Os jogos e o fazer: a produção de conteúdo pelas comunidades de jogadores e suas motivações

Abstract

This thesis looks into the phenomenon of the game-related content production by the players’ communities. In a first moment, this work intends to establish a theory horizon able to comprise the players’ production, its characteristics and technological contexts implicated on its existence. Then, the relations between the appropriation tactics and the players’ production are observed. In a second moment, the thesis core is built: an study and discussion, both under the production aesthetics perspective, establishing five focal aspects that act as motivators for the players’ creation, they are: the evocative relation between the gamers and the games, the latter being comprehended as cultural digital artifacts and evocative objects; the delight and eagerness in making for the sake of it, under the craftsman logic, as well as the do-it-yourself practices related to the sub and counterculture movements of the hippies, punks, hackers and makers; the influence of the sense of communion and the will of constructing for the sake of the community and/or the practices of collaborative making; the making as a stage for showing off, related to the agonistic principle that stimulates a willingness for bragging and sharing one own achievements; and the making with professional intent, as is the case with the modders, the streamers and the e-athletes. It was our purpose to build a qualitative research, thoroughly theoretical, that contemplates the ample possibilities of the phenomenon and produces new knowledge about the theme, furthering our comprehension of the culture of games and (chiefly) of the player, under the role of creator, and his relationship with the games