De la identidad gamer a los escenarios postidentitarios: videojuegos y construcción de sentido en la sociedad contemporánea

Abstract

This article examines the category gamer as a cultural label to explore contemporary transformations in processes of identity construction. Drawing on an integrative review of academic literature on video games and identity, the illustrative use of the author’s previous interviews, and previously published analyses of debates in forums and social media, the article reorders empirical evidence and theoretical debates with a theoretical-analytical purpose. Its central argument is that the massification of video gaming and the growing contestation surrounding the gamