Abstract - Place and Identity

Place and Identity in Global Networks: a Cross-Cultural Examination of Gunbound

Gunbound is a free Internet-based computer game, that is made by the Korean company Softnyx, which is popular in many parts of the globe. Taking Gunbound as a case study, my research explores gaming as a global and transnational phenomena, in particular the flow of gaming products from the North to the South, and the new assemblages of networks that this flow allows. Using data gathered during ethnographic fieldwork in Caracas, Venezuela and Melbourne, Australia during 2005, this paper will focus on the specific local contexts of the play of Gunbound. Rather than approaching the game as a text, my concern is to examine the ways by which this game is insinuated into the everyday life of the players. In this paper I will argue that the nature of Gunbound is such that the player enters into a negotiation between the local and the global during the course of play, that it becomes a technologically and culturally hybrid site in which players can explore issues of place and identity in relation to transnational global networks.

Keywords: Identity, Transnational, Ethnography,