Paying to win: culture, agency and virtual goods in video games

• Autor(a) principal: Falcão, Thiago
• Data de Publicação: 2017
• Outros Autores: Marques, Daniel
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por; eng
• Título da fonte: Contracampo
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.uff.br/contracampo/article/view/17608
• topic: Games; Consumo; Bens Virtuais; Hearthstone.

This article focuses its argument on an understanding of the consumption process in contemporary culture through the notion of pastiche by Fredric Jameson. The aim is to question how the dynamics of industrial production of symbolic goods were responsible for creating products whose purpose do not relate to the idea of presenting an identity, but follows a strategy of creation of replicas of an entire pre-established symbolic context. That said, we sought to discuss how societal networks in the videogame Hearthstone are the result of this necessarily contemporary cultural condition that gives rise to design principles that not only enable in-game action but that ensue complex virtual goods acquisition and trade processes.