The Fame Game

Working Your Way Up the Celebrity Ladder inKim Kardashian:Hollywood

Bibliographic Data

ID2409688
AuthorsAlison Harvey (0000-0002-6978-5622, University of Leicester, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume13
Issue7
Pages652-670
Publication date2018-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGames and Culture (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1555-4120 • E-ISSN: 1555-4139
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1555412018757872
OpenAlexW2785939462
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited24

This article examines the simultaneously acclaimed and vilified mobile celebrity game Kim Kardashian: Hollywood ( KK: H). Through an analysis of popular discourse about the game in dialogue with its play experience, this article showcases the ways in which this scrutiny is tied to value judgments about celebrity culture, affective labor, and emerging monetization strategies in games. By exploring the game's content, mechanics, and economics, I argue that KK: H's mixed reception is a product of how these make visible celebrity labor and the work of self-branding, intimacy, and engagement in the attentional economy of social media. Through its form and functioning, this game reveals the intensities of women's work in low-status activities, across play and celebrity culture, and, through this, challenges their devaluation. It is via this simulation of invisible labor, I argue, that KK: H represents an exemplar of what new ludic economies can indicate about the future of digital play

Advertising · Aesthetics · Affordance · Art · Business · Cognitive psychology · Commodification · Economics · Game studies · Hollywood · Media studies · Monetization · Neoliberalism (international relations · Political science · Popular culture · Scrutiny · Social science · Sociology · Value (mathematics · Computer Science · Digital Games and Media · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Media, Gender, and Advertising · Psychology · Social Psychology

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Open DOISci-HubOpen Access