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Chapter 24: Culturally Responsive Counseling for Clients of the Gamer Culture, Fandoms, and Related Subcultures

Additional resources for this chapter

instructor material

DOI:

10.1891/9780826139535.0024

Authors

  • Perry, Eric J.

Abstract

“Gamer culture” has often been described by those who study it in simple terms, applying the descriptor “gamers” to those who play video games as a part of their leisure activities (Shaw, 2010). “Game[r] culture, in both press and academic discourses, is framed by descriptions of who plays, what they play, and how they play” (Shaw, 2010, p. 12). Within the study of Gamer Culture is the need to understand the “gamer” and “player” as interpersonal and social identities within their own unique and shifting context of the broader world (Grooten & Kowert, 2015; Paaßen et al., 2017; Shaw, 2010, 2012). In addition to gaming, other elements of popular culture can be highly influential in how we define our self-concept, sometimes persistently and other times fleetingly, but with no less influence over how an individual defines their cultural identity. As with gaming, fandoms and related subcultures require examination as a unique element of cultural identity (Peeples et al., 2018). Fandoms and related subcultures are self-selected groups based on “media property, such as a book, comic book, or television show” (Peeples et al., 2018, para. 1), which can highly influence self-concept and expression of cultural identity.