ITH - Centrum för studier av IT ur ett
humanvetenskapligt perspektiv och
Center for Collaborative Innovation vid Högskolan i Borås
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10:1
[Refereed section]
Ingrid Kjørstad
Taming the Game: Children’s Constructive Use of Social and Communicative Context When Playing Scary Computer Games
Affiliation: SIFO (National Institute for Consumer Research), Norway
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Keywords: action, children, computer games, domestication, game studies
Abstract:
Within recent childhood research, children are considered actors and interpreters of their everyday life,
including the use of media. The research cited in this article builds on this perspective, and focuses on
children’s experiences with computer gaming. As for computer games, analysts point towards the need
to include the context of gaming, in addition to the different elements of the games, into gaming
analysis. The article therefore elaborates on the importance of the gaming context, by applying
a domestication research perspective. The article presents results from a qualitative research
project on children and gaming. Different elements constituting gaming contexts were discussed
with 11-year-olds to identify if and why some gaming experiences were considered scarier than
others. The research project concludes that the social aspects of the gaming context in this sense
are very important and appreciated. In addition, children actively manipulate elements of the
gaming context to reduce the “fear factor”.
The article may be referenced as
Kjørstad, Ingrid.
“Taming the Game: Children’s Constructive Use of Social and Communicative Context When Playing
Scary Computer Games.”
Human IT
10.1 (2009):
60–79. <http://www.hb.se/bhs/ith/1-10/ik.pdf>
