Date of Award
7-15-2009
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Communication
First Advisor
Ted Friedman - Chair
Second Advisor
Greg Smith
Third Advisor
Alisa Perren
Abstract
As digital games have become increasingly significant in the entertainment media landscape, the terms “casual” and “hardcore” have become the primary ways to describe gaming audiences, genres, and gameplay. However, these terms are saturated with outdated stereotypes involving gender, age, and class. Focusing on industrial discourse, this thesis examines this dichotomy, emphasizing areas of discontinuity and overlap to question why these terms have become so ubiquitous in gaming discourse and what functions they fulfill for a variety of groups including the industry, advertisers, and audience members. Ultimately, I suggest that these terms need to be replaced in order to move beyond restrictive stereotypes, proposing a new framework for digital games that takes into consideration user motivation, personal investment, and historical specificity.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.57709/1061319
Recommended Citation
Boyer, Steven Andrew, "L337 Soccer Moms: Conceptions of "Hardcore" and "Casual" in the Digital Games Medium." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2009.
doi: https://doi.org/10.57709/1061319