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      Betting on DOTA 2’s Battle Pass: Gamblification and productivity in play

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      New Media & Society
      SAGE Publications

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          Abstract

          The transformation of games with the advent of platformized distribution systems continues to produce new and agile forms of consumption and exploitation. Valve Corporation’s DOTA 2 is a key example of a gaming space that is constantly atomized and rebuilt with the aim of optimizing player participation. This participatory form is ever-more gamblified and framed by systems designed to habituate players to a new form of consumption. This article explores how DOTA 2 transforms every year with the advent of a yearly Battle Pass, brimming with gambling systems aimed at eliciting specific forms of user participation. We catalog and schematize these systems with the aim of shedding light on the inner workings of DOTA 2 during this season. The purpose of our work is to move the discussion beyond a regulatory focus on symptomatic loot boxes and toward a deeper understanding of the rhetorical systems hiding beneath game systems.

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          Most cited references24

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          The walkthrough method: An approach to the study of apps

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            Predatory monetization schemes in video games (e.g. ‘loot boxes’) and internet gaming disorder

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              eSports, skins and loot boxes: Participants, practices and problematic behaviour associated with emergent forms of gambling

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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                (View ORCID Profile)
                Journal
                New Media & Society
                New Media & Society
                SAGE Publications
                1461-4448
                1461-7315
                October 2021
                July 17 2020
                October 2021
                : 23
                : 10
                : 2882-2901
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Concordia University, Canada
                Article
                10.1177/1461444820941381
                4ebad680-a7ca-4168-951b-1ac6b4f2a8c1
                © 2021

                http://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license

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