ABSTRACT

The video game industry is known for its secretive nature, which limits the amount of public disclosure about video game production. In this context, in which even developer postmortems are believed to systematically omit key information, comedy series Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet promises to deliver an authentic, albeit fictionalized representation of the industry. Based on a qualitative analysis, I show that although this TV show, which was co-produced by the video game publisher Ubisoft, satirically addresses various problematic aspects of the video game industry, including workplace hierarchies, diversity, labor conditions, and toxic player communities, it ultimately normalizes the current status quo. As such, it can be understood in terms of the shadow academy—the analytical concept describing the industry practice of mimicking critical discourses, but instead of exposing production cultures, it inoculates them from being challenged in practice and reinforces the existing processes and structures.

抽象的

视频游戏行业以其秘密性质而闻名，这限制了有关视频游戏产品的公开披露数量。在这种情况下，甚至连开发人员的事后分析都被认为会系统地忽略关键信息，因此，喜剧系列《Mythic Quest：Raven的宴会》承诺提供真实，虚构的行业形象。根据定性分析，我显示，尽管该电视节目是由视频游戏发行商Ubisoft联合制作的，但讽刺地解决了视频游戏行业的各种问题，包括工作场所等级制度，多样性，劳动条件和有毒玩家社区，最终使当前状态正常化。因此，可以从影子学院的角度来理解它。这种分析概念描述了模仿批评性话语的行业实践，但并未暴露生产文化，而是使它们免于实践中的挑战，并强化了现有的流程和结构。