ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an analysis of the game centre Tsujishōten in Kyoto. It primarily discusses tactics that players and observers use to appropriate the space of the videogame arcades as a public venue. It explores the idea of the game centre as a palimpsestic space in relation both to its architecture and to the practices observed within, which are defined by gregarious play involving small groups as well as by cabinet placement that enables the formation of more intimate ambiances. It also addresses forms of non-ludic practices and hanging behaviour associated with this context. These practices are then contextualized in the broader issue of videogame arcades as a site of struggle opposing capitalist intensives and a site of cultural formation within the city.
Finally, inspired by Deuleuze and Guattari’s discussion of space, this chapter conceptualizes tactics of spatial appropriation involving symbols, actions, and objects observed in the field study as evidence of the process of territorialization of the cabinets as a ludic assemblage. The chapter concludes with a discussion of observations of two gregarious play sessions of the game Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme Vs., which exemplifies this phenomenon.
