PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
The digital game industry has embraced servitization - a strategic orientation toward customer centricity in production-based firms - to deeply monetize digital games. Though some note the resource-intensive nature of delivering services and suggest inherent risks in its adoption, extant literature is uncritical. This article draws on labour process theory to critique the impact of servitization on workers at the point of production. We conducted in-depth interviews at a large North American game development studio. The results show the human cost of servitization, generally overshadowed by financial considerations. Specifically, we theorize that servitization increases the indeterminacy of labour and this must be compensated for if servitization is to realize its cost-benefit potential. The result is an intensification of labour through additional control imperatives which make workers accountable to consumers through deterministic success metrics, impact the creative process and direct creative outputs in real time.
摘要：
数字游戏行业已经接受了服务化-以生产为基础的公司以客户为中心的战略方向-以深度货币化数字游戏。尽管有些人注意到提供服务的资源密集型性质，并提出了采用服务的固有风险，现存的文学是不加批判的。本文借鉴劳动过程理论来批评服务化对生产点工人的影响。我们在一家大型北美游戏开发工作室进行了深入采访。结果表明，服务化的人力成本，通常被财务考虑所掩盖。具体来说,我们认为，服务化增加了劳动力的不确定性，如果服务化要实现其成本效益潜力，就必须对此进行补偿。结果是通过额外的控制命令来加剧劳动力，这些命令使工人通过确定性的成功指标对消费者负责，影响创作过程并实时指导创意输出。
