Rethinking auteur and authority on creative actors in Turkish video game industry

This thesis aims to explore how creative processes, in other words the authorship in the video game industry evolved throughout the time. The study explores the tension between individual creativity and institutional control in the modern video game industry. Tracing back to the games from ancient times, which paved the way for modern video games, to modern industry with digital gaming, the study aims to explore how creative authorship has shifted alongside technological and industrial developments as well as economic. The study is built on one of the traditional film theories, Auteur Theory which centers the director as the singular artistic vision. However, the theory is not enough to explore the development processes of modern video game industry. Modern video games, especially AAA and AA games, are produced under the effect of corporate hierarchies instead of creative visions of individuals. Through in-depth analyses of both key individuals and studios like Hideo Kojima, Shigeru Miyamoto, Hidetaka Miyazaki, Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft, the study aims to identify how the individual authority turned into executive boards. Additionally, to support and test the applicability of Auteur Theory, the thesis conducted qualitative interviews with sector professionals from Turkish video game industry. These interviews provide empirical insight about how developers understand the current situation of video game industry. The findings provide greatly the main claim of the study in which the creative vision is shaped or constrained by structural authorities. In that regard, this study aims to provide an accurate lens for analyzing the authorship in modern video games shaped by profit-based concerns.