Playing games with the South?: Video games development in Chile

Abstract

This dissertation advances an analysis of the conditions of video games production in the context of Chile. It utilises Latin American Dependency Theory concepts and ideas, combined with more recent interpretations of the role of knowledge in capitalism (cognitive capitalism) and labour in digital-creative environments (immaterial labour). Deploying three main forms of dependency in the development of Chilean games, this thesis questions what enables or limits the production of video games, with particular consideration of game development in Chile.The first form of dependency concerns the cultural domination of themes and tropes in the video games development. Despite being a form of imposition from the main centres of production and consumption in the periphery, Chilean games development follows cultural tropes in the core due to the exposition to foreign media, namely games, TV series, cartoons and comics. The evidence suggests that Chilean developers’ immaterial labour – and affective labour in particular - is essential to explain the cultural characteristics of Chilean games. The second and third forms of dependency explore the technological and intellectual property conditions of Chilean games development. The use of non-proprietary technological tools (games engines and software development kits) can result in unexpected costs that can impact game development. Despite the fact that these tools allow game developers to produce games fast and with lower barriers to entry, the evidence proves that small developers are vulnerable to the changes in the software. The third form of dependency evidences the struggles in terms of intellectual property protection that developers in the periphery face in the global market. The empirical results show that developers register IP in the main centres of production due to a weak local IP protection environment. As a result, games production is more expensive and forces developers to seek contracts with publishers, often involving a transfer of IP from the periphery to the centre. The conclusions drawn suggest that video game development in Chile is indeed subject to dependent development, however, this implies a more diffuse type of dependency compared to those identified by earlier dependendistas.