Socio-spatial relations in mobile gaming: reconfiguration and contestation

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedingBook Chapterpeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

This chapter explores the opportunities of mobile games to critique and constitute the networks of which they are a part, attending particularly to location-based games. It discusses how these kinds of mobile games reconfigure people's relationships with other people and objects in their environment. In order to understand this reconfiguration, a model is put forward that clarifies the various ways in which people and objects are presented to the mobile game player. Using this model, examples are discussed of games that make interactions available that are disruptive of a social or political order, arguing that this disruption may be drafted into socio-political critique. Other examples demonstrate how mobile games bring everyday life within a capitalist logic, monetizing leisure and the mundane. This suggests that mobile gaming as a technology, practice, or product is neither fundamentally emancipatory nor fundamentally regressive but rather can be employed in various ways.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationInterdisciplinary mobile media and communications
Subtitle of host publicationsocial, political, and economic implications
EditorsXiaoge Xu
PublisherIGI Global
Pages260-277
Number of pages18
ISBN (Electronic)9781466661677
ISBN (Print)1466661666, 9781466661660
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 30 Jun 2014

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Computer Science
  • General Engineering

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