ONLINE GAMING IN POST-SOVIET RUSSIA: PRACTICES, CONTEXTS AND DISCOURSES A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of in theDoctor Faculty of Philosophyof Humanities. 2015 Catherine Goodfellow E School of and Cultures Arts, Languages Contents Contents…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………2 List of tables and images ...................................................................................................................................... 5 Abstract........................................................................................................................................................................ 7 Declaration ................................................................................................................................................................. 8 Copyright ..................................................................................................................................................................... 8 Acknowledgements................................................................................................................................................. 9 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................................... 10 1. Research context ......................................................................................................................................... 12 1.1 Russian gaming through Western eyes ...................................................................................... 12 1.2 Russian new media and internet studies ................................................................................... 16 1.3 Russian studies: globalisation and youth culture .................................................................. 20 1.4 Game studies ......................................................................................................................................... 24 2. What does ‘normative’ gaming look like? On global gaming and ‘the West’ ...................... 26 2.1 Playing ‘properly’, playing ‘normally’ ......................................................................................... 26 2.2 Play spaces ............................................................................................................................................. 28 2.3 Language barriers ............................................................................................................................... 29 3. Research objectives and questions ...................................................................................................... 32 4. Thesis structure ........................................................................................................................................... 33 Methodology ................................................................................................................................................. 33 Games played in Russia ............................................................................................................................ 33 Discourses about gaming in Russia ..................................................................................................... 33 Practices, perceptions and experiences of the Russian-speaking gaming community .. 33 Conclusions .................................................................................................................................................... 34 Chapter One: Methodology ........................................................................................................................... 35 1. Scope of study ............................................................................................................................................... 35 2. Research design ........................................................................................................................................... 36 2.1 Survey ....................................................................................................................................................... 37 2.2 Media discourse analysis .................................................................................................................. 38 3. Reflections on the research process .................................................................................................... 41 3.1 Gender and language .......................................................................................................................... 41 3.2 Privacy and community authorship............................................................................................. 42 3.3 Fielding questions and critiques from respondents ............................................................. 43 4. Data collection and archiving ................................................................................................................. 44 5. Summary ......................................................................................................................................................... 45 Chapter Two: Russian games and gaming in a global context .................................................. 47 1. Strategies for access to games ............................................................................................................... 47 2 1.1 Economics ............................................................................................................................................... 48 1.2 Language ................................................................................................................................................. 49 1.3 Internet access ...................................................................................................................................... 50 2. The scope and variety of gaming in Russia ...................................................................................... 52 2.1 Global industry involvement in Russia ....................................................................................... 52 2.2 The Russian gaming industry and audience ............................................................................. 55 2.3 Movers and shakers: developers, events and associations ................................................ 58 2.4 Games and government .................................................................................................................... 59 2.5 Events, associations and conferences ......................................................................................... 60 2.6 Publications and conventions for fans ........................................................................................ 63 3. The ‘Russianness’ of Russian games: three case studies ............................................................ 67 3.1 A brief look at genres and styles ................................................................................................... 67 3.2 Allods Online ......................................................................................................................................... 73 3.3 Metro 2033 and S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl ........................................................... 80 3.3.1 Central themes and parallels in plot ........................................................................................ 80 3.4 Knock-knock .......................................................................................................................................... 83 4. Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................................... 87 Chapter Three: gamers and gaming in the Russian press and public discourse ............ 89 1. Youth cultures, Westernisation and moral panics in Russia ..................................................... 89 1.1 Understanding Russian youth culture ........................................................................................ 91 1.2 Young people and the internet: youth identity 2.0 ................................................................ 92 2. Video games in Russian public discourse ......................................................................................... 97 2.1 Academic discourse ............................................................................................................................ 97 2.2 Media discourse ................................................................................................................................... 99 2.2 Games for social benefit ................................................................................................................. 104 2.3 Video games and politics in the press ...................................................................................... 106 3. Presentation of gaming by video game websites ........................................................................ 107 3.1 Two types of video game coverage ........................................................................................... 107 3.2 Themes in video game site coverage ........................................................................................ 111 4. Conclusions ................................................................................................................................................