![]() ![]() The empirical work consists of semi-structured interviews with modders associated with the website fora and. This article explores the perspective of players as creators, commonly referred to as modders, on corporate strategies to commodify their free labour. As such, corporations have adopted either hostile or friendly attitudes towards the practice of modding, which is reflected in how corporations try to facilitate or limit modders’ agency to create user-created content. Their contributions have been at the root of many controversies. Modders, as people adding modifications or suggesting those to original creations, have been a source of free labour in the digital game industry. Our findings point towards total conversion modding being an activity that, although highly informal, does tend to present recurring patterns that can be seen as preferred practices, thereby positioning it as more than just a collective and voluntary form of 'lawless' software development. Relying on semi-structured interviews guided by the 10 knowledge areas of the Project Management Body of Knowledge, we aimed to develop an initial and clearer picture of the activities related to project organization, management, and software development that take place among these groups. Considering the small number of studies dedicated to understanding the mechanical processes of mod development, this research is focused on analyzing the project development practices of nine total conversion game mod teams. ![]() However, it is hard to see how supposedly free-form and unorganized groups of volunteers are able to successfully carry out projects of such magnitude as total conversion mods. ![]() The activity of game modding has often been viewed as a fringe form of informal, hobbyist and amateurish software development despite its considerable growth in popularity in the past two decades. As observed by Au (2002) and Nieborg and van der Graaf (2008) total conversions' symbiotic relationship with game development studios makes them gradually gravitate towards more industrial-like practices to the point that 'In practice there is only a small difference between an engine licensee and a modder' (Nieborg and van der Graaf 2008). Top-down production models (unger 2012), projects that take years to be completed (Postigo 2003 Laukkanen 2005), teams composed of dozens of individuals subdivided into different roles and working up to 20 hours a week (Postigo 2007 Laukkanen 2005), promotional websites, job listings, marketing, PR and branding efforts (Laukkanen 2005 Au 2002 Nieborg and van der Graaf 2008), are all reported properties of TC projects that can also easily be seen in the professional game development environment. The large amount of personnel, resources, roles, and tasks involved in the execution of TCs lead these projects to have an external appearance quite like that of a formalized game studio. ![]()
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