Miles Jackson wrote:
>
>
> I love the irony of this: people create a culture through social
> interactions. There can be no gamer culture that encourages social
> isolation unless--people socially interact to create that cultural
> standard!
Fascinating. (Aside: Is there an lbo-talk 'culture'? How specialized, in its membership, can a "culture" be without emptying the word of significance? E.g., there are 7 houses on a given block, call it Block Q, one household unit each. Can one speak intelligibly -- or, rather, usefully -- of The Culture of Block Q?)
Now I would argue that the defining feature of "capitalist culture," from 16th c. England to the present world, is the invisibility of social relations, and hence the creating of what Marx called the "abstract -- isolated -- human individual" or, vulgarly, the world of Maggie Thatcher: There is no society, only individuals. Are we then engaging in irony when we speak of "capitalist culture"?
I presume (I know _nothing_ about games or the gamer culture) that there exist publications and e-lists on which those interested discuss the various games, argue about tactics/strategy, boast of achievements or complain of failures, and so forth. That interchange would (again, just a guess on my part) then enter into, inform the relationship of the isolated gamer to the particular game he/she is playing at a given instant, making that in some sense a social act.
Carrol