(Gendered) Gaming Experience in Different Social Environments: From Home to Cyber Cafés

This paper explores how the social relations embedded in varied gaming spaces affect players’ online gaming experiences, and how gender comes into play in such spatial experiences. Three major sites of online gaming in Taiwan are examined: (1) home as a space of domestic surveillance and discipline; (2) NetCafé as a stigmatized public leisure space; and (3) the student dormitory as gender-segregated space. The results show that social interactions in both virtual and physical spaces are of central importance for the enjoyment of online gamers. Compared with their male counterparts, girls are subjected to more restricted regulations and fewer chances of visiting NetCafé with friends. The size of the playing circle also affects the game playing culture in gender-segregated student dormitories. Bigger circles of players could form peer pressure on non-players, whereas smaller circles usually means fewer resources and lonelier experience.