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Games in the platform economy : steam's tangled markets / Anne Mette Thorhauge.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Thorhauge, Anne Mette, author.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Valve (Firm).
- Video games industry.
- Video games--Equipment and supplies.
- Video games.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (vii, 148 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).
- Edition:
- 1st ed.
- Place of Publication:
- Bristol : Bristol University Press, 2023.
- Summary:
- This book examines the evolution of digital platform economies through the lens of online gaming with a unique economic sociology perspective. Paying particular attention to Valve's 'Steam' platform, the book examines the architecture of this online videogame marketplace and the way it enables new markets and economic transactions.
- Contents:
- Front Cover
- Games in the Platform Economy: Steam's Tangled Markets
- Copyright information
- Dedication
- Table of Contents
- List of Figures and Table
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction: Steam's Tangled Markets
- Steam's tangled markets
- Platforms in the domain of digital games
- Business models of game platforms
- The role of player-driven economies
- An economic-sociological approach to markets
- Commodification of economic action?
- Reading guide
- 2 Platform Configurations in Gaming
- Arcades, consoles, and digital storefronts
- The platform in platforms
- Platforms as programmable architectures
- Platforms as multi-sided markets
- Platforms as infrastructures and organizational forms
- Platform practices
- Platform configurations in the contemporary game industry
- Platform configurations and business models in gaming
- Boxed content and retail
- Games as a service and the subscription-based business model
- Mobile gaming and free-to-play
- Player-driven economies and business models in online gaming
- Platforms, business models, and market orders
- 3 Economic Sociology and the Analysis of Platforms as Markets
- The market in platform studies
- Approaches to markets within classic economics and economic sociology
- The rise of the market society and the notion of embeddedness
- Markets as institutions: stability and change
- Tangled markets
- Multi-sided markets and tangled markets
- The analysis of the Steam platform as a tangled market
- 4 Valve Corporation and the Steam Platform
- Valve Corporation: incumbent or challenger?
- Storefront, social network, or tangled market?
- 5 Steam's Business Model
- The Steam platform
- The conversion of affective value into market value
- A diachronic accordance analysis of the Steam platform's development
- From download client to tangled market.
- The continuous expansion of the Steam store
- The monetization of playbour
- Expanding the scope of economic transactions
- The monetization of player interaction as a process of 'disembedment'
- 6 Shaping Market Interactions on the Steam Platform
- Critical analyses of digital platform architectures
- The Steam platform documentation as a rhetorical device
- Key features of the Steam business model
- The Steam store and its preferred business models
- Marketplaces on Steam
- All roads lead through the Steam Wallet
- 7 Economic Actors on the Steam Platform
- A few words on method
- Market power or marketplace power? Economic actors in the game market
- Economic actors in the Steam market order
- The business emphases of market actors on Steam
- The steam market order as a solution to the competition problem
- The Steam platform as market governance
- 8 Player Trading beyond Steam
- The exchange of game items beyond the Steam platform
- 'Powered by Steam, not affiliated with Valve Corp.'
- Steam's economic interests in extra-platform practices
- Monetary networks and money at the margins
- The skin ecosystem as a monetary network
- 9 User Monetization and Value Creation in Tangled Markets
- Commodification and the audience commodity
- The audience commodity and audience work in tangled markets
- Concluding remarks: the platformization of peer-to-peer transactions and the regulation of tangled markets
- Notes
- Chapter 1
- Chapter 2
- Chapter 3
- Chapter 4
- Chapter 5
- Chapter 6
- Chapter 7
- Chapter 8
- Chapter 9
- References
- Index.
- Notes:
- Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 23 Jan 2024).
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Other Format:
- Print version :
- ISBN:
- 9781529223064
- 1529223067
- 9781529223071
- 1529223075
- OCLC:
- 1396550883
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