Game Changers: How Fan Activism Across Gaming Cultures Could Help Us Design More Sustainable Technologies

Abstract

Videogames, once a niche pastime, have become a widely popular and culturally embedded practice that brings together diverse communities of fans. This chapter examines fan practices that directly or indirectly support the longevity of videogame software and hardware and considers what these practices can teach us about extending the life of digital products more broadly. As digital technologies increasingly fuel a throwaway culture driven by cycles of rapid innovation, planned obsolescence and mounting electronic waste, the relationships and attachments that videogame fans share with their devices offers hope. These attachments pose a new perspective on how we might design to encourage cultures of repair and maintenance for our electronic devices. The chapter does not offer a single prescriptive solution; instead, it draws insights from videogame fandoms to imagine more sustainable and enduring attitudes to technology design.