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Gaming 209In describing the more friendship-driven side of hanging out forms ofgame play, players often explicitly disputed public perception that gameswere antisocial. We found this with some of our older players, who wereoften reflective of their game play and more aware of the stigma (Bittanti,Game Play). Louise, a twenty-eight-year-old from Vacaville, California,said, “Playing games can be a solo act, but when you involve friends andfamily you become more engaged in the play. I believe this represents ourhuman need to be connected to others in a real-world environment.”Frederick, a twenty-two-year-old from San Francisco, had a similarviewpoint:Games are shown to be social tools that, in various ways, socially connect peopleof the current and previous generations. It’s like parents reading their children thesame bedtime stories that they themselves fell asleep to as a child. I don’t see howanyone could argue with that.The practices of hanging out around games have affinities with other socialgames such as golf, bowling, bridge, or mah-jongg, and this is in line withour general framework of friendship-driven participation. While there arehighly competitive modes of engagement with these games, the moreeveryday forms of engagement tend to be driven by the social activity. Justas with more long-standing forms of gaming and play, electronic gamesare a focus of social activity between friends and family. Although the playmechanics of the game may involve competition and representations ofviolence, just as in the case of sports and games more broadly, the playfulconflict becomes a source of social bonding. As genres of gaming such ascasual sports games, rhythm games, and social online games expand, wecan expect that more and more of young people’s unstructured timetogether will be occupied by these experiences. In their recent study ofviolence and video gaming, Kutner and Olson (2008) suggest that kids whodo not play video games at all are more likely to be socially marginalizedthan those who do play. The conversations we have had with gamers alsosupport this finding; hanging out forms of gaming have become part ofthe everyday and commonplace practices of social play for youth.Recreational GamingWhile many people engage with games as a lightweight activity that fillsdead time or is part of a social activity, for committed gamers competitivegame play is more central to their orientation to the medium. This genre