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Purpose – The aim of the present chapter is to analyse episodes of dispute and conflict in co-located computer gaming. The main purpose is to extend prior research on dispute-interaction to a computer mediated setting.

Methodology – Naturally occurring multiplayer computer gaming was video recorded in Internet cafés (28 hours). A single case was selected that involved a series of escalating disputes over the course of 45 minutes of gaming. The social interaction involved – of two 16-year-old boys playing World of Warcraft – was analysed using conversation analytical procedures.

Findings – The sequential analyses show how the two players engaged in disputes at the points where one or both of the players’ avatars had been killed. The players held each other accountable for their in-game performance, and avatar death was a central event in which gaming competence was contested, often in outright confrontations. Such disputes, where each player attempted to present the other as inferior, were used for negotiating player identities in what Goffman (1967) has called character contests. In gaming, players thus risk losing the game as well as their social standings. Disputes were also linked to the variable stakes of the game: with more at stake, players were more likely to escalate conflicts to the point of even quitting the game altogether.

Originality – The chapter shows how disputes are central components in adolescents’ computer gaming, and how they both structure the players’ intersubjective understanding of the game, and how they play a role in local identity work.

The computer gaming industry has today become bigger than the world music and movie industries. The influence of computer games over the youth of today is akin to that of the cultural influence of music, political movements and even religion on youth culture of the past. Of late, computer games have been attracting people of all kinds into using computers. They have driven the spread of computers into the lives of individuals who had earlier had no incentive to use them. Computer games are gaining unprecedented access to the homes, minds and souls of people today. Hence it has become increasingly important for game developers and educators to study the application of computers for enhancing the education offered to the next generation of students. Computer games can be used to give a better form of education and can even make computers become the unique tools of learning. The paper will present the current scenarios of computer games being used for the purposes of education and training. It will also dwell on areas in which the tremendous capabilities of computer games as an education medium can be utilized in educating a new generation of students weaned on computer games. New possibilities for computer games as tools of knowledge will also be projected.

The purpose of this paper is to develop some baseline data about games in libraries in North America. The term games is taken broadly in this piece to mean all types of games from card and board games to video games. The focus is primarily on public libraries, but there is some discussion of school and academic libraries as well.

There were two surveys done. The first was a phone survey of 400 public libraries, selected at random. The second survey was a Web‐based convenience sample of libraries of different types. In both studies, we asked questions about the support of gaming in the library, the types of gaming programs run in the library, and the goals and outcomes of those gaming programs.

Around 78 per cent of public libraries support gaming of some type. About 40 per cent run formal gaming programs, and about 20 per cent circulate games. The larger the library, the more likely they are to support gaming. The primary goals of gaming in libraries are to attract the underserved, attract current library patrons, and to create a space for social interactions between members of the community.

The first study is a random sample and therefore is a statistically significant representation of the population. The second study, being a Web‐based convenience sample, is not statistically representative of a population.

This type of baseline data is not available. Understanding how libraries are supporting games is valuable to researchers in asking appropriate questions. In addition, it helps libraries considering adding games to their services to learn how other libraries are doing it.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of in‐game placements on the explicit memory of Indian gamers and understand their attitude towards this form of communication. It attempts to find out whether the memory effects differ due to the nature of the games. The avenues for in‐game placements for the rapidly growing Indian video gaming industry are discussed.

The effect of the nature of the game on the recall and recognition is measured using a sample of 240 gamers; two games of different nature (fast versus slow) are used as stimuli and the recall and recognition of the in‐game placements are compared. Subsequently the perceptions towards this type of placement are tapped. The moderating effect of gaming experience on the explicit memory is also tested.

The paper finds that in‐game placements do affect the explicit memory of gamers. Games with lower perceptual load (slow game) result in a significantly higher recall and recognition as compared to the games with higher perceptual load (fast game). Indian players have a positive attitude towards placements in this medium and do not find this practice either intrusive or unethical.

Further research using different combinations of games is required to confirm, expand and generalize the findings.

This medium provides an opportunity to brand managers and game developers as an alternative communication vehicle. In‐game placements provide an avenue to companies as they are cost effective, they facilitate building brand awareness and are not viewed negatively.

The arena of in‐game placements is an unexplored one in India. This study is the first step towards understanding views and effects of in‐game placements on Indian gamers and may encourage more research in this field.

Shows how the gaming industry is now bigger than film, music and video, with PlayStation better than all other divisions of Sony combined. Points out the implications for advertising: gaming can deliver huge audiences on a global scale, but gamers are proactive and cynical about conventional marketing ploys. Shows how media, like the UK’s “Sun” newspaper, are including gaming content, while the supremacy of American Hollywood‐type entertainment may decline in the face of gaming’s popularity. Recounts an early example of a highly successful video game and brand promotion; this was virtual heroine Lara Croft’s celebrity endorsement of Lucozade, a British soft drink that in 1999 was reinventing itself as a sports drink with appeal to the 18‐24 year old market.

