Document Type
Article
Abstract
Based on research conducted with a multiplayer gaming group, this article introduces and critically outlines the phenomenon of lanning, the practice where computer game players get together to play each other over a local area network or LAN. The author argues that lanning presents a significant challenge to a number of ingrained assumptions about computer gaming. Primary amongst these is that lanning entails players meeting, not just in the virtual world of a game, but also face to face, dealing a blow to theories that gamers are anti-social. The author argues that the sociality of this form of gameplay also highlights the paucity of a range of other, binary assumptions, in particular about what it is to encounter a game, and to “enter” virtual environments. These issues are examined in the second part of the article. Drawing particularly on concepts from media theorist, Margaret Morse, attention is focussed on some of the different negotiations that lanning involves – particularly across and between a range of materiality and reality statuses – and the implications of negotiations such as these for subjectivity. The author argues that games studies needs to develop nuanced models of player engagement with computer games, models which do not rush to explain away points of friction, dissonance and ambiguity, for such moments offer valuable insights into the ways that players – and indeed, users more generally – engage with virtual worlds.
Repository Citation
Swalwell, Melanie. "Multi-Player Computer Gaming: "Better than playing (PC Games) with yourself"." Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture vol. 6, no. 1, 2006, pp. 1–16. https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/reconstruction/vol6/iss1/9
Included in
Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, Interpersonal and Small Group Communication Commons, Leisure Studies Commons