Description
Contemporary research on video game communities has primarily focused on online gaming and its potentially isolative nature, largely due to a growing industry trend towards online interaction. Despite this trend, local gaming groups and events centered around physically being in the same location have persevered and in some cases look to be on the rise. This qualitative research project examines what these physical gaming groups look like, who attends them, and what these events and groups may offer that online-only interaction cannot. The data reveals that participants choose to attend physical gaming spaces for various practical and social reasons, including the ability to gauge friendships, show off gaming skills, and physically see the defeat of an in-game competitor. These findings build upon the existing literature on physical gaming spaces and contemporary extensions of traditional symbolic interactionist theory to new technology by revealing a more complex relationship between physical proximity and the creation of an experience that is valued during shared video gameplay.
