User-generated videogaming. Little Big Planet and participatory cultures.

User-generated videogaming: Little Big Planet and participatory cultures Background Digital technology users are growingly involved in what has been described as convergence culture (Jenkins, 2006) or participatory cultures. Following Jenkins et al (2009), a participatory culture is a culture with strong support for creating and sharing one’s creations (…). A participatory culture is also one in which members believe their contributions matter, and feel some degree of social connection with one another (p. 3). In this context, a major role is played by user-generated content, a cultural and social phenomenon that has been studied by a number of scholars (among others, Baldwin et al, 2006; Shirky, 2008; Burgess, Green, 2009). Social Network Sites, as firstly defined by boyd and Ellison (2007), are powerful environments for socially negotiated content sharing, where consumer-participatory practices have to be related to user's identity performances and self presentation strategies. Games scholars have underlined the social dimensions related to gaming practices. According to Yee (2007), social aspects play a major role in explaining gaming motivations, ranging from socializing, to relationship and teamwork (Yee, 2007, p. 6). Few scholars have hitherto analysed consumer co-creation and consumer-participatory cultures related to gaming practices, mainly focusing on MUD/MMORPG “modding” strategies. Moreover, empirical research on this topic is rare (Banks, Pott, 2010). Key purposes, method and research questions The aim of our proposal is to contribute filling this gap by analysing the participatory practices related to Little Big Planet 1 (LBP), a PlayStation platform videogame which enables players to create and share user-generated gaming levels. The PlayStation Network plays a major role in sharing user's creations, while hundreds of videos showing user-generated levels are to be found on YouTube. More specifically, the key purposes of this contribution are: (RQ1) understanding the characteristics of the phenomenon (to what extent are users likely to actively engage in productive practices? Are socio-demographic characteristics influencing their inclination towards participatory practices?); (RQ2) understanding whether user's cultural consumptions are related to their active engagement in content co-creation; (RQ3) understanding to what extent digital literacy (as defined, among others, by Livingstone 2003; Jenkins et al, 2009; Van Deursen, van Dijk, 2010) is related to user's active engagement in LBP; (RQ4) understanding if a more socially oriented attitude to digital technology is related to user's active engagement in LBP. For these purposes, specific indexes have been created in order to operationalise the following concepts: “active LBP engagement”; user's “digital literacy”; user's “cultural consumption levels”; user's “socially oriented attitude to digital technology”. Our contribution refers to the empirical findings of a broader research project aiming at studying the relations between gaming and Social Network Sites, conducted by Sapienza University of Rome in partnership with Sony Computer Entertainment Italy. We both used quantitative and qualitative methods, sending to all italian PlayStation Network user an invitation to respond to a 39-question survey and organizing four focus group, both in-presence and online. A total of 8829 respondents completed the questionnaire (only completed questionnaires have been taken into account for the present analysis). Some quick highlights from our findings Out of the 8829 respondents, 3054 are LBP users (34,6%). Younger people (15-19; 20-24) are more likely to show higher levels of “active LBP engagement”. Higher levels of cultural consumption are related to higher levels of “active LBP engagement”. Digital literacy and a socially-oriented attitude to digital technology also appear to be neatly related to “active LBP engagement”. Moreover, 651 out of 3054 LBP users (21%) have created and shared at least a game level. Compared to the total of the respondents (both LBP users and non-users), 7,4% of PlayStation Network users are active content creators: a percentage that appears to be higher than what generally reported in recent literature regarding user-generated content.