Gaming Culture(s) in India

This volume critically analyzes the multiple lives of the gamer in India. It explores the everyday of the gaming life from the playerâs perspective not just to understand how the games are consumed but also to analyze how the gamer influences the productsâ many (virtual) lives. Using an intensive ethnographic approach and in-depth interviews this volume situates the practice of gaming under a broader umbrella of digital leisure activities and foregrounds the proliferation of gaming as a new media form and cultural artifact; critically questions the term gamer and the many debates surrounding the gamer tag to expand on how the gaming identity is constructed and expressed; details participantsâ gaming habits practices and contexts from a cultural perspective and analyzes the participantsâ responses to emerging industry trends reflections on playing practices and their relationships to friends communities and networks in gaming spaces; and examines the offline and online spaces of gaming as sites of contestation between developers of games and the players. A holistic study covering one of the largest video game bases in the world this volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of cultural studies media and communication studies and science and technology studies as well as be of great appeal to the general reader. . Language: English