Rethinking Game Studies: A case study approach to video game play and identification

Abstract

The video game play of individuals, in particular those who game alone, is rarely studied outside of effects based research or autoethnographic explorations. Rather than focus on gaming groups and gaming fans, this study situates the analysis of video game play with the individual, solitary player. There were three main goals in this project. The first was to see how video game play fits within the lives and media diets of those who do not identify as hardcore video game fans. The second was to interrogate the hardcore/casual and social/solitary gaming divides that define much popular understanding of video game play. The final goal was to investigate the process of identification in video games in a qualitative manner. While a small-scale pilot study, the methodology discussed herein should be useful in future research on video game audiences and identification.

Keywords:

• Video Games
• Audience Reception
• Identification
• Ethnography
• Identity

Acknowledgement

An earlier version of this paper, titled Relocating Gamer Studies: Two Case Studies in Solitary Gaming, was presented at the International Communication Association conference in 2009. The author would like to thank Liz Bird, Cathy Hannabach, and two anonymous reviewers for their comments on this article as well as Norma and Jen for sharing their stories with me. Work on this article was also supported by The Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, the Mudra Institute for Communication Ahmedabad, and the University of Pittsburgh.

Notes

[1] To maintain their anonymity, I cannot describe our connections in more detail.

[2] According to one anonymous reviewer, the wolf is referred to as both male and female within the game and thus Norma's confusion is not surprising.