The Game Generation and Its Leisure Capital: A Study in The Taiwan Social Context

Abstract

This article proposes that the social and local contexts of gamers should be considered to explain the signifi cations of gamers’ behaviours. For that reason, the concept of ‘leisure capital’ is taken as the key concept and methodology for an integrated approach linking location and social context as the major analysis structure for online game play. The framework of leisure capital in the game generation is divided into macro and micro levels. In the macro context, political forces (education policy and internet infrastructure construction) and commercial forces (low-priced promotion) are two main factors of social context to create affordable and easy access to online games for youth. In the micro context, leisure capital refers to the set of usable resources of individual gamers and contains three dimensions: economic capital, social capital and cultural capital. The volume of capital, composition of capital, and changes in these two properties are explored in this article.