ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the contemporary nature of identity in relation to video gamers and the video gamer community. It suggests that video games provide a useful vantage point to observe one of the most complex, debated, and elusive processes: identity formation. The chapter argues that video game culture anticipates and helps to understand new modes of meaning and processes of identity construction. The 'video gamer' is a category that causes discomfort and, as such, is a useful way to explore how identity is formed, and also, dissolved in the society. The strong affiliation and identification that some gamers have is sometimes used to criticize video gaming and gamers, such as the negative stereotypes of 'gamers' as addicted, obsessed geeks, violent, or intolerant people. The 'hardcore gamer' is a restrictive and excluding classification of a gamer. The gamer figure is often associated, both literally and metaphorically, with adolescence and immaturity. Gamers as 'porn convention goers' is a powerful, though disturbing, simile.