Although mental health problems increase markedly during adolescent years, therapists often find it difficult to engage with adolescents. The majority of disturbed adolescents do not receive professional mental health care and of those who do fewer still will fully engage with the therapeutic process (Offer et al. 1991; US Surgeon General 1999). Personal Investigator (PI) is a 3D computer game specifically designed to help adolescents overcome mental health problems such as depression and help them engage more easily with professional mental health care services. PI is an implementation of a new computer mediated model for how therapists and adolescents can engage. The model has its theoretical foundations in play therapy and therapeutic storytelling and applies current research on the educational use of computer gaming and interactive narrative systems to these foundations. Previously demonstrated benefits of computer games and interactive narrative systems in education include increased motivation, increased self‐esteem, improved problem solving and discussion skills and improved storytelling skills (Bruckman 1997; Bers 2001; Robertson 2001; Robertson and Oberlander 2002; Bers et al. 2003; Squire 2003). PI aims to take advantage of these benefits in a mental health care setting. PI incorporates a goal‐oriented, strengths based model of psychotherapy called Solution Focused Therapy (SFT). By engaging adolescents, in a client‐centred way, it aims to build stronger therapeutic relationships between therapists and adolescents. PI is the first game to integrate this established psychotherapy approach into an engaging online 3D game. Results of trials of PI with four adolescents, referred to clinics for issues including anxiety and behaviour problems, attempted suicide, and social skills difficulties, are presented.

The purpose of this paper is to argue that playing computer games for lengthy periods of time, even in a manner that will force the player to forgo certain other activities normally seen as more important, can be an integral part of human flourishing.

The authors' claim is based on a modern reading of Aristotle's Nichomacean Ethics. It should be emphasized that the authors do not argue that computer gaming and other similar online activities are central to all people under all circumstances; but only seek to show that the claim holds true for some people under some circumstances and the authors try to spell out the relevant circumstances in detail.

The authors provide a list of situations in which playing computer games for lengthy periods of time, in a manner that will force the player to forgo certain other activities normally seen as more important, is an integral part of human flourishing.

The paper puts some novel pressure on the widely‐held belief that playing computer games for lengthy periods of time, in a manner that will force the player to forgo certain other activities normally seen as more important. The paper claims that playing some computer games and partaking in some forms of online activities could be highly conducive to what it actually means in practice to take care of oneself and, to paraphrase Aristotle, to be eager for fine actions.

This paper aims to explore the factors affecting consumers' loyalty toward online games based on the uses and gratifications theory and the flow theory.

The research employed two approaches to collect data: personal interview and online survey. Each data collection approach consists of two phases to overcome method bias. This study adopted structural equation modeling to analyze the data.

The results focusing on popular massively multiplayer online role‐playing games reveal that players' sense of control, perceived entertainment, and challenge affect their loyalty toward an online game. Conversely, sociality and interactivity produce negligible effects on loyalty.

First, game designers may strengthen gamers' sense of control and challenge by adding more status information, gaming options, or through the designed system of goals and achievements. Second, the entertaining nature of online gaming suggests greater demand for content design, and points to the direction of mobile gaming. Third, considering the recent growth of online social network services, consumers regard online games as lower priority when prompted by socially related motives. Additionally, people mostly reckon online relationships as virtual and not gratifying real‐world social needs.

In view of the prevalence of computer and Internet usage, online gaming research should shift more focus toward the non‐technological aspects of gaming. This paper is one of the few studies that examine online game loyalty from the non‐technological aspects while adopting a multi‐disciplinary approach based on theoretical parsimony.

Video gaming, which remains culturally embedded in masculine ideals, is increasingly becoming a leisure activity for female consumers. Guided by social dominance theory, this paper examines how female gamers navigate the masculine-oriented gaming consumption context.

Eight avid female gamers (ages 20–29) participated in-depth interviews, following a phenomenological approach to better understand their lived experiences with video gaming. Data were analyzed using phenomenological procedures.

Findings reveal an undercurrent of gender-based consumer vulnerability, driven by stereotypical perceptions of “gamer girls” in the masculine-oriented gaming subculture. Further, the findings highlight the multilayered, multidimensional nature of gaming as a vulnerable consumption environment, at individual, marketplace, and cultural levels.

The culturally embedded gamer girl stereotype provides a foundation upon which characteristics of consumer vulnerability flourish, including a culture of gender-based consumer harassment, systematic disempowerment in the marketplace, and conflicting actions and attitudes toward future cultural change.

This research suggests female gamers struggle to gain a foothold in gaming due to the socially and culturally constructed masculine dominance of the field. Our research study provides a stepping-stone for future scholars to explore gendered subcultures and begins to address the dynamic interplay of power, gender, technology, and the market.