Situating Productive Play: Online Gaming Practices and Guanxi in China

Authors:
Silvia Lindtner;Scott Mainwaring;Paul Dourish;Yang Wang
Affiliations:
Department of Informatics, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, USA 92697-3440;People and Practices Research, Intel Research, 20720 NW Amberglen Ct, MS, Beaverton, USA 97006;Department of Informatics, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, USA 92697-3440;Department of Informatics, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, USA 92697-3440
Venue:
INTERACT '09 Proceedings of the 12th IFIP TC 13 International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction: Part I
Year:
2009

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Abstract

Economic activities in and around online gaming in China are often correlated in the West with practices of gold farming, or selling in-game currency to players for real money in online games. What can we learn about online gaming in China and about online gaming and online sociality more broadly when we look at economic and other "pragmatic" practices through which online gaming becomes meaningful to players? In this paper, we present findings from an ethnographic study of online gaming in China's urban Internet cafes to discuss implications for game design, and HCI design more broadly. Considering the ties between socio-economic practices, development of trust and culturally situated imaginings of self-hood and otherness, brings to the fore how online gaming in and of itself constitutes the means for practical achievements in day-to-day management of guanxi (social connection).