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206 Mizuko Ito and Matteo Bittanti“Well, I didn’t really check on my pet all that much. You know, it was moreabout being with other people and playing Neopets with them.” As Mindysuggested, the social connection that Neopets allowed her to form with otherswas her key interest in the site. As with Max and Jackson, the breadth andflexibility of Neopets—be it playing games, being creative, or making andmaintaining friendships—enabled Mindy to shape and customize her ownengagements online.In contrast to the genre of gaming we characterize as killing time, muchof game practice centers on social activity of various forms. The genres thatfollow are all examples of different, more sociable forms of gaming. Thefirst is how the hanging out genre of participation intersects with gamepractice.Hanging OutThe hanging out genre of participation happens when people engage withgaming in the process of spending time together socially. It is largely aform of friendship-driven sociability; while gaming is certainly important,it is not the central focus. Video games are part of the common pool, orrepertoire, of games and activities that kids and adults can engage in whileenjoying time together socially. Although games are usually consideredoccasions to compete around clear outcomes, this orientation can often besuperseded by a more conversational or relaxed mode. Played this way,games are not inherently different from traditional board games. In a sense,they represent their electronic evolution. Like board games, hanging outforms of gaming were not as strongly gendered or age specific as the moregeeked out forms of gaming that we examined; though boys were morelikely to talk about gaming as a social focus, the hanging out genre ofgaming represents a relatively democratic and accessible form of play.As described in chapter 4, gaming can facilitate the interaction betweenpeers but also between youth and adults. In fact, the family is one of themost common contexts for gaming as hanging out. In their detailed studiesof game play in the home, Stevens, Satwicz, and McCarthy (2007) describethe settings in the home around the game console where siblings andplaymates move fluidly in and out of game engagement with one another.This family gaming increasingly includes parents as well. A study con-