Research interests
- Neoliberalism
- Video Game Addiction
- Masculinity
- Mental Health
- Activision Blizzard
- Knowledge Translation
Activision and the neoliberal construction of the pathological male gamer.
- Following the work of Esposito and Perez (2014) concerning the neoliberal commodification of mental health, and in light of the WHO/IICD classification of “gaming disorder”, I argue that to protect the ever-increasing expansion of their corporate interests, gaming publisher, Activision, is compelled to address the issue of problematic gaming (a threat to their expansion) by constructing the archetype of a pathological (male) gamer, using addiction rhetoric that pathologizes the individual rather than looking to the social milieu from which the condition is constructed.
- Analysis of Activision’s business model, their corporate stance on excessive gaming, and other sources of discourse around pathological gaming and male gamers.
- Social construction of public health crisis, article forthcoming.