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Gaming Practices, Self-Care, and Thriving Under Neoliberalism

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Gaming Practices, Self-Care, and Thriving Under Neoliberalism University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations Dissertations and Theses November 2019 Gaming For Life: Gaming Practices, Self-Care, and Thriving Under Neoliberalism Brian Myers University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2 Part of the Critical and Cultural Studies Commons Recommended Citation Myers, Brian, "Gaming For Life: Gaming Practices, Self-Care, and Thriving Under Neoliberalism" (2019). Doctoral Dissertations. 1801. https://doi.org/10.7275/15065736 https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2/1801 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations and Theses at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Gaming For Life: Gaming Practices, Self-Care, and Thriving Under Neoliberalism A Dissertation Presented by BRIAN H. MYERS Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy September 2019 Department of Communication © Copyright by Brian H. Myers 2019 All Rights Reserved Gaming For Life: Gaming Practices, Self-Care, and Thriving Under Neoliberalism A Dissertation Presented By BRIAN H. MYERS Approved as to style and content by: ______________________________________________________________ Emily West, Chair _____________________________________________________________ Lisa Henderson, Member _______________________________________________________________ TreaAndrea Russworm, Member _____________________________________________________________________ Sut Jhally, Department Chair Department of Communication ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS If this project has taught me one thing, it is that the cultural image we have of the individual writer, sitting alone at a desk, spilling out words from his genius is a fiction. So much of the writing process is obscured in the final written account of research, especially the sheer number of people needed to bring any project of this length to completion. So many people supported this project. Without them, I would never have completed this dissertation. They were absolutely vital to this project and bringing this to my audience’s attention in an acknowledgement page that, I am willing to wager, the vast majority of people will decline to read feels like a woefully inadequate reciprocation. Nonetheless, we operate within the structures we are given at times and I cannot think of a better way to express my gratitude or acknowledge their contributions outside of an “Acknowledgements” section. Apologies for my lack of imagination. I know you will not hold it against me. First, to Dr. Emily West, the best advisor I could have had. The road to this completed dissertation was not a smooth one (as you well know). Yet throughout all of my surgeries and recoveries and methodology changes and writing limitations, you treated me with patience, compassion, and grace. I will be forever grateful for the unqualified support you gave me throughout this entire process. I once told you that if you had even expressed the slightest hint that I would not finish my degree that I would have probably quit. You never did. And it is thanks to that, beyond even your thoughtful and insightful feedback and masterful ability to steer a process as complicated as a dissertation, that this dissertation was finished. Thank you. v To my other committee members, Dr. Lisa Henderson and Dr. TreaAndrea Russworm. When Emily and I were thinking about who would be best suited to serve on this committee and contribute to this project in significant ways, Emily described you both as “the dream team.” I could not agree more. Thank you both for your patience and insights throughout this project, which made this dissertation far more interesting than I initially imagined. Thank you Lisa for introducing me to the concept of thriving and for challenging me to think beyond simple oppositions to the more complicated and messy reality of life. Thank you TreaAndrea for being the committee member who could simultaneously geek out about video games with me in a defense and push me to consider the most vulnerable and marginalized peoples in my analysis. I wish I could have taken a class with you. And now to the other people outside of my committee. Some contributions were seemingly small (an interview here, a referral there) but without them this project would have crumbled. To Dr. Nadezhda Sotirova, who was probably more enthusiastic about this project than even I was. Thank you for offering to distribute my survey to your students so that I could reach my participation goals. Thank you for sympathizing with my gripes and celebrating my successes. Thank you for acknowledging my pain and telling me that it was okay when I could not work. I am honored to know you. To Nuance Bryant, one of my first participants, but more importantly a friend. It was sitting at your kitchen table, talking with you about your experiences with video games, that transformed this project from just some idea I had into something that I could actually do. You made this project real and you made me laugh, both of which I am very thankful for. To Nicole Kiszka for her vi generosity and perspective, and for getting me out of the house every Friday for a good dinner. To Dr. Carla Thomas, for making the effort to keep in touch with me when I retreated into myself. To my parents, for their continued enthusiasm and support, even when they didn’t know what the hell I was studying. To Gena Collin, who has continued to support us even after death. I wish you could have seen this. And, saving the best for last, to my partner, Christopher Collin, or as I call him “Toph.” Partner is too small a word to describe what you are to me. I don’t know if any single word could encompass what you mean to me. You are the only other person who saw this entire project through from beginning to end. You listened when I had complicated ideas to work out, you taught me how to manage a project of this size, and you supported me in every single way a human being can support another human being. You are the foot of my compass. This dissertation is as much yours as mine. vii ABSTRACT GAMING FOR LIFE: GAMING PRACTICES, SELF-CARE, AND THRIVING UNDER NEOLIBERALISM SEPTEMBER 2019 BRIAN H. MYERS, B.A., THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY M.A., THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS-AMHERST Directed by: Professor Emily West This dissertation frames gaming practices in relationship to thriving, an area of inquiry that has received little attention within the fields of video game studies and cultural studies. It argues that video games can be used by audiences as a tool for thriving, provided we define thriving outside of the framework of success and failure established by a neoliberal political rationality. Using survey data from 70 video game audience members, textual analysis, and ethnographic and auto- ethnographic methodologies, this dissertation first describes how video game audience members define thriving by distinguishing it from a related term, self-care. It then moves to a discussion of how the participants view the relationship between thriving, self-care, and gaming, arguing that their perspectives are informed by a neoliberal political rationality that cultivates a disposition structured by self- surveillance, self-government, and productivity. From there, it moves to a discussion of a representative example of a video game used for the purposes of self-care and thriving, Final Fantasy XIV, to examine the affordances and limitations to thriving a video game can provide. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………………………………………..v ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………………………………….…….viii LIST OF TABLES………………………………………………….…………………………………………….....x LIST OF FIGURES…………………………………………………………………………………………………xi CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………………………...1 2. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK: AUDIENCE STUDIES, PRACTICE THEORY, AND HABITUS………………………………………………………………………………………….15 3. METHODOLOGY I: ACCOUNTING FOR CLASS AND SEXUALITY IN SURVEYS AND ACCOUNTING FOR EMBODIMENT IN DATA COLLECTION……………………………………………………………………………………...……57 4. PLAYING TO SURVIVE, BUT NOT TO THRIVE: GAMING PRACTICES UNDER NEOLIBERALISM…………………………..…………………………………………..104 5. METHODOLOGY II: OR, HOW CAN WE READ A TEXT LIKE FINAL FANTASY XIV?..........................................................................................................................143 6. VIDEO GAMES, SELF-CARE, AND THE LABOR-LEISURE CYCLE……………..…168 7. HOW WE CAN USE VIDEO GAMES TO THRIVE………………………………………..201 8. CONCLUSION, OR WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE................................................250 APPENDICES A. SURVEY QUESTIONS……………………………………………………………………………...266 B. PARTICIPANT DESCRIPTIONS…………………………………………………………….....270 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………………………………..300 ix LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Participant demographics by gender, race, and sexuality………………………………....65 x LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. A screenshot from Final Fantasy XIV illustrating the display used when gathering materials.………………………………..…………….……………………..……...169 2. A screenshot from Final Fantasy XIV illustrating the visual spectacle on on display when participating in a dungeon (with the names of other players obscured)……………...…………………………………………………………………………182
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