ABSTRACT
This chapter of the book looks at the participants’ gaming habits, practices and contexts from an Indian perspective. It analyzes the participants’ responses to general industry trends, reflections on playing practices and their approaches to emerging trends in gaming. This chapter focuses on understanding how newer game developments alter players’ psyche, strategies of play and approaches to gaming in general by examining the various steps taken by players to continue the practice of playing video games. The section is divided into two subsections, and each of them grapples with the themes of access that the participants felt were an important part of gaming in their everyday. The first section looks at the platforms the players choose and decide to play on and use as an entry portal to the magic circle. The study causes the participants to reflect on their preferred methods of input, the devices they acquire, maintenance of the said devices and the gamut of factors they consider while making their purchase. The second section of the chapter looks at the participants’ responses to gaming on mobile phones and their understanding of the platform’s evolution. This section specifically focuses on a variety of key concepts such as the players’ choices in the games they play, their approach to the freemium turn in the mobile game industry, their responses to micro-transactions and their adjustment to the need of repeated logins.
