The sociality of gaming : A mixed methods approach to understanding digital gaming as a social leisure activity

Playing digital games, video- and computer games, is one of the fastestgrowing contemporary leisure activities; today engaging a wide varietyof users. This thesis is about taking part in digital games together withothers. Lina Eklund, in four different yet related studies, explores whoplays digital [...]
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Playing digital games, video- and computer games, is one of the fastestgrowing contemporary leisure activities; today engaging a wide varietyof users. This thesis is about taking part in digital games together withothers. Lina Eklund, in four different yet related studies, explores whoplays digital games together and why. Studying individuals involvedin gaming she analyses digital gaming as a social and mainstreamactivity. She shows how gamers play with family members, friendsand individuals they met online and do so for a wide range of reasonsin search of fun and meaningful leisure.This thesis takes an in-depth look at this new and widespreadtechnology and tries to understand an activity that has been calledboth revolutionary and at the same time a danger to social order. Itis about the joy of gamers and the dif culties they face; as well as thecontext and structure of the activity and how it ts into the everydaylives of its users.