Playlabor: an Exploratory Study on Labor Control of E-Sports Boosters

Abstract

Social and technical transformations of the Internet have altered how digital games are produced, distributed, and played. However, studies argue for the significance of labor as an entry point to the analysis of digital game are mainly quantitative in approach, and the findings hardly go beyond the boundary of the game itself. The current academic researchers have not paid enough attention to the subject of game co-playing to investigate e-sports boosters’ digital labor. Through the research methods of participatory observation and in-depth interviews with 13 King of Glory boosters, this paper finds that the labor process of e-sports boosters, as a new professional group, is controlled by the dual digital logic of their hirer and the platform. It is suggested that in the platform economy, the digital logic is becoming a way of labor control, with a high degree of rigor, concealment and deceit, which exacerbates the asymmetry in the power relationship between online platforms and laborers.