Abstract

This thesis works through a series of arguments emphasizing the ways in which gaming practices are shaped by unique intersections of garners' desires, game designs and material infrastructures. This work consists of three main parts. First, I argue that by viewing online games as sites of contrived contingency we can better understand why. diverse social forms have so quickly developed in online gaming environments. Secondly, I suggest a new method to approach studying these technosocial environments through developing what I call ethnography of gaming infrastructure . Lastly, through focusing on one technological artefact - ping, I equip my ethnography of gaming infrastructure to demonstrate how uniquely game related manifestations of technology are re-mapping the geographies of both local and global social forms.