Indie or Mainstream? Tensions and Nuances between the Alternative and the Mainstream in Indie Games
The commercial emergence of "indie games" since 2008 represents a fundamental challenge for contemporary game studies. As we still do not have a clear definition of the indie game, its popularity and commercial success have made the conceptualization of this type of game even more complex....
| Autor: | |
|---|---|
| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2016 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona |
| Repositorio: | Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ddd.uab.cat:166314 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://ddd.uab.cat/record/166314 https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.7238/a.v0i54.2818 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Indie game Design Culture Ideology Mainstream Diseño Cultura Ideología |
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Indie or Mainstream? Tensions and Nuances between the Alternative and the Mainstream in Indie Games ¿Indie o mainstream? Tensiones y matices entre lo alternativo y lo mainstream en los indie games Indie o mainstream? Tensions i matisos entre el que és alternatiu i mainstream en els indie games |
| title |
Indie or Mainstream? Tensions and Nuances between the Alternative and the Mainstream in Indie Games |
| spellingShingle |
Indie or Mainstream? Tensions and Nuances between the Alternative and the Mainstream in Indie Games Pérez Latorre, Óliver Indie game Design Culture Ideology Mainstream Diseño Cultura Ideología |
| title_short |
Indie or Mainstream? Tensions and Nuances between the Alternative and the Mainstream in Indie Games |
| title_full |
Indie or Mainstream? Tensions and Nuances between the Alternative and the Mainstream in Indie Games |
| title_fullStr |
Indie or Mainstream? Tensions and Nuances between the Alternative and the Mainstream in Indie Games |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Indie or Mainstream? Tensions and Nuances between the Alternative and the Mainstream in Indie Games |
| title_sort |
Indie or Mainstream? Tensions and Nuances between the Alternative and the Mainstream in Indie Games |
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Pérez Latorre, Óliver |
| author |
Pérez Latorre, Óliver |
| author_facet |
Pérez Latorre, Óliver |
| author_role |
author |
| dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv |
Indie game Design Culture Ideology Mainstream Diseño Cultura Ideología |
| topic |
Indie game Design Culture Ideology Mainstream Diseño Cultura Ideología |
| description |
The commercial emergence of "indie games" since 2008 represents a fundamental challenge for contemporary game studies. As we still do not have a clear definition of the indie game, its popularity and commercial success have made the conceptualization of this type of game even more complex. Far from being a pure videogame model, completely separated from the mainstream sphere, indie games often involve hybridizations and ambiguities between the alternative and the mainstream. Thus this article aims to problematize the neat conceptualizations of indie games as an opposing "genre" to mainstream games by exploring the many tensions and nuances between the alternative and mainstream dimensions that can be identified within indie game production, culture and design. The first part of the article focuses on the production and distribution issues, as well as on the cultural construction and artistic legitimation of indie games. The article then posits a design-centered analytical approach to indie games inspired by Kellner (1995) and based on "procedural rhetorics" (Bogost, 2006; Flanagan and Nissenbaum, 2014). This approach is used to look at commercially successful indie games, which we consider to be an especially suitable object of study for exploring and understanding contemporary culture through the frictions between hegemonic culture and counter-culture, progressivism and conservatism, capitalism and anti-capitalism, as well as the way we conceive these notions. |
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2016 |
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2 2016-01-01 2016 2016-01-01 |
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Article http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501 VoR http://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85 |
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info:eu-repo/semantics/article |
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article |
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https://ddd.uab.cat/record/166314 https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.7238/a.v0i54.2818 |
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https://ddd.uab.cat/record/166314 https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.7238/a.v0i54.2818 |
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Inglés eng |
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Inglés |
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eng |
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open access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ |
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info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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open access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ |
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openAccess |
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Indie or Mainstream? Tensions and Nuances between the Alternative and the Mainstream in Indie Games¿Indie o mainstream? Tensiones y matices entre lo alternativo y lo mainstream en los indie gamesIndie o mainstream? Tensions i matisos entre el que és alternatiu i mainstream en els indie gamesPérez Latorre, ÓliverIndie gameDesignCultureIdeologyMainstreamDiseñoCulturaIdeologíaThe commercial emergence of "indie games" since 2008 represents a fundamental challenge for contemporary game studies. As we still do not have a clear definition of the indie game, its popularity and commercial success have made the conceptualization of this type of game even more complex. Far from being a pure videogame model, completely separated from the mainstream sphere, indie games often involve hybridizations and ambiguities between the alternative and the mainstream. Thus this article aims to problematize the neat conceptualizations of indie games as an opposing "genre" to mainstream games by exploring the many tensions and nuances between the alternative and mainstream dimensions that can be identified within indie game production, culture and design. The first part of the article focuses on the production and distribution issues, as well as on the cultural construction and artistic legitimation of indie games. The article then posits a design-centered analytical approach to indie games inspired by Kellner (1995) and based on "procedural rhetorics" (Bogost, 2006; Flanagan and Nissenbaum, 2014). This approach is used to look at commercially successful indie games, which we consider to be an especially suitable object of study for exploring and understanding contemporary culture through the frictions between hegemonic culture and counter-culture, progressivism and conservatism, capitalism and anti-capitalism, as well as the way we conceive these notions.La emergencia de los indie games como producto comercial desde el año 2008 supone un reto fundamental para los estudios contemporáneos del videojuego. Cuando todavía carecemos de una clara definición del indie game, su popularidad y comercialidad hacen que la conceptualización de este tipo de videojuego resulte más compleja si cabe. Lejos de constituir un modelo de videojuego «puro», completamente separado de la esfera mainstream, los indie games a menudo presentan hibridaciones y ambigüedades entre lo alternativo y lo mainstream. En este sentido, este artículo pretende problematizar la conceptualización nítida de los indie games como un género opuesto a los videojuegos mainstream, a través de una exploración de las múltiples tensiones y matices entre lo alternativo y lo mainstream que pueden ser identificadas en los procesos de producción, la cultura y el diseño de los videojuegos indie. La primera parte del artículo se centra en aspectos de producción y distribución, así como en la construcción cultural y la legitimación artística del indie game. A continuación, se desarrolla un análisis del diseño de indie games inspirado en Kellner (1995) y basado en la retórica procedural (Bogost, 2006; Flanagan y Nissenbaum, 2014). Este análisis se aplica a indie games con éxito comercial, considerándolos un objeto de estudio particularmente interesante para explorar y entender la cultura contemporánea a través de las fricciones entre cultura hegemónica y contracultura, progresismo y conservadurismo, capitalismo y anticapitalismo, y el modo en que estas nociones son concebidas. 22016-01-0120162016-01-01Articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501VoRhttp://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85info:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttps://ddd.uab.cat/record/166314https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.7238/a.v0i54.2818reponame:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UABinstname:Universitat Autònoma de BarcelonaInglésengopen accesshttp://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:ddd.uab.cat:1663142026-06-06T12:50:31Z |
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15,301629 |