Discourse of Gaming: A Conceptual Framework of Gaming as an Interpretive Community

ABSTRACT

Situating gaming as a cultural practice aimed at constructing issues of power through cultural discussions necessitates a framework of discourse of gaming to explain how meanings around gaming practice develop. Built on the premise that gaming offers multimodal opportunities for interaction, we introduce the discourse of gaming framework to connect processes of boundary work, definition making, and legitimization to the activities of gaming, the gamer’s identity, and the consequences of gaming. Through a survey of Reddit gaming fan communities, discourse of gaming here reflects the power perceived outsiders (e.g., journalists, academics, and politicians) have on shaping the discourse.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge Dr. Susan L. Kline for her helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article and the anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback during the review process.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ A total of 754 individuals consented and began the study, but many did not provide qualitative responses or did not make progress beyond consenting to be in the study. All individuals received participant numbers.

² Respondents reacted this way to the first questions on the interview questionnaire, which were “For you, what makes for a great gaming experience?” and “How do you think games affect you personally?”.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gregory P. Perreault

Gregory P. Perreault (Ph.D., Missouri School of Journalism) is an associate professor of multimedia journalism at Appalachian State University. His research extends to journalistic epistemology, hostility in journalism, gamification, and digital labor.

Teresa Lynch

Teresa Lynch (Ph.D. Indiana University) is an assistant professor in the School of Communication at The Ohio State University. Her research interests include processes and effects of video games with specific focus on emotion, sex, gender, and identity.