Value Transformation in the ‘Let’s Play’ Gaming Subculture

Abstract

Let’s play is a globally significant phenomenon in creative online content generation that has evolved from gaming culture. Little is understood about the behaviour and motivations of community participants to generate creative content or the values they associate with their creative work. This research explores the processes let’s play players engage in to transform and extract value from content generation, and the roles of firms in its development. Drawing on Bourdieu’s (1989, Sociological Theory, 7(1), 14–25) frames of capital, this research identifies four types of values (social, cultural, economic and symbolic) and examines the processes for content creation and sharing. Findings identify a complex interplay between the forms of values together with the paramount aim of creating a symbolic value for delayed economic gain. This has implications for how firms involved in developing partnership propositions (such as platforms, game asset producers and games publishers) develop and extract a future economic value.