‘Gaming is my work’: identity work in internet-hobbyist game workers

Abstract

Developments in personal information communication technology (ICT) are facilitating opportunities for turning internet-based hobbies into self-employed occupations. Real income can be earned by trading virtual objects and currencies used in massively multiplayer online games – a form of economic activity known as real money trade (RMT). This study focuses on RMT workers as an example of new cyber workers who lack traditional identity sources, such as public workplaces, recognizable company names or association with existing occupations. Through examining their identity work, this study argues that as more people are taking their work and leisure life online, ambiguity has become an important characteristic of these new cyber workers who provide labour service via the internet. Work identities which used to be established collectively and effortlessly now require active identity work to maintain.

Individual‐level Foci of Identification at Work: A Systematic Review of the Literature

“…The primary utility of work identity here is to juxtapose work and non‐work domains. For example, the experiences of bike messengers (Fincham ) and gamers (Lee and Lin ) challenge notions of separated domains. Similarly, unemployed older workers’ struggles to maintain a positive sense of a ‘worker’ self, highlights the significance of being in work as a focus of identification (Riach and Loretto ).…”

Making sense of self-employment in late career: understanding the identity work of olderpreneurs

“…While this process is ongoing (Ricoeur, 1991), provocations to identity work may arise from specific life events such as starting a family, approaching retirement, starting a new venture or facing the failure of an existing business (Downing, 2005). Resulting identity claims require recognition and acceptance from significant others (Lee and Lin, 2011) who are likely to draw on relevant socio-historical discourses and narrative expectations associated with such events. For many of those seeking self-employment in response to unemployment, marginalisation or social exclusion, they are not running to enterprise but away from a lack of alternatives as a means of survival (MacDonald, 1996; see also Curran and Blackburn, 2001).…”

“…Such innovation, drawing on the displacement and synthesis of meanings, represents a form of productive imagination (Ricoeur, 1984); individuals can attempt a 'creative reworking' (Cohen and Musson, 2000: 34) of socio-historical discourses. Individuals may resist normative models, for example in breaking the discursive rules of how to run a business (Fenwick, 2002), or borrowing from an anticipated future to bring congruence to present actions (Lee and Lin, 2011).…”

Virtuality

“…Heeks reported the work of "Chinese gold farmers," i.e., young people in China who work for low wages, participating in games such as World of Warcraft to generate gold in the game's economic system. Game gold can then be sold for real money (Heeks 2008; see also Nardi & Kow 2010, Lee & Lin 2011. Van Dijk (2009) noted that YouTube, with its user-created videos, is profitable for Google.…”