Second Life

Player as Author: Conjecturing Online Game Creation Modalities and Infrastructure

This paper argues that the videogame industry has entered a period of creative stagnation, characterized by sequels, familiar genre templates, and tight control over production, and that the producer-consumer dichotomy limits innovation.

• The paper argues the videogame industry has entered creative stagnation, marked by sequels, familiar genre templates, and tight production control, and that the producer-consumer dichotomy limits innovation.
• Its central thesis is that players should be recognized and enabled as authors who create game content, scenarios, mods, and entirely new games, framed as an emancipatory movement.
• Cited examples of player authorship include user-generated machinima, photo-novel stories produced from The Sims, object scripting in Second Life, and modding communities supported by Valve and id Software.