This is Not a Software Industry - The Video Game Industry: Formation, Present State, and Future - page 16

As one of my informants recounted to me once, “I've given up trying
to explain what I do. Most people think I do work like what comes out of
Pixar. They see a 3-D animation and are like, 'oh look!'” Game development
is a complex process involving conversations, collaborations and disagree-
ments across numerous disciplines, which only occasionally results in the
creation of a game that receives critical acclaim. Many games are cancelled
or abandoned prior to their complete production. Others fail economically,
and many studios perish after such a failing, with their developers leaving to
work at other game companies or leaving the game industry altogether.
As this chapter demonstrates, there is a signifi cant dif erence between
what goes into the production of a video game and “just software.” The
wide array of expertise, broad social phenomenon that surrounds games
and the technological and political-economic system that surrounds the
game industry cannot and should not be collapsed into the roughshod cat-
egory of software. The creative collaborative work that is necessary for
the production of games is important enough to understand on its own
accord. Indeed, the construction of software systems has always been and
will continue to be part of this activity, but it cannot be collapsed into that
singular category.
FUTURE RESEARCH
There is a need for renewed cultural, political and economic analysis of
the production process and broader worlds of the video game industry.
Neglecting to examine the work necessary for video game production often
results in broad sweeping claims about what “games are.” These claims
neglect the work and daily practice, or “production,” of video games that is
core to their very existence (O'Donnell 2011a). In part, this is a product of
game developers and video game publishers being unwilling to allow access
to researchers (Nardi 2010, 35). Yet, this is a two-way street for research-
ers. Clearly, as my work indicates, this research is possible and an impor-
tant contribution to our understandings of what games are. As researchers
it is also our responsibility to help developers and publishers to understand
the importance and relevance of our work on broader understandings of
what the game industry is and does.
There has been, in the past, signifi cant work done attempting to char-
acterize and understand the game industry from dif erent regions and
perspectives (Williams 2002; Dyer-Witheford and Sharman 2005; Deuze,
Martin and Allen 2007). Yet, there has not been enough done with a
kind of sustained and critical perspective. Many inquiries into the game
industry, at best, present a kind of quick pass at understanding what it is
developers do, or how they understand themselves. “Identity” becomes
shorthand for the less nuanced and time-consuming process of pursuing
the culture of game developers.