APPROACHES AND TRENDS OF VIDEO GAMES SUBCULTURES RESEARCH IN THE WESTERN SCIENTIFIC DISCOURSE AT THE TURN OF THE 20th – 21st CENTURY
Abstract
In the article the key trends and approaches in the western scientific discourse at the turn of the 20th – 21st century were opened which connect with the problem of video games subcultures. Cultural (actually, (post)subcultural) analysis of video games in the frames of foreign scientific discourse at the turn of the 20th – 21st century logically and naturally leads to a number of socio-political, ethical and philosophical problems. Subcultures of video games are youth cultural practices and models of gamers’ behavior as active mediaconsumers in virtual space that are based on the meaningful material, forming playing and socio-cultural gamer’s experience, developing space thinking and also transforming his cultural identity. Herewith, foreign researchers emphasize that video games often make serious addictions, de-socialize, and interactivity creates the illusion of easy achievement of goals, which «atrophies» moral reflection and causes a «fundamental loss of orientation» as a result of «mixing» the virtual and real in the mind of the gamer. One more problem that was actively discussed at the turn of the 20 th – 21 st century and needs understanding in the key of the post-subculture approach is equating games with the consumption habits of male youth, which leads to the emergence of «maxillary bias» in science. One of the negative aspects of the video game subculture is also the cultivation of violent acts.
