You are What you Play: The Risks of Identity Fusion in Toxic Gamer Cultures

Abstract

There has long been concern about the potential negative uses and effects of digital games. While these discussions have historically focused on the role of game content, it is the social environment of games that poses a more immediate concern. Specifically, the normalization of hateful behavior in gamer cultures. While “gamer cultures” originally developed as an identity to unite a group of so-called misfits who spent their time in shared physical, gaming spaces, today gamer cultures have come to be more associated with exclusion more than inclusion. In this piece we explore game cultures through the lens of identity fusion to explore the nature and influence of these identities.