DiGRA '09 - Proceedings of the 2009 DiGRA International Conference: Breaking New Ground: Innovation in Games, Play, Practice and Theory
Brunel University, September, 2009
Volume: 5
ISBN / ISNN: ISSN 2342-9666
In this paper I argue that achievement is a significant discourse in practice in videogame use. Drawing from Bauman’s (2001) discussion of an individualised society were progress is episodic and autonomous, and from phenomenological interviews with adult players I discuss how players use videogames to perform progress. The use of games as compensation for an otherwise unsatisfactory life reproduces new forms of progress, but these remain dependent on endless consumption of new technologies. This presents videogames as having a pacifying role that allows players to go on (buying) in the face of persistent failures to experience the progress ‘promised’ by consumer culture.