Communication

The term gamer has been applied in various, often simplistic ways to anyone who plays video games as a preferred leisure activity. Being heavily value-laden both socially and culturally, the term has spawned fiery debates on a variety of issues ranging from perpetuation of stereotypes to gender inequality. This paper seeks to understand the gamer tag by charting and critically analysing the gaming journeys of three video game players in an everyday context. The paper uses an ethnographic approach, based on in-depth interviews with and observation of the gaming activity of three individuals over a year. Drawing from Nick Couldry's Media as Practice approach the gaming practices of the players were examined in relation to how they themselves reflect upon their experience and its various components, and the ways in which they construct and express their gamer/gaming identity. The emergent themes from the analysis have been used to build a tentative framework that could enable a more holistic understanding of the gamer within the gaming world and more generally in popular culture.

The study conducted by us looks at the role played by displayed pictures, an important part of the visual element of one’s online existence on social networking websites such as Facebook. The study then understands the importance of the display picture, the role it plays in the social networking experience and the kinds of images that users use as their respective display pictures. The data that was collected for our analysis was through a two-step process with both quantitative and qualitative phases employing a mix methods approach to research.
Our study through its findings then establishes how the display picture becomes not only a mere extension of one’s offline identity online but becomes paramount in order to create and validate the identity in a transparent cultural space such as Facebook. The study then also looks at the various trends that were prevalent in the way display pictures were selected or modified using editing software.
The other major area that our study delves into is how the idea of display pictures appeals to the female gender and how safe the female respondents felt in an anonymous space such as Facebook. (Zhao et al. 2008)

Fantasy sport has risen in popularity in the last decade with the advent of web 2.0. As people from around the world watch sporting events today, the Internet has become an ideal site to instantly disseminate results and achievements for avid fans and followers. This article is an attempt to position fantasy sports in the realm of game studies, drawing from the specific case of fantasy football (soccer in North America). Borrowing from and building on Roger Caillois’ classical game typology, this article seeks to arrive at a nuanced understanding of both fantasy sport as a game and the experience it offers to participants. By using an ethnographic approach, based on in-depth interviews and co-playing sessions, this study closely observes participants’ in-game performances in the Fantasy Premier League. By stitching together information from the interviews with observation of participants’ approaches and preferences along with the performance of their teams, this article identifies the key decisions and processes that a player of fantasy sport is part of. By situating fantasy sport in the ludic debate of preparation versus luck, this article offers unique insights into the various ways that players exert effort to succeed at the game. The use of an approach that examines what players do to their fantasy teams enables this paper to examine players’ psyches and the interrelated elements of fandom, favoritism and loyalty. Analysis of the data offers insights in to the various practices and approaches of players as well as lays the foundation of new concepts.

The last five years have been increasingly transformative in the realms of broadcast and electronic media; following an inevitable convergence with internet-centric technologies. The emergence of new platforms has enabled the untethering of audiovisual content from specific temporal and spatial bounds as consumption of AV programming has embraced the facets of mobility. This paper critically examines content streaming applications like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar and Voot in conjunction with similar platforms of streaming content for media forms like podcasts. By analyzing the content on offer, the various modus-operandi for content creation and dissemination and the way consumers engage/consume content on these platforms; this paper hopes to arrive at a nuanced understanding of binging both as an activity and as a new way of engaging with broadcast content. In terms of market value, the Indian online streaming market is estimated to be over 100 million regular subscribers and is valued at USD 280 Million. By using specific cases and situating the analysis in the context of an increasingly connected world; this paper will extend the academic understanding of binging by building on the foundations of a remediated understanding (McLuhan) and giving it a social dimension.

Simulating the world’s most popular sport is big business and the most popular titles in the industry are Electronic Arts’ FIFA (2015-2019) franchise and Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) (2015-2019). A rivalry that begun in 1995, the last 24 years have seen the games modify, adapt and transform the way sports simulators are made. In the pursuit of digitally recreating the magic from the football pitch, the two titles have garnered extremely loyal fanbases that include some fans whose gaming practices are limited to playing just one of these games. This article aims to analyze the success of FIFA and the decline of PES in the last decade when reviewers of games and industry observers have repeatedly found PES to be the better game. It begins by comparing review scores of the last eleven iterations of the two franchises and then uses a multi-pronged approach to identify the various dimensions that allow FIFA to thrive as a game despite offering a comparatively poor gameplay experience to its players. This paper uses a multipronged approach to identify and analyze the various dimensions that has enabled FIFA as a franchise to create a near monopoly in the simulated football/soccer genre. By close reading streams of players of the game, formally analyzing the last five iterations of theFIFA franchise and then juxtaposing the two frames to examine FIFA as a hybrid cross-media product/service, this paper looks at the various non-play related elements that make it successful. The paper identifies and analyses the various dimensions that make FIFA a service that has allowed the franchise to create a near monopoly in the simulated football/soccer genre.

This article is set in the times of the global pandemic caused by the Novel Coronavirus By examining dimensions of panic, fear and anxiety amongst fourteen travelers and their various decisions during the pandemic this qualitative study tries to holistically capture their journeys. By reimagining the act of travel as a practice and using a grounded approach this study elicits data through in-depth interviews and allows us to chart the chaos and uncertainty faced by travelers worldwide. The analysis of the data offers us not only a picture of the traveler’s psyche during a pandemic but also points to areas of concern that must be addressed in the future by the sector.
Keywords: Pandemic, COVID-19, Travel, Decisions, Anxiety, Solutions

