Technological Change at the Heart of the Creative Process: Insights from the Videogame Industry

While technological change has been much studied in the arts field, it has never been considered in terms of the creative process from a micro perspective. The authors analyze the creative process in the context of a cultural industry charicterized by both digital plasticity and the intertwining of creativity and technology: the videogame industry. They use a case study approach to examine the extent to which technology, when used as a tool for creation, interacts with the creative process and highlights the relationship between human creativity and materiality. The authors identify two interconnected processes: the design of gameplays for next-gen consoles and the design of new games initiated by improvements to an existing engine. They find that digital plasticity enables constant inquiry and a reworking and accumulation of artifacts. They identify several configurations of human and material agency linked to two concepts: triggering and alignment. Finally, they characterize this interplay as a process of "creative negotiation" by stressing its nonlinear and unpredictable nature. These findings refine our understanding of the creative process in the cultural and creative industries by stressing the importance of materiality at a micro level, suggesting ongoing change in technology rather than revolutionary disruptions at the macro level. The results also enrich the technology literature by adding a more nuanced account due to the specific open-ended nature of the cultural industries.