Minecraft’s creative community. Our findings point out the 3 main actors that constitute this market: the clients, who own Minecraft servers; the contractors, who handle the clients’ orders of Minecraft maps; and the builders, who are responsible for the creation of said maps. Furthermore, our work has revealed that the commodity at play is not the in-game content, as one would expect, but the service of creating this content. These findings suggest that commissioning in Minecraft – a well-organised process, initiated and sustained solely by the members of the game’s community – plays a crucial role in the game’s current structure. Moreover, they challenge the belief that content generation in gaming settings is free-labour that is exploited by the developers of those games. 2016-08-06 Conference or Workshop Item NonPeerReviewed Koutsouras, Panagiotis, Martindale, Sarah and Crabtree, Andy (2016) “We don’t sell blocks” exploring Minecraft’s commissioning market. In: 1st International Joint Conference of DiGRA and FDG, 1-6 August, 2016, Dundee, Scotland. User-Generated Content; Minecraft; Monetisation; Commissioning; Fieldwork. |
| spellingShingle | User-Generated Content; Minecraft; Monetisation; Commissioning; Fieldwork. Koutsouras, Panagiotis Martindale, Sarah Crabtree, Andy “We don’t sell blocks” exploring Minecraft’s commissioning market |
| title | “We don’t sell blocks” exploring Minecraft’s commissioning market |
| title_full | “We don’t sell blocks” exploring Minecraft’s commissioning market |
| title_fullStr | “We don’t sell blocks” exploring Minecraft’s commissioning market |
| title_full_unstemmed | “We don’t sell blocks” exploring Minecraft’s commissioning market |
| title_short | “We don’t sell blocks” exploring Minecraft’s commissioning market |
| title_sort | “we don’t sell blocks” exploring minecraft’s commissioning market |
| topic | User-Generated Content; Minecraft; Monetisation; Commissioning; Fieldwork. |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32986/ |