Search

Copyright of Etudes Romanes de Brno is the property of Masaryk University, Faculty of Arts and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper approaches the governance and control mechanisms applied by the video game company Blizzard upon its players and consumers. It reads from the controversy between the company and professional player Blitzchung, who expressed his support for the 2019 Hong Kong protests. This tension, in addition to revealing conflicts between consumers and producers, unveils methods and devices of domination employed by the company against its players. Looking at Blizzard as a platform, we analyze the corporation's tools used to keep its gears in stable motion, leveraging discussions about the platformization of society and the overlap between play and work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]