Resumen de Modding communities and video games: how alternative narratives shapes a cultural multiverse
André Pequeno dos Santos, José Azevedo
The fan culture universe is one of the most promising fields concerning the study of practices, individuals and cultural goods. Displaced from the traditional universe of cultural production, in which, however, it is still intertwined by the dynamics of appropriation, this alternative universe and some of the members of its various communities end up giving new meanings to cultural works when they become part of the productive cycle. Our objective is to discuss and analyze the role of video game modding communities and how their actors, through the use of narrative resources and the appropriation of the means of production and distribution channels, reconstruct, amplify and print new senses to a given universe, breaking the barriers of the cultural canon, rising what could be called as cultural multiverse. A brief literature review and field observations will be used to understand how works a universe that, displaced from the matrix of traditional cultural production, places itself as an alternative movement of cultural production and consumption. Among the results, we highlight the role of the narrative resource as one of the fundamental elements of structuring the universe of fan culture and an indispensable component in the intertwining of two apparently distinct cultural production realities. Ultimately, this intertwining, in which narrative function becomes a dual function agent, allows us to identify and systematize a cultural multiverse.
