The Place of Play: Toys and Digital Cultures (Amsterdam University Press - Media Matters)

160 Pages·2009·3.27 MB·English

by  Maaike Lauwaert

The Place of Play
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Toys and Digital a
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Cultures
maaike lauwaert
amsterdam university press
ThePlace ofPlay

The Place of Play
Toys and Digital Cultures
Maaike Lauwaert
AmsterdamUniversityPress
MediaMattersisanewseriespublished byAmsterdamUniversityPressoncurrent
debates about media technology and practices. International scholars critically
analyzeandtheorizethematerialityandperformativity,aswellasspatialpractices
ofscreenmediaincontributionsthatengagewithtoday’sdigitalmediaculture.
Formoreinformationabouttheseries,pleasevisit:www.aup.nl
The publication of this book is made possible by a grant from the Netherlands
OrganisationforScientificResearch(NWO).
Coverillustration:GoosBronkhorst
Coverdesign:SuzandeBeijer,Weesp
Layout:JAPES,Amsterdam
ISBN 9789089640802
e-ISBN 9789048507962
NUR 811
©M.Lauwaert/AmsterdamUniversityPress,Amsterdam,2009
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above,
no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both
thecopyrightownerandtheauthorofthebook.
Table of contents
Introduction 7
1.ChangingPractices,ShiftingSites 7
2.CoreandPeripheryofPlay 12
Part I:New Children, Different Toys 21
3.TheChildasConsumer 26
4.DomesticatingPlay 30
5.TheChildintheCity 35
6.ToysasContainers,MediatorsandPromoters 39
Part II: FromSolitary to Networked Geographies ofPlay 45
7.LEGOToys:fromWoodenBlockstoPlasticBricks 50
8.BrandExtension&ProductDifferentiation 58
9.BringingtheFansintotheCompany 62
10.Many-to-ManyGeographiesofPlay 66
Part III: CommercialGeographies of Play 71
11.ToyTownsandSimulatedCities 73
12.A21st-centuryDollhouse:TheSims 83
13.UnwantedPlayPracticesinTheSimsOnline 94
14.CommodifiedGeographiesofPlay 103
Part IV: Serious Geographies of Play 107
15.ParticipationTools 111
16.ParticipationProcesses 119
17.PurposefulPlay 122
18.SeriousGeographiesofPlay 124
Conclusion 127
19.ChangingGeographiesofPlay 127
20.MakingDo 132
Notes 137
Bibliography 139
Index 153
5

Introduction
1. Changing Practices,Shifting Sites
Daniel Siskind (1970) received his first LEGO™ set in 1975. His parents had
brought it with them from a trip to Europe. Ever since, he has been ’hooked on
playing with Lego building bricks’ (Siskind, personal website). In 2000, Siskind
started his personal website to sell his MOC (My Own Creation) LEGO sets. Sis-
kind’s favorite themes for MOC sets are castles, trains and war paraphernalia.
Siskind ships his MOC sets in a box with a printed picture of the design on it,
likearealset.AmanualwithbuildinginstructionsaccompaniestheLEGOpieces.
HisBlacksmith Shop, designed in 1999, contained 637pieces and sold for $150.
Some of the pieces for the Blacksmith Shop were taken out of production by
LEGO and were thus hard to come by. All MOC sets are relatively expensive –
definitelymoreexpensivethanofficialLEGOsets–becausedesigningandassem-
blingthesetsisatimeconsumingprocessandthesellerhas,ofcourse,tobuyall
the items for the set him- or herself. Someone from the LEGO Direct division,
who later approached Siskind with a licensing proposal, bought the Blacksmith
Shopin2000.Siskindagreedtothelicensingproposalandsoldhisrightsofthe
designtotheLEGOCompanyforanundisclosedamount.Bytheendof2001the
set was on sale as an official LEGO set (item #3739) for $39.99 containing 622
pieces. Some minor changes were made to Siskind’sdesign, bothto the exterior
andinterioroftheshop.Theout-of-usebricksSiskindoriginallyintegratedinhis
designwerenotpartoftheofficialset.Thesetisatthistimenolongeronsaleon
theofficialLEGOwebsite.
When the Blacksmith Shop was launched by the LEGO Company in 2001, it
was promoted as the first in what was to become a series of official LEGO MOC
sets.OntheLEGOwebsitenewssection,itread:‘TheMasterBuilderssearchfor
designs that they like in places like personal home pages, Brickshelf, at LEGO-
related events, and – you guessed it! – in the LEGO Club!’ (LEGO, Brick Street
Journal). However, no second MOC set was released as an official LEGO set. So
far, Siskind was thus granted a unique honor: to see his personal creation be
turned into an official, commercial LEGO set. Most of the Lugnet (LEGO Users
GroupNetwork)users,aninternationalgroupofLEGOfans,wereoverjoyedwith
Siskind’ssuccess,andtheyexpressedhopethatthismovebytheLEGOCompany
signaledaturnofeventsintheirpolicytowardsactiveLEGOusers.
Although no second MOC set was released as an official LEGO set after the
Blacksmith Shop, the LEGO Company increasingly cooperates with dedicated
LEGOfans.JakeMcKeefromLEGOCommunityDevelopmentworkshardtocon-
7
necthisLEGOcolleagueswithLEGOfansandthus’bringthefansintothecom-
pany’(McKee,2005).TherecentlylaunchedLEGOFactory–whichincludesboth
a digital design tool and an exchange platform – is exactly about this effort to
bring LEGO fans into the company (LEGO Factory). In LEGO Factory, fans can
design their own sets with the free software, share their designs with other fans
and buy any of these custom sets directly from LEGO. The official LEGO online
store sells some of these Factory custom sets created by Adult Fans of LEGO or
AFOLs (LEGO, Factory Exclusives). LEGO Factory signals a change in how the
LEGO Company puts so-called User-Generated Content (often abbreviated as
UGC) to use. Instead of having headhunters browse user sites and visit LEGO
events,everyonecannowaddtheircreationstotheLEGOFactoryGallery.
Bringing the fans into the company marks a wider shift noticeable in many
layersofsocietyandculture,ashiftbasedontheearlyphilosophyoftheInternet:
the many-to-many approach rather than the one-to-many approach. As media
theoristsJenkinsandThorburnwrite:'Networkedcomputingoperatesaccording
toprinciplesfundamentallydifferentfromthoseofbroadcastmedia:access,par-
ticipation, reciprocity, and many-to-many rather than one-to-many communica-
tion' (2003, p. 2). Instead of having LEGO designers work in secrecy behind
closeddoorsonnewLEGOsets,theLEGOCompanywillinvitethefans,theusers
to‘sitatthetable’withthedesignersandworktogetheronfutureLEGOsets.
Themany-to-manymodeloriginallystemsfromspecificwaysinwhichtheIn-
ternetcanbeputtouseandfromcertainsoftwareapplications.Intheone-to-one
Internetparadigm,userscommunicatethroughe-mailorFTP(filetransferproto-
col)withoneanotheronanindividualbasis.Websiteshaveaddedtothisthedis-
playofinformationformanyvisitorstoaccess:whatonecouldcallaone-to-many
paradigm. Technological innovations and new Internet applications such as file
sharing (through P2P or peer-to-peer networks), blogging (maintaining a perso-
nal website that documents or comments), tagging (adding comments on blogs
orwebsites)andWikisites(towhichanyonewhoisregisteredcanaddinforma-
tion,makechangesorcreatenewentries)havecreatedasituationthatisreferred
to as ‘participatory culture’, ‘many-to-many culture’ or the ‘Web 2.0 revolution’.
Many a software application nowadays incorporates sharing and publishing op-
tions that encourage the social and participatory use of this software. The term
‘prosumers’ is often used to indicate the shift in the many-to-many culture to-
wardsconsumersbecomingproducersofmediacontent.
Increasingly, technology is at stake in toys, games and playing. With the im-
mensepopularityofcomputergames,questionsconcerningtheroleandfunction
oftechnologyinplayhavebecomemorepressing.1Akeyaspectoftheincreasing
technologizationanddigitalizationofbothtoysandplayisthevaguenessofbor-
ders between producers, consumers and players. In these so-called participatory
cultures characterized by a many-to-many model, players do not play with a toy
designed behind closed doors but become co-designers of their own toys. With
8 theplaceofplay
thismany-to-manyapproach,notonlymoneyisfedbackintothecircuitofcapital
that moves from production to commodity to consumption and back to produc-
tion,butalsothevoluntary,unpaidlaborofdevotedfans.Thistightensthebond
betweencompany,commodityandconsumerconsiderably.
Participatory cultures are often hailed as a democratizing force, the ultimate
meansofconsumeroruserempowerment.Afterall,onecannowtakeonamore
activeroleasconsumeroruser,beitasdesignerorco-designerofnewproducts
or product updates, as reviewer of consumer goods or as an expert helping out
other users. These many-to-many or participatory options embody the promise
that a more actively engaged relationship with traditionally remote processes is
nowpossible,ifnottheactualdemocratizationofcertainconsumeristprocesses.
These changes are, needless to say, not restricted to consumerist processes but
spread out into the domains of politics, knowledge creation and knowledge dis-
semination. Mainly through the ‘free’ online activity of blogging, the political
landscape as well as political processes are influenced by and need to take into
account ‘political bloggers’ (Lovink, 2008). Politicians are expected by voters to
maintain a personal blog to voice their political ideas and keep in touch with
them.Thefree,user-generatedencyclopediaWikipediacharacterizesachangein
the production of knowledge from experts to end-users (Tapscott & Williams,
2007). With Wikipedia knowledge now being included in official dictionaries,
usersseemtohavemoreinfluenceonknowledgeproduction.Thisshiftfromthe
dominationofexpertknowledgeandcontenttoend-userknowledgeandcontent
is appreciated by some and condemned by others. According to critic Andrew
Keen, due to the celebration of the amateur over the expert, quality loses terrain
to quantity, to the number of viewing times, to popularity and the ‘politics’ of
search engines that rank number of hits above reliability of information (2007).
OntheothersideofthespectrumarewriterslikeHenryJenkinswhocelebratethe
advent of participatory cultures in terms of the democratization of content gen-
erationandtheempowermentofconsumers(1992;2006a;2006b).
Significantly, participatory cultures are less utopian and egalitarian than the
many-to-many term suggests. People have to have a computer, Internet access
and technological skills toenter this many-to-manyparadigm.Also,many social
networks have evolved from open, accessible and egalitarian platforms towards
so-called ‘walled gardens’ that exclude as much as they include, that allow only
those in the possession of a user name and password to enter, that keep your
personaldatalockedinsidewithinthesewalls.Besidesproblemsofaccess,there
arealsotechnologicalaspectsofnewmediathatposeseriousquestionsaboutthe
democratic or empowering potential of these participatory cultures, such as the
black-box natureof manycomputer-relatedprocesses and the factthat users are
expectedtoparticipateaccordingtoscriptedlines.WhilemostLugnetuserswere
happyaboutSiskind’ssuccess,othersworriedwhethermakingMOCsetsofficial
is not a shrewd way to control the fans (Lugnet, Blacksmith Shop). This points
introduction 9