1GyAp2x

Gaming 231on insider knowledge and expertise and a social network that is primarilyinterest-driven rather than being grounded in the local given relationsof family and local friends. NubMuffin is a gruffer, more masculineidentity than the one Lynn interacts with every day, and he goes onlineto find a peer group that supports this more specialized form of practiceand expertise. Just as a stadium or auditorium provides a space where akid might develop an alternative identity as an athlete or a performer,game spaces provide contexts bracketed from their primary, everyday contextsand identities. Lynn’s discussion also indicates the role of the spectatorin these performances as well as the gendered nature of the spectatorrole in gaming. Bittanti (Game Play) finds similar dynamics at work inanother interview with nineteen-year-old Mary, who also watches herbrother play.I never really understood what was so great about Counter-Strike. Watching mybrother play obsessively might have caused me to turn away from the game becauseit felt overrated and typical boy genre (and the graphics weren’t that appealing atthe time either). Typical as in aimlessly hunting down other people, shoot and kill,rake in the points, et cetera. When Counter-Strike’s popularity reached its peak, Iwatched my brother play this game a couple times and he explained to me the basicrules and goals and such. After a couple rounds, I noticed how the players werechatting to each other and I had no idea what some of the words meant, like “lag,”“owned,” “pawned,” et cetera. Eventually, I got pulled into the game as my brothergot popped by the same guy a couple times in a row and he was desperately tryingto get revenge, ha ha.In this example, Mary positioned herself as an outsider to her brother’spractice, not understanding “what was so great about Counter-Strike” anddescribing it as a “typical boy genre.” At the same time, she was interestedenough to play a spectator role, and she got drawn in as a support personto her brother’s play. This dynamic has much in common with the stereotypicalrole that girls have played in relation to more masculine forms ofsports, that of the spectator and cheerleader (Adams and Bettis 2003;Shakib 2003).For the boys who do engage in the more geeked out forms of gameplay, relationships that kids build through recreational gaming provide aspace for socializing that is an alternative to the mainstream status regimesthat boys navigate in their everyday lives. One white thirteen-year-old, anavid gamer in Heather Horst’s Silicon Valley families study, noted: “Well,as far as sports and music go, I’m not that big of a person on those. I am,