The Players are the Product: A Study of Player Communities, Community Managers, and Zombies
The Players are the Product: A Study of Player Communities, Community Managers, and Zombies
The Players are the Product: A Study of Player Communities, Community Managers, and Zombies
By Daniel Warmke
March 28, 2020
Summary
RQ 3 How is value created for the players of HvZ? Players & Communities.
Importantly for this work, some form communities with other players and a subset of those communities then provide value to the firm and other players.
Most of the research that justifies these statements comes from video game research given that study of the Live Action Roll Playing or Live Action game space that Humans vs Zombies occupies is even younger than the study of video games.
The tester communities can be used for bug testing near the end of a development process to make a "Game Developed With the Community" but other firms will draw in creative input from an early stage to produce a "Game Developed for the Community."5 On the other hand, "The player communities are those communities which use specific technological artifacts to enhance the game, produce additional content or tune the game as they like, authorizing other users to make use of their creation." 6 The firm then must adapt to "Harness" these user communities to create value.
The community manager role is so large but so unappreciated that one study of 1,470 game industry workers in Ireland only realized the existence of community managers within the local game development community when a majority of respondents marked their duties as "Other" on a survey.
23 This body must both act as game designers building the play that drives fresh and exciting interactions between the players and must act as community managers resolving disputes, recruiting, and disseminating ideas.
Players are both the product and the consumer in HvZ and in a very real sense there is no HvZ game without players.
The players are both audience and actor in the narrative as well as serving as both player and obstacle in play, even the moderators are recruited exclusively from the player base and do not view themselves as totally separate.
Good Zombies could be considered part of the Tester community but that would not be very illuminating as they are the bulk of the consistent players.
There are two obvious ways to continue to study OUUGL and HvZ. One would be to expand the study to non-Mod players to validate the Mod's beliefs about player motivations and the other avenue would be to open up the study to the mechanics of the game.
Reference
Warmke, D. (2021, March 28). THE PLAYERS ARE THE PRODUCT: A STUDY OF PLAYER COMMUNITIES, COMMUNITY MANAGERS, AND ZOMBIES. Retrieved July 26, 2021, from https://analoggamestudies.org/2021/03/the-players-are-the-product-a-study-of-player-communities-community-managers-and-zombies/