Social Play? The Critical Role of Social Interaction in Geeky Games

Abstract

This article is, in part, a response to previous leisure research that finds the social nature of gaming surprising and unusual. These works separate the individual benefits from the social benefits, overlooking symbolic interactionist insights into social life. As Fine (1983 Fine, G. A. (1983). Shared fantasy: Role-playing games as social worlds. The University of Chicago Press. [Google Scholar]) describes in his seminal work on the “shared fantasy” of table-top role-playing gamers, social play is tantamount to gamers’ leisure activities. To build on more recent leisure research that establishes the importance of social gaming, we explore the social dynamics of video and table-top gamers’ leisure and its impact on their relationships. Using interview and ethnographic data from two independent studies, we examine three emergent gaming processes: gamers’ focus on social play, developing social skills, and passing games up/down to relatives and friends. Overall, this work draws attention to how gamers engage in social play, a direct contrast to gamer stereotypes still held by many non-gamers.