Keywords for Video Game Studies session on GOLD FARMING, Feb.16 @3:30pm

Submitted by Comparative History Of Ideas on

The Keywords for Video Game Studies graduate interest group’s (GIG) first session of the Winter Quarter is on Thursday, February 16, 3:30-5:30 PM, in Communication 202.  This is our third public reading group/workshop of the year and will focus on the gaming term “Gold Farming.” (read more @ CGP)

There will be free food & drink!

In our discussions we will consider....

  • What is gold farming, really?  Is it within the rules of play?  Is it playing against the “intent” of the game?  Is it cheating?
  • What are in-game economies?  What happens when in-game economies affect out-of-game economics (and vice versa)?
  • How might gold farming allow us to think about work and play?  Labor?
  • How do we address the curious intersection, conflating of gold farming and race or nation?  In other words, how do we address what Constance Steinkuehler describes as “a whole new form of virtual racism has emerged, with an in-game character class unreflectively substituted for unacknowledged (and largely unexamined) real-world differences between China and America, such as economic disparity, cultural difference, language barriers, and discrepant play styles.”
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