ABSTRACT
One discussion claims cultural capital in the kudos of gaming, the knowledge of the game, and the use of gaming terminology; the other is sidelined into personal expressions of desire and pleasure, and consequently dismissed or undermined. Pleasure as identification, as narrative or avatar investment or as emotional involvement in the ethos of the game, is claimed as excessive, geek and perverse. Humanizing technology figures that technology immediately in relational terms, where the game 'reacts' or 'responds' to the gamer. For Joe, pleasure comes from his own ability to advance in a game that cedes power to him and allows him to score, or at least ceases to prevent him from scoring. Beth and Lorna, in contrast, have different relationships with the game. Similarly, the wider assumptions both about certain genres, and about the technology itself being gendered, hegemonically positioned the women within a less equal power relation to both the male gamers, and the technology itself.
