Players as Authors: Conjecturing Online Game Creation Modalities and Infrastructure

As we outline a movement beyond the apparent creative stagnation in the videogames industry we envision possible transformations, beyond the gridlock a producer-consumer dichotomy, that propose to mobilize players as creative actors in a holistic experience. We propose to recognize the authoring roles players develop in their relation to the industry and the gaming community, that configure an emancipation from the current producer-consumer dichotomy. Building on this conjecture we review possible meanings of a player as author perspective and conjecture modalities of authorship and participation. We close by outlining some of the design challenges for an infrastructure to support those roles.