Fuel, Fatigue, Fashion: Towards a Media Ecology of Game Industry Conventions

Abstract

This presentation provisionally reports on qualitative fieldwork at games industry conventions in the Southeast United States. Such conventions offer compelling glimpses into how regional games industries pitch game production to aspirational and existing workers, player communities, and partners in government, education, and adjacent industries. Adopting a media ecological approach which begins with indexes of the mundane artifacts and practices that make up a given context, we offer a critical consideration of three such artifacts that stood out to us during our fieldwork: cargo shorts, soda cans, and massage chairs. Situating each artifact culturally, historically, and within the context of this convention itself, we reveal a set of insights regarding the ways game production --and games workers--are envisioned and enacted during a particularly tumultuous time for the industry.