Article:
On the Reification of Game Culture Using the Example of Sharing. How Multiple Social Practices Have Turned Into a Single Button

Author(s): Schemer-Reinhard, Timo

Abstract

In 2013, Sony introduced a new interface element with the PS4 game controller DualShock 4: its own share button. The article uses this button to open up two thematic fields and bring them together. First, the button is discussed as a basic interface element. It is shown that technically mediated processes, which are to be triggered by buttons, must always have a strong conciseness and a high degree of enculturation. Second, sharing is discussed as a changing social practice. It is shown how practices of sharing have changed and differentiated under the conditions of digital net-worked media in general and in the context of play and games in particular. Against this background, the successful introduction of the PS4 share button shows that sharing in the context of digital games has achieved a level of conciseness and enculturation that is necessary for a button to function.

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BibTex
Schemer-Reinhard, Timo: On the Reification of Game Culture Using the Example of Sharing. How Multiple Social Practices Have Turned Into a Single Button. In: Spiel|Formen, Jg. 2 (2022), S. 117-137. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/19006.
@ARTICLE{Schemer-Reinhard2022,
 author = {Schemer-Reinhard, Timo},
 title = {On the Reification of Game Culture Using the Example of Sharing. How Multiple Social Practices Have Turned Into a Single Button},
 year = 2022,
 doi = "\url{http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/19006}",
 volume = 2,
 address = {Siegen},
 journal = {Spiel|Formen},
 pages = {117--137},
}
Keywords
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