Dereli
mcaodere@livjm.ac.uk
Bibliography
Kurt Dereli is currently studying for an MPhil at Liverpool John Moores University, UK, on the subject of amateur computer games editing and custom content generation.
Concerning the Scope of the Amateur Custom Content Generation Culture For Computer Games
The amateur cultures surrounding media production are often discounted as subjects of study in favour of more visible official national and commercial structures referred to as 'the media'. Custom content creation for computer games, or 'modding' is one such culture which mirrors the official culture of games development and distribution. An examination of custom content creation in relation to computer games and fan culture is helpful and enlightening. Theorists such as John Fiske and Henry Jenkins provide a general theory of the creative media audience. Others such as Celia Pearce see this form of cultural expression as a challenge to notions of authorship. This provides a context for the study of custom content generation. One cannot aspire to the creation of a rigorous taxonomy within the context of a short paper. Instead some rough categories into which custom content may be bracketed will be set down. One such categorisation could be based upon the game engine content is created for. Alternatively the field can be considered as a composite of specific specialised elementary tasks which creators can specialise in. Similarly concepts such as genre and game-play can be used to subdivide custom content creation. It is hoped that through an analysis of both the theoretical background and the forms of content endemic to the custom content creation community the way will be laid open for more substantive studies of custom content generation for computer games in the future.
Select Bibilography
Fiske, John (1992) 'The Cultural Economy of Fandom' in Lewis, Lisa A. (1992) The Adoring Audience: Fan Culture and Popular Media pp 30-49 London: Routledge.
Pearce, Celia (2001) Emergent Authorship: The Next Interactive Revolution" http://www.cpandfriends.com/writing/computers-graphics.html in Computers & Graphics, Winter 2001.
Jenkins, Henry (1992) Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture New York and London: Routledge.
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