Working Title

Global rhythms: Videogames and the transformation of play

 This dissertation argues that in the ‘knowledge society’ or ‘information age’, the global network of videogames imputes a new significance in the activity of play. This argument is established through parallel ethnographic case studies of videogame use in Melbourne, Australia, and Caracas, Venezuela. Through an examination of the contextualisation of videogame play in the everyday lives of the players, the dissertation will argue that videogames operate in an overarching global rhythm that connects diverse locations and cultures, but is also able to accommodate local variations. However, the rhythm of videogames both reflects and entrenches global inequalities, not simply in terms of access to mediated play, but also to ‘convergence’ or participatory culture, and the creative industries that emerge in interactive, digital media ecologies. Despite these inequalities the variances suggest that the rhythms of videogames are emergent and open, complicating the notion that they replicate and enforce the society of control. Thus, this dissertation argues that videogames encapsulate a rhythm that illustrates the imbrication of freedom and control in the ‘network society’.