Lecture – The Hardcore Gamer is Dead: Long Live Gamers (Ryan Moeller, Assoc. Prof., Dept. of English at Utah State University)

In this talk, Prof. Moeller argues that the ethos, identity, or the “dwelling places” of the “hardcore gamer” were created and maintained by the computer game industry in order to sell mass quantities of games to a relatively affluent consumer base with leisure time on their hands. The hardcore gamer was called into being (hailed or interpellated, as Althusser might say) by marketing campaigns, advertisements, and game retailers rather than by specific in-game content or representation. This same consumer identity was mobilized behind #gamergate, which was, in proponents’ own words, primarily “a consumer revolt.” He rhetorically interrogates several game advertisements that span time (1981-2013), medium (print, video, and an email campaign), and platform (arcade machines, Sega Genesis, Sony Playstation, and Microsoft Xbox One) in order to demonstrate the game industry’s insistent hailing to the hardcore gamer over time and space.

Image attribution:  “alt.headshot.moeller.2019”, by Kate M. Eyster, is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.