Defining Participatory Media as Gamespace: Digital Games, Remix, and the Materiality of Gamespace

While the digital game industry is one of the largest, most popular, and profitable form of entertainment media, their role in American popular culture is often dismissed. As James Paul Gee (2007) argues, games can aid in cognitive development in ways that traditional education cannot. The impact and influence of digital games, however, is usually only noticed in moments of transgression, when actions that would be acceptable in the gamespace occur in the physical world. These reasons are not only woefully inadequate to help the public understand the complex role of games in society, they are also reductive in considering gamespace. While many scholars focus on these moments of transgression, we cannot understand what constitutes a transgressive act until we better define gamespace. This project, therefore, takes up these questions by theorizing gamespace for the age of media convergence, considering how gamespace expands through participatory culture. This study takes up these questions through an exploration of definitions of gamespace and a uses a three-pronged approach: 1) interviews with creators of this participatory media, 2) focus groups with gamers who consume, share, and discuss this media, and 3) a large survey of the gaming community. This dissertation examines the larger cultural impact of digital games through an investigation of the concept of “gamespace” in games and the importance of participatory media in extending this gamespace beyond the game itself into other media through the process of convergence. The medium of digital games, this project argues, allows for an extension of gamespace into digital participatory media. Games are playful and built for interaction; this interaction, supports a participatory mindset, encouraging gamers to continue to play with the digital game content. Through this work, I argue that digital games are at the forefront of innovations redefining individuals’ relationships to participatory and interactive media.