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Deconstructing Cosmetic Virtual Goods Experiences in Dota 2

Published: 02 May 2017 Publication History

Abstract

Cosmetic items do not provide functional advantages in games, but, nevertheless, they play an important role in the overall player experience. Possessing predominantly socially-constructed dimensions of value, cosmetic items are chosen, discussed, assessed, and valuated in an ongoing iterative collaborative process by communities of players. In our study, we explore the case of Dota 2 and apply Topic Modeling to community-discussions data gathered from Reddit.com. We describe social experiences related to the valuation of cosmetic items in interaction and collision of various logics, including artificial scarcity, decomposition of visual effects, and connectedness to the game lore. Our findings connect the collective experience of players in the game and on online community platforms, suggesting that non-utility-based social value construction becomes an important part of game experience.

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    cover image ACM Conferences
    CHI '17: Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
    May 2017
    7138 pages
    ISBN:9781450346559
    DOI:10.1145/3025453
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].

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    Published: 02 May 2017

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    Author Tags

    1. cosmetic items
    2. decorative items
    3. games/play
    4. social media/online communities
    5. virtual goods

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    Overall Acceptance Rate 6,199 of 26,314 submissions, 24%

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    • (2024)A Topic Modeling Approach Towards Understanding the Discourse between Religion and Videogames on RedditProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36770548:CHI PLAY(1-44)Online publication date: 15-Oct-2024
    • (2024)A Token Gesture: Non-Transferable NFTs, Digital Possessions and Ownership DesignProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36373028:CSCW1(1-29)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
    • (2022)More than skin deep: about the influence of self-relevant avatars on inhibitory controlCognitive Research: Principles and Implications10.1186/s41235-022-00384-87:1Online publication date: 8-Apr-2022
    • (2022)Definitions of Esports: A Systematic Review and Thematic AnalysisProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35494906:CHI PLAY(1-45)Online publication date: 31-Oct-2022
    • (2022)The Reward for Luck: Understanding the Effect of Random Reward Mechanisms in Video Games on Player ExperienceProceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3491102.3517642(1-14)Online publication date: 29-Apr-2022
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    • (2019)Media Metrics in Esports: The Case of Dota 2Extended Abstracts of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play Companion Extended Abstracts10.1145/3341215.3356304(519-524)Online publication date: 17-Oct-2019
    • (2019)Social Spending: An Empirical Study on Peer Pressure and Player Spending in GamesHCI in Games10.1007/978-3-030-22602-2_17(215-233)Online publication date: 16-Jun-2019
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