‘‘It’s in the Game’: sport fans, film and digital gaming’

Publication Type  Journal Article
Year of Publication  2008
Authors  Crawford, Garry
Journal Title  Sport in Society
Journal Date  03/2008
Volume  11
Issue  2/3
Pagination  130-145
Key Words  sport; film; narrative; digital games; football
Abstract  

This essay compares the relative successes of sport-related films and sport-related digital games. Where sport-related films are relatively infrequent and even more rarely successful when compared with other genres of film, sport-related games are a popular and successful genre of digital gaming. In order to understand this discrepancy, and in particular, sport fans' relationship with both film and games, this essays draws on the concept of 'narrative' and, specifically, Ricoeur's 'narrative identity'. Specifically, this essay suggests that sport teams/clubs are to some degree polysemic texts, which allow supporters to construct their own individual narratives around them. However, it is suggested that sport-related films, which tend to offer only limited narratives, are unlikely to fit with fans' own narrative identities, whereas digital games, with their more fluid narratives, are more easily located within fans' relationships and narratives with the teams/clubs they support.

URL  http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a789782126~db=all~order=page
DOI  10.1080/17430430701823380

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