Individuals responsible for video games: an exploration of cataloging practice, user need and authorship theory
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-10-2021-0198 |
| Published date | 09 March 2022 |
| Date | 09 March 2022 |
| Pages | 1420-1436 |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Records management & preservation,Document management,Classification & cataloguing,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Scholarly communications/publishing,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
| Author | Hyerim Cho,Chris Hubbles,Heather Moulaison-Sandy |
Individuals responsible for video
games: an exploration of cataloging
practice, user need and
authorship theory
Hyerim Cho
iSchool, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA
Chris Hubbles
Independent Researcher, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, and
Heather Moulaison-Sandy
iSchool, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA
Abstract
Purpose –Author information is one of the primary metadata elements for information access. While
assigning “author(s)”has been relatively straightforward in library systems for textual resources, challenges
have emerged in recording creatorship information for collaborative creative works, with surrogates erring on
the side of caution and providinglittle information. This study aims to present improvements to the conceptual
understanding of collaborative creatorship and relevant cataloging practice in video games.
Design/methodology/approach –The current study is a theoretical investigation of the authorship role of
individuals in collaborative creative works, using video games as a case study. The investigation is based on
the literature on video game user needs and authorship theory.
Findings –Reviews of literature present a disconnect between video game information user needs and
currently available author information in library systems. Further analysis of the author/creator concept
reveals insufficiencies in adopting auteur theoryas the theory is applied to film. Exploration of access practices
for other large collaborative creative products and an analysis of user tasks show potentially fruitful directions
for future studies. This study recommends identifying primary roles that individuals adopt in video game
creations and leveraging crowdsourced-creator information in library databases to enhance the visibility of
author information for video games.
Originality/value –By incorporating authorship theories and research from various domains such as film
studies, intellectual history and library and information science, this study provides interdisciplinary,
theoretical considerations as well as practical suggestions to enhance the current cataloging practice.
Keywords Authorship, Authorship theory, Cataloging, Collaborative authorship, Information needs,
Video games
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
It has become commonplace to note that video games have become one of the signature
emergent media forms of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. In the 50 years since video
games became widely available in the marketplace (both Pong and Magnavox Odyssey
having been released in 1972), the technological capacities of games, as well as the ambitions
of game designers, have steadily increased. Concomitantly, the public perception of games
has shifted dramatically. Once seen largely as disposable entertainment fodder, games now
serve myriad social and functional purposes, connect communities the world over, and
command an industry whose economic might rivals that of film and far exceeds that of music
[1]. A rising tide of commentators and players now argue that, pace Roger Ebert [2], video
games, like film before them, have transcended humble origins as cheap entertainment and
developed into a medium for artistic and creative expression. Alongside this transition, video
JD
78,6
1420
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0022-0418.htm
Received 6 October 2021
Revised 4 February 2022
Accepted 9 February 2022
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 78 No. 6, 2022
pp. 1420-1436
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-10-2021-0198
games have begun to make their way into the collections and catalogs of libraries,
particularly public libraries and specialized media collections.
As they have with other creative media, questions arise as to how to classify and
categorize video games in order to (1) help those interested in video games locate games they
will find useful and (2) link games with each other based on shared qualities. People with an
interest in video games use a plethora of conceptual strategies to better understand and
evaluate those games, as well as to discover games they have not experienced (Lee et al., 2013).
The strategies users employ to explore otherwise unknown resources, in turn, impact the
provision of metadata in information resources. Common categorizations for games in online
resources include classification by gameplay mechanics, narrative content and visual style, to
name just a few (Cho et al., 2018,2020;Lee et al., 2017a,2018). Gamers also use what resemble
more traditional metadata categories, e.g. title, year of release, publisher and creator(s). This
last, however, is not always easy to discern or even conceptualize for video games.
Recent research in the area of information studies for video games has resulted in the
development of an information schema for games, but elements capturing authorship or
creative input are not yet present in the schema’s most recent release (Lee et al., 2017b). While
video game user studies seldom explicitly explore user needs for recorded creator information
relating to video games, very recent work has begun to point out the lack of authorship
credits given to video game creators and to assess this as an information problem (
Svelch,
2021). The author/creator element in metadata schema is an important nexus for user interest.
Providing names of individuals who contributed to the making of creative works (in this
article, creative works is used in the legal sense to mean a tangible product resulting from
intellectual and creative effort) enriches audience understanding, indicating how the artistic
products were made and offering a way to link to other works the creators contributed to.
This, in turn, can lead to discovery and further exploration of similar resources based on an
information seeker’s interests or judgment of artistic quality and creative reputation.
The desire for information about individuals working as game creators is manifest in the
metadata contributed to crowdsourced online databases of video game information, such as
MobyGames (https://www.mobygames.com), where metadata including information about
responsible individuals is meticulously cataloged and interlinked by game enthusiasts in a
manner similar to the cataloging of information for film and television on Internet Movie
Database (IMDb) and for sound recordings on Discogs. In addition, the importance of
individual and group creator information is commonly discussed in video game communities.
Online video game communities and fan forums often share their opinions and information
about different creative roles responsible for making video games, such as game music
composers and designers (GameUser-16-32-128, 2009;Saikron, 2014); in doing so, they
spontaneously capture metadata about game creators and other individuals that are
important to their experience of the games. The game industry itself has even begun to
recognize individual creators for their contributions in awards ceremonies; while some major
awards bodies in video gaming, such as the Game Awards [3] and the Golden Joystick [4],
concentrate on rewarding developer studios, others, such as the Game Developers Choice
Awards [5], devote some focus to highlighting the efforts of specific game creators.
Video games are frequentl y produced by one or more corporat e bodies overseeing
development, publication and distribution. In library cataloging, when organizations issue
resources,they are treated as authors(Abrahamse, 2021). However,like other complex creative
endeavors, video games are often created collaboratively, and multiple creators are usually
involvedin the process of planning and making games.Although the publisher, as a corporate
body, is habitually provided on game packaging, individuals who contribute are not always
presented on the distribution package in an obviousand organized fashion; if they are, it may
not be done using consistentwording that indicatesresponsibility. Thus, it can be challenging
to identifythe name(s) of people who are creativelyresponsible forthe games. Yet, “the concept
Authorship
theory in video
games
1421
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