exaltation. Every sentiment expressed finds a place without resistance in all the minds, which are very open to outside impressions; each re-echoes the others, and is re-echoed by the others. The initial impulse thus proceeds, growing as it goes, as an avalanche grows in its advance. And as such active passions so free from all control could not fail to burst out, on every side one sees nothing but violent gestures, cries, veritable howls, and deafening noises of every sort, which aid in intensifying still more the state of mind which they manifest (Durkheim, 1965, p.215) For Durkheim (1995), the moments that happen at certain events can ‘hyer-excited’ be considered to be in itself - similar to the magic circle, which can be ‘magical’ transformed. This suggests that Durkheim’s (1995) work on effervescence’ ‘collective can be considered to be useful as a metaphor to apply to video game events. In addition, with considerations to explore video gaming as a culture (metaculture) and video gamers as part of a community (game communities), Brian Longhurst (2007) notion of belonging’ provides a useful way to theorise video gamer ‘elective culture, where it seeks the divide of video gamers into distinct categories and considers the movement of (such as neo-tribes), while also allowing ‘groups’ moments of the exceptional. Therefore, it is important to consider the extent of how video gamers interpret the meaning of video gaming within these exceptional moments away from the video game screen; through the attendance of various video game events and participation of various video game related practices that may not necessarily take place in front of a video game screen. 5.6. Conclusion In conclusion, this chapter considered two principal research questions, who are the visitors and what motivated them to participate in video game events? Firstly, most studies explore the question plays video games’, rather than ‘who those who attend video game events. Although the stereotype of video gamers as predominately white male adolescences is commonly assessed, there is no specific pattern of representation across various video game events. Therefore, the social demographic of consuming games has shifted to the extent where we can no longer identify an gamer’ amongst people who can access a computer ‘average –
exaltation. Every sentiment expressed finds a place without resistance in all the minds, which are very open to outside impressions; each re-echoes the others, and is re-echoed by the others. The initial impulse thus proceeds, growing as it goes, as an avalanche grows in its advance. And as such active passions so free from all control could not fail to burst out, on every side one sees nothing but violent gestures, cries, veritable howls, and deafening noises of every sort, which aid in intensifying still more the state of mind which they manifest (Durkheim, 1965, p.215) For Durkheim (1995), the ‘hyer-excited’ moments that happen at certain events can be considered to be ‘magical’ in itself - similar to the magic circle, which can be transformed. This suggests that Durkheim’s (1995) work on ‘collective effervescence’ can be considered to be useful as a metaphor to apply to video game events. In addition, with considerations to explore video gaming as a culture (metaculture) and video gamers as part of a community (game communities), Brian Longhurst (2007) notion of ‘elective belonging’ provides a useful way to theorise video gamer culture, where it seeks the divide of video gamers into distinct categories and considers the movement of ‘groups’ (such as neo-tribes), while also allowing moments of the exceptional. Therefore, it is important to consider the extent of how video gamers interpret the meaning of video gaming within these exceptional moments away from the video game screen; through the attendance of various video game events and participation of various video game related practices that may not necessarily take place in front of a video game screen. 5.6. Conclusion In conclusion, this chapter considered two principal research questions, who are the visitors and what motivated them to participate in video game events? Firstly, most studies explore the question ‘who plays video games’, rather than those who attend video game events. Although the stereotype of video gamers as predominately white male adolescences is commonly assessed, there is no specific pattern of representation across various video game events. Therefore, the social demographic of consuming games has shifted to the extent where we can no longer identify an ‘average gamer’ amongst people who can access a computer –