Affordances offered by new media platforms are perceived as revolutionary instruments for removing the inequities of access to health promotion and communication. However, the production and dissemination of health promotional material on digital platforms does not necessarily translate into uniform access across diverse demographics. This article addresses the lacuna when it comes to analyzing Health Promotion initiatives in India, with a specific focus on the governmental publicity carried out on social media during the four phases of COVID-19 national lockdown between 24 March and 31 May 2020. Our intervention examines how governmental social media health promotion in India played a key role in shaping the 'outbreak narrative' during the lockdown across different levels of social and economic privilege. Through a combination of quantitative data analysis and qualitative interview methods, this article analyzes the circulation and impact of official publicity in online and offline spaces, during the COVID-19 lockdown in India. Resultant findings allow for a comprehensive assessment of whether such publicity contributed to democratized citizen science discourses: enabling social protection measures for vulnerable majorities or potentially reified the existing privileges of the economically and socially affluent minority. We find that health promotion campaigns during a pandemic must focus on reaching the widest possible audience in the most efficient manner. Specifically, in the Indian context, health promotion through mass-media like Television and Radio, and participatory media platforms needed to be implemented in tandem with new media platforms, to achieve required engagement with vulnerable communities on key health issues.

The term gamer has been applied in various, often simplistic ways to anyone who plays video games as a preferred leisure activity. Being heavily value-laden both socially and culturally, the term has spawned fiery debates on a variety of issues ranging from perpetuation of stereotypes to gender inequality. This paper seeks to understand the gamer tag by charting and critically analysing the gaming journeys of three video game players in an everyday context.The paper uses an ethnographic approach, based on in-depth interviews with and observation of the gaming activity of three individuals over a year. Drawing from Nick Couldry’s Media as Practice approach the gaming practices of the players were examined in relation to how they themselves reflect upon their experience and its various components, and the ways in which they construct and express their gamer/gaming identity. The emergent themes from the analysis have been used to build a tentative framework that could enable a more hol...

Summary Affordances offered by new media platforms are perceived as revolutionary instruments for removing the inequities of access to health promotion and communication. However, the production and dissemination of health promotional material on digital platforms does not necessarily translate into uniform access across diverse demographics. This article addresses the lacuna when it comes to analyzing Health Promotion initiatives in India, with a specific focus on the governmental publicity carried out on social media during the four phases of COVID-19 national lockdown between 24 March and 31 May 2020. Our intervention examines how governmental social media health promotion in India played a key role in shaping the ‘outbreak narrative’ during the lockdown across different levels of social and economic privilege. Through a combination of quantitative data analysis and qualitative interview methods, this article analyzes the circulation and impact of official publicity in online and...

Simulating the world’s most popular sport is big business and the most popular titles in the industry are Electronic Arts’ FIFA (2015-2019) franchise and Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) (2015-2019). A rivalry that begun in 1995, the last 24 years have seen the games modify, adapt and transform the way sports simulators are made. In the pursuit of digitally recreating the magic from the football pitch, the two titles have garnered extremely loyal fanbases that include some fans whose gaming practices are limited to playing just one of these games. This article aims to analyze the success of FIFA and the decline of PES in the last decade when reviewers of games and industry observers have repeatedly found PES to be the better game. It begins by comparing review scores of the last eleven iterations of the two franchises and then uses a multi-pronged approach to identify the various dimensions that allow FIFA to thrive as a game despite offering a comparatively poor gameplay experie...

As the field of medicine tries to tap into various facets of gamification, the potential of video games and gaming-based interventions has become a hotbed of interesting activity in the Dementia circles of medical research. This paper, exploratory in nature is a bid to find common grounds for the fields of neurosciences, psychology, and psychiatry with the sub-field of ludology in a hope to find unique insights from the benefits of interdisciplinary research and extrapolating findings from gaming addiction. From the perspective of game studies, the paper will draw from elements of concepts like flow, immersion and engagement in a bid to understand the various tools that can be of use if people ailing from neurocognitive disorders were to engage in gaming activity. This paper will lay the framework that will enable the beginning of a matching gaming exercises based on cognitive deficits and psychological profiling of clients diagnosed with neurocognitive disorders and advance the fields of neurosciences and psychology. By combining the findings from existing studies and original work this paper will propose both a means to study the possible effects of gaming-based interventions and suggest ways to streamline and optimize the use of gamification in patient care. This is an Open Access (OA) journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.

This article examines if video games can be used to simulate future scenarios by charting the intersections of game studies, science fiction studies, and simulation. By analyzing games that are set in futuristic societies as sites that can be used to address concerns for the future, this article argues that video games’ unique form and structure as meta-media artifacts makes them an ideal site for simulating, showcasing, and experiencing possible trajectories of the future. This article builds on this argument by examining three games, namely Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (2016), Detroit: Become Human (2018), and Cyberpunk 2077 (2020), as texts and as ludo-narratological experiences. The futuristic realities put forth in the three games are examined using close-reading, formal game analysis, and an autoethnographic analysis of specific ludic experiences. This article looks at how games can simulate specific trajectories of the future by examining the various dimensions of socio-cultural interactions that are explicitly and implicitly presented in these game worlds. The subsequent analysis also reveals how issues of equality, identity, gender, religion, and the human body will most likely shape key points of contestation for humanity as it single-mindedly continues to chase a techno-utopian reality.

Fantasy sport has risen in popularity in the last decade with the advent of web 2.0. As people from around the world watch sporting events today, the internet has become an ideal site to instantly disseminate results and achievements for avid fans and followers. This paper is an attempt to position fantasy sports in the realm of game studies, drawing from the specific case of fantasy football (soccer in North America). Borrowing from and building on Roger Caillois classical game typology, this paper seeks to arrive at a nuanced understanding of both fantasy sport as a game and the experience it offers to participants. By using an ethnographic approach, based on in-depth interviews and co-playing sessions, this study closely observes participants in-game performances in the Fantasy Premier League. By stitching together information from the interviews with observation of participants approaches and preferences along with the performance of their teams, this paper identifies the key de...