{"title":"“The Sense of Wonder”: Gaming Capital and Nostalgia for Inexperience in Magic: The Gathering","authors":"Kyle W. Medlock","doi":"10.1177/15554120241234399","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Popular culture media is a potent wellspring of nostalgia. From remakes and revivifications to perpetual production, aesthetics of nostalgia are commonplace among fan communities who continually encounter and experience both collective and personal pasts during engagement. Existing research has overlooked the role that fans’ gaming capital holds in the emergence of nostalgia, especially in leisure communities such as the trading card game, Magic: The Gathering. Drawing from qualitative interviews with Magic: The Gathering players in Australia, this paper applies the theory of gaming capital to illustrate how the continual acquisition of knowledge ultimately results in nostalgic attachment to times in which one knew very little. While the experience and knowledge gained by transitioning from novice to adept is seen positively, this paper argues it is nonetheless permeated by a pervading sense of loss. Paradoxically, gaming capital bifurcates into a parallel stream of value, specifically nostalgia for lost wonder and inexperience.","PeriodicalId":12634,"journal":{"name":"Games and Culture","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4000,"publicationDate":"2024-02-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Games and Culture","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120241234399","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"COMMUNICATION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Popular culture media is a potent wellspring of nostalgia. From remakes and revivifications to perpetual production, aesthetics of nostalgia are commonplace among fan communities who continually encounter and experience both collective and personal pasts during engagement. Existing research has overlooked the role that fans’ gaming capital holds in the emergence of nostalgia, especially in leisure communities such as the trading card game, Magic: The Gathering. Drawing from qualitative interviews with Magic: The Gathering players in Australia, this paper applies the theory of gaming capital to illustrate how the continual acquisition of knowledge ultimately results in nostalgic attachment to times in which one knew very little. While the experience and knowledge gained by transitioning from novice to adept is seen positively, this paper argues it is nonetheless permeated by a pervading sense of loss. Paradoxically, gaming capital bifurcates into a parallel stream of value, specifically nostalgia for lost wonder and inexperience.
期刊介绍：
Games and Culture publishes innovative theoretical and empirical research about games and culture within the context of interactive media. The journal serves as a premiere outlet for groundbreaking and germinal work in the field of game studies. The journal"s scope includes the sociocultural, political, and economic dimensions of gaming from a wide variety of perspectives, including textual analysis, political economy, cultural studies, ethnography, critical race studies, gender studies, media studies, public policy, international relations, and communication studies.
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