Ethnography at Play: An Exploratory Case Study of Chinese Users’ Experience in and around Online Games

We draw on our experiences in an exploratory ethnographic study of Chinese users’ experience of and in online games to reflect on the value of the ethnographic approach in understanding online games as complex socio-technical systems embedded in real-world places, cultures, economies, and politics. We argue that in order to fully evaluate any particular online game in terms how well it satisfies users’ desires and in what ways it could be improved, one needs to look beyond the confines of the game itself, its technical characteristics and logical structure. Evaluation of the user experience needs to go beyond these internal factors to situate the game within larger contexts which can serve both to constrain and facilitate it. We suggest that the ethnographic methodology is highly valuable in this regard because of its holistic, contextual, qualitative, and analytical approach. Author