Table Of ContentOnline Games, Social Narratives
The study of online gaming is changing. It is no longer enough to analyze
one type of online community in order to understand the plethora of players
who take part in online worlds and the behaviors they exhibit. MacCallum-
Stewart studies the different ways in which online games create social envi-
ronments and how players choose to interpret these. These games vary
from the immensely popular social networking games on Facebook such as
Farmville to Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games to “Free to
Play” online gaming and console communities such as players of Xbox Live
and PS3 games. Each chapter deals with a different aspect of social gaming
online, breaking down when games are social and what narrative devices
make them so. This cross-disciplinary study will appeal to those interested in
cyberculture, the evolution of gaming technology, and sociologies of media.
Esther MacCallum-Stewart is Research Fellow at the Digital Cultures
Research Centre, The University of the West of England (UWE), and Senior
Lecturer at the University of Surrey in Digital Media Arts. Her work exam-
ines player communities and the ways in which they understand and inter-
pret the game narratives around them, and sexuality, love and gender in
games. She has written widely on deviant play, roleplaying, responses to gen-
der in games, player communities and aspects of love and sexuality in games.
Routledge Studies in New Media and Cyberculture
1 Cyberpop 8 Creating Second Lives
Digital Lifestyles and Community, Identity and Spatiality
Commodity Culture as Constructions of the Virtual
Sidney Eve Matrix Edited by Astrid Ensslin and
Eben Muse
2 The Internet in China
Cyberspace and Civil Society 9 Mobile Technology and Place
Zixue Tai Edited by Gerard Goggin and
Rowan Wilken
3 Racing Cyberculture
Minoritarian Art and Cultural 10 Wordplay and the Discourse
Politics on the Internet of Video Games
Christopher L. McGahan Analyzing Words, Design, and Play
Christopher A. Paul
4 Decoding Liberation
The Promise of Free and Open 11 Latin American Identity in
Source Software Online Cultural Production
Samir Chopra and Scott D. Dexter Claire Taylor and Thea Pitman
5 Gaming Cultures and Place 12 Mobile Media Practices,
in Asia-Pacifi c Presence and Politics
Edited by Larissa Hjorth and The Challenge of Being
Dean Chan Seamlessly Mobile
Edited by Kathleen M. Cumiskey
6 Virtual English and Larissa Hjorth
Queer Internets and Digital
Creolization 13 The Public Space of
Jillana B. Enteen Social Media
Connected Cultures of
7 Disability and New Media the Network Society
Katie Ellis and Mike Kent Thérèse F. Tierney
1 4 Researching Virtual Worlds 18 Cyberactivism on the
Methodologies for Studying Participatory Web
Emergent Practices Edited by Martha McCaughey
Edited by Ursula Plesner and
Louise Phillips 19 Policy and Marketing Strategies
for Digital Media
15 Digital Gaming Re-imagines Edited by Yu-li Liu and
the Middle Ages Robert G. Picard
Edited by Daniel T. Kline
20 Place and Politics in Latin
16 Social Media, Social Genres American Digital Culture
Making Sense of the Ordinary Location and Latin American
Stine Lomborg Net Art
Claire Taylor
17 The Culture of Digital
Fighting Games 21 Online Games,
Performance and Practice Social Narratives
Todd Harper Esther MacCallum-Stewart
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Online Games,
Social Narratives
Esther MacCallum-Stewart
First published 2014
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an informa business
© 2014 Taylor & Francis
The right of Esther MacCallum-Stewart to be identified as author of this
work has been asserted by him/her in accordance with sections 77 and 78
of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
MacCallum-Stewart, Esther.
Online games, social narratives / Esther MacCallum-Stewart.
pages cm. — (Routledge studies in new media and cyberculture)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Internet games—Social aspects. I. Title.
GV1469.15.M344 2014
794.8′1—dc23
2014004466
ISBN: 978-0-415-89190-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-76375-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
To the gamers, Simon, and my mother
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Contents
List of Figures xi
Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction: ‘Give Honeydew 46 /1’ 1
1 A Brief History of Online Gaming—or Not 19
2 ‘Did He Just Run in There?’: Defining Gaming Communities
and Players 36
3 ‘Digging a Hole’: Reframing Game Narratives
through Webcasting 60
4 ‘Someone a Fan Made’: Gaming Fan Communities
and Creative Practice 85
5 One More Block: The Essentials of Indie Gaming 112
6 Indie Grows Up: A Man Called Steve 131
7 Always in Beta: Strategizing Gaming Communities 149
Coda: Final Thoughts 168
Bibliography 171
Index 191
