人工智慧開採行為剩餘：串流遊戲平台的演算法監控與遊戲工人勞動

Artificial Intelligence Mining Behavior Surplus: The Algorithmic Surveillance and Playbours' Labor of Game Streaming Platforms

10.29843/JCCIS.202107_(41).0004

黃昭謀(Chao-Mou, Huang)

共享社會 ； 行為剩餘 ； 遊戲工人 ； 演算法 ； 監控資本主義 ； a society of the commons ； behavioral surplus ； playbours ； algorithmic ； surveillance capitalism

資訊社會研究

41期（2021 / 07 / 01）

63 - 90

繁體中文

本文從監控資本主義出發，分析谷歌、微軟和亞馬遜等業者跨足串流遊戲市場，以演算法監控並開採遊戲工人的行為剩餘。串流遊戲平台能整合系統裝置和發行通路，直接面對消費者端而掌握遊戲定價權，社交連結也讓玩家自發地分享。技術優勢除將既有的模組修改者、一般玩家、社群自製內容生產者納入工人行列，演算法的蒐集分析，也將玩家各種遊戲行為資料轉化獲利。至於「選擇」加入平台的遊戲開發商雖增加銷售管道，但得面臨低價月費下商品營銷管控，或回應平台技術需求而淪為「高級監工」。最後在串流平台、遊戲開發商、玩家之間多重交錯的監視環境，權力與資本已交融一體，英國學者福克斯提出「共享社會」主張推動數位共享、平台合作與公共服務網路，是值得思考的問題解決方案。

This thesis utilizes surveillance capitalism to analyze technology companies, namely Google, Microsoft, and Amazon, which expand their business into the game streaming market and uses algorithmic to surveil and mine the behavioral surplus of playbours' labor. Game streaming platforms are built with system integration and distribution channels, directly used by customers who can control their pricing power and voluntarily share with their social networks. The advantage of this technology brings in existing mods, gamers, social group content makers to labor's range, collects and analyzes algorithmic, and transforms a variety of gamers' behavioral data into profits. As for those game developers who ＂choose＂ to join the streaming platforms, though they have expanded sales channels, they have to manage product sales with low monthly payments contributed by customers, or they are reduced to ＂high-class supervisors＂ to meet the needs of the platforms. Finally, due to streaming platforms, game developers, gamers being inextricably intertwined under surveillance, and power and capital being blended, British scholar Fuchs Christian proposes ＂a society of the commons＂ and promotes digital commons, platform cooperatives, public-service Internet; such resolutions are worth considering.

1. Alphabet Inc. (2020, February 3). Alphabet announces fourth quarter and fiscal Year2019 results. https://abc.xyz/investor/static/pdf/2019Q4_alphabet_earnings_release.pdf?cache=79552b8
2. Amazon.com, Inc. (2020, February 1). Amazon.com Inc (AMZN) files 10-K for the fiscal year ended on December 31, 2019. https://seekingalpha.com/filings/pdf/13875159.pdf
3. Angwin, J. (2016, October 21). Google has quietly dropped ban on personally identifiable Web tracking. ProPublica. https://www.propublica.org/article/google-has-quietly-dropped-ban-on-personally-identifiable-web-tracking
4. Bini, S. A.(2018).Artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, and cognitive computing: what do these terms mean and how will they impact health care?.The Journal of arthroplasty,33(8),2358-2361.
5. Chandler, D.(Ed.),Fuchs, C.(Ed.)(2019).Digital objects, digital subjects: Interdisciplinary perspectives on capitalism, labour and politics in the age of big data.London:University of Westminster Press.
6. Choudhry, K. (2019, March 12). Project xCloud: Choice for how and when you play. https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2019/03/12/project-xcloud-choice-for-how-and-when-you-play/
7. Clement, J. (2020, October 8). YouTube: most subscribed channels 2020. Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/277758/most-popular-youtube-channels-ranked-by-subscribers/
8. Crecente, B. (2019, March 27). Head of Google Stadia discusses the reality of its dream. Variety, https://variety.com/2019/gaming/features/google-stadia-phil-harrison-interview-1203174090/
9. Crotty, J.,Lee, K.-K.(2005).From east Asian “miracle” to neo-liberal “mediocrity”: The effects of liberalization and financial opening on the post-crisis Korean economy.Global Economic Review,34(4),415-434.
10. De Vynck, G. (2020, January 27). YouTube gets streaming rights to major esports leagues. BloombergQuint, https://www.bloombergquint.com/technology/youtube-gets-streaming-rights-to-major-e-sports-leagues
11. European Commission. (2020, February 19). White Paper on Artificial Intelligence: A European approach to excellence and trust. https://ec.europa.eu/info/files/white-paper-artificial-intelligence-european-approach-excellence-and-trust_en
12. Fingas, J. (2019, July 11). Steam’s new experiment hub includes AI-based game recommendations. https://www.engadget.com/2019/07/11/steam-labs/
13. Foster, J. B.,McChesney, R. W.(2014).Surveillance capitalism: Monopoly-finance capital, the military-industrial complex, and the digital age.Monthly Review,66(3),1-31.
14. Fuchs, C.(2014).Digital labour and Karl Marx.London, UK:Routledge.
15. Fuchs, C.(2020).Communication and capitalism: A critical theory.London:University of Westminster Press.
16. Fuchs, C.(2012).Political economy and surveillance theory.Critical Sociology,39(5),671-687.
17. Garet, S.(2019).Twitter kicks data providers to curb: The move comes shortly after the service admitted to ad-tech-related data leaks.Advertising Age,90(16),7-7.
18. Giddens, A.(1987).The Nation-State and Violence: Volume 2 of a contemporary critique of historical materialism.Berkeley:University of California Press.
19. Gillespie, T.(2010).The politics of “platforms.New Media & Society,12(3),347-364.
20. Google Payments- Terms of Service–Buyer. (2019, May 1). https://payments.google.com/payments/apis-secure/u/0/get_legal_document?ldo=0&ldt=buyertos&ldr=US
21. Gough, C. (2020, March 10). Video game consumer market value worldwide from 2011 to 2021, by distribution type. Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/292460/video-game-consumer-market-value-worldwide-platform/
22. Gough, C. (2019, August 9). Breakdown of U.S. computer and video game sales from 2009 to 2017, by delivery format. Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/190225/digital-and-physical-game-sales-in-the-us-since-2009/
23. Harvey, D.(2005).A brief history of neoliberalism.Oxford:Oxford University Press.
24. Harvey, D.(2006).Spaces of global capitalism: Towards a theory of uneven geographical development.London:Verso.
25. Johnson, M. R.,Woodcock, J.(2019).And today’s top donator is”: How live streamers on Twitch. tv monetize and gamify their broadcasts.Social Media+ Society,5(4),1-11.
26. Kain, E. (2019, April 5). Valve needs to take one for the team and match Epic's revenue split on Steam. Forbes, https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2019/04/05/valve-needs-to-take-one-for-the-team-and-match-epics-revenue-split-on-steam/?sh=449801a216a1
27. Knight, S. (2019, March 19). Google introduces Stadia, a cloud-based game streaming platform for all. https://www.techspot.com/news/79267-google-introduces-stadia-cloud-based-game-streaming-platform.html
28. Kücklich, J.(2005).Precarious playbour: Modders and the digital games industry.Fibreculture,5(1),1-5.
29. Leadbetter, R. (2019, March 21). The big interview: Phil Harrison and Majd Bakar on Google Stadia. Eurogamer, https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2019-google-stadia-phil-harrison-majd-bakar-interview
30. Lunden, I. (2017, July 29). Amazon reportedly acquired GameSparks for $10M to build out its gaming muscle. https://techcrunch.com/2017/07/28/amazon-reportedly-acquired-gamesparks-for-10m-to-build-out-its-gaming-muscle/
31. Lunden, I. (2019, January 11). Report: Amazon to double down on gaming with a new streaming service. https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/10/report-amazon-to-double-down-on-gaming-with-a-new-streaming-service/
32. Lyon, D.(2018).The Culture of Surveillance: Watching as a way of life.John Wiley & Sons.
33. Mahdawi, A. (2019, September 14). Your period-tracking app could be sharing intimate details with all of Facebook. The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2019/sep/14/your-period-tracking-app-could-be-sharing-intimate-details-with-all-of-facebook
34. McGuigan, L.(Ed.),Manzerolle, V.(Ed.)(2014).The audience commodity in a digital age: Revisiting a critical theory of commercial media.New York, NY:Peter Lang.
35. Microsoft Corporation. (2019). Microsoft 2019 10-K. https://www.microsoft.com/investor/reports/ar19/download-center/
36. Newzoo (2020, February). Global Esports Market Report 2020(Light Version). https://newzoo.com/insights/trend-reports/newzoo-global-esports-market-report-2020-light-version/
37. Ongsulee, P.(2017).Artificial intelligence, machine learning and deep learning.2017 15th International Conference on ICT and Knowledge Engineering (ICT&KE)
38. Parker, L. (2020, June 11). The American AI Initiative: The U.S. strategy for leadership in artificial intelligence. https://oecd.ai/wonk/the-american-ai-initiative-the-u-s-strategy-for-leadership-in-rtificial-intelligence
39. Parrish, K. (2018, June 28). Microsoft wants artificial intelligence to catch cheaters on Xbox Live. https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/microsoft-patent-describes-machine-learning-cheat-detection/
40. Partin, W. C.(2019).Watch me pay: Twitch and the cultural economy of surveillance.Surveillance & Society,17(1/2),153-160.
41. Perpz, M. (2020, January 14). Epic Games store has hit $680 million in revenue, 108 million customers. Forbes, https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattperez/2020/01/14/epic-games-store-has-hit-680-million-in-revenue-108-million-customers/?sh=49917c404b99
42. Perron, B.(Ed.),Wolf, M. J. P.(Ed.)(2009).The video game theory reader 2.Routledge.
43. Poggi, J. (2019, February 20). Google-Facebook duopoly set to lose some of its share of ad spend. AdAge, https://adage.com/article/digital/duopoly-loses-share-ad-spend/316692
44. Postigo, H.(2014).The socio-technical architecture of digital labor: Converting play into YouTube money.New Media & Society,18(2),332-349.
45. PwC (2019, July). Global Top 100 companies. https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/audit-services/publications/assets/global-top-100-companies-2019.pdf
46. Reigeluth, T.(2014).Why data is not enough: Digital traces as control of self and self-control.Surveillance & Society,12(2),243-254.
47. Rouvroy, A.,Berns, T.(2013).Algorithmic governmentality and prospects of emancipation.Réseaux,177,163-196.
48. Rubin, P. (2019, March 19). With Stadia, Google’s gaming dreams head for the cloud. Wired, https://www.wired.com/story/google-stadia-cloud-gaming/
49. Schiesel, S. (2020, February 5). Why big tech is betting big on gaming in 2020. https://www.protocol.com/tech-gaming-amazon-facebook-microsoft
50. Singer, N. (2012, June 16). Mapping, and sharing, the consumer genome. The New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/technology/acxiom-the-quiet-giant-of-consumer-database-marketing.html?auth=link-dismiss-google1tap
51. Stern, A. (2020, February 13). Sources: YouTube’s deal with Activision Blizzard valued at $160M. The Esports Observer, https://esportsobserver.com/sources-youtube-actiblizzard-160m/
52. Sumpter, D.(2018).Outnumbered: From Facebook and Google to Fake News and Filter-bubbles–the algorithms that control our lives.Bloomsbury Publishing.
53. Terranova, T.(2000).Free labor: Producing culture for the digital economy.Social Text,18(2),33-58.
54. Van Dijck, J.(2014).Datafication, dataism and dataveillance: Big Data between scientific paradigm and ideology.Surveillance & Society,12(2),197-208.
55. Varian, H. R.(2014).Beyond big data.Business Economics,49(1),27-31.
56. Vinyals, O.,Babuschkin, I.,Czarnecki, W. M.,Mathieu, M.,Dudzik, A.,Chung, J.,Oh, J.(2019).Grandmaster level in StarCraft II using multi-agent reinforcement learning.Nature,575(7782),350-354.
57. West, E.(2019).Amazon: Surveillance as a Service.Surveillance & Society,17(1/2),27-33.
58. Žižek, S.(2019).The relevance of the Communist manifesto.Polity Press.
59. Zuboff, S.(2015).Big other: surveillance capitalism and the prospects of an information civilization.Journal of Information Technology,30(1),75-89.
60. Zuboff, S.(2019).Surveillance capitalism and the challenge of collective action.New Labor Forum,28(1),10-29.
61. Zuboff, S.(2019).The age of surveillance capitalism: The fight for a human future at the new frontier of power.Profile Books.
62. Zuboff, S.(2019).We make them dance”: Surveillance capitalism, the rise of instrumentarian power, and the threat to human rights.Human Rights in the Age of Platforms
63. Zuboff, S.,Möllers, N.,Wood, D. M.,Lyon, D.(2019).Surveillance Capitalism: An Interview with Shoshana Zuboff.Surveillance & Society,17(1/2),257-266.
64. 王皓正（2019.10.18）。〈策略經營／AI 挑出貴客遊戲業行銷更精準〉，《經濟日報》。取自https://udn.com/news/story/7241/4110976
65. 馮建三（譯）,Jhally, S.(1992).廣告的符碼.台北:遠流.
66. 馮建三（譯）,Smythe D.(1992)。傳播：西方馬克思主義的盲點。島嶼邊緣，4，6-33。
67. 劉北成（譯）,楊遠嬰（譯）,Focualt, M.(2003).規訓與懲罰：監獄的誕生.北京:生活•讀書•新知三聯書店.
68. 錢翰（譯）,Focualt, M.(2010).必須保衛社會.上海:上海人民出版社.
69. 鍾張涵(2019)。5G 時代的新玩家串流遊戲開出第一槍？。天下雜誌，688，208-211。