作为劳工的“玩家”:一项关于游戏代练的民族志研究

Professionalplayers as labor:An ethnographic study of game boosting

在政治规划与商业力量的推动下,中国的网络游戏从媒体笔下的“电子可卡因”变成了兼具文化传播价值与经济效益的文化产业,迅速“迈进”人们的日常生活,并由此催生了游戏代练这一数字劳工群体。本研究通过网络民族志与深度访谈法,发现在代练劳动过程中,“玩”游戏从娱乐休闲活动转变为以营利为目的生产性技能,“玩家”沦为游戏产业流水线上的“零工”。以游戏代练为代表的互联网产业进一步拓展了劳动的边界和内涵,在全社会范围内实现数字资本的空间扩张,由此完成了对产业链底层数字劳工的实质性吸纳,实现了数字资本的加速增值。从劳动视角研究游戏产业,不仅可以帮助我们重审游戏研究的学术价值,同时也可以帮助我们进一步理解互联网产业发展的资本逻辑与发展进向。

Game boosting(youxi dailian)is a service that allows lower-rank players to get help from professional gamers to play any game they want to until a desired level or rank is reached.The professional players who are paid for their boosting services are considered digital labor force.Game boosting services are increasingly common in China.This study conducted an online ethnography and in-depth interviews of eight professional players who provided boosting services.We found that professional gamers on longer played games for entertaining purposes.Instead,playing games became a skill which enabled professional gamers to earn profits and these players became gig workers on the assembly lines of the game industry.Game boosting services expanded the boundaries of labor.The low-level digital labor force was eventually integrated into the industrial chain.As a result,the digital capital kept expanding and the appreciation of digital capital increased exponentially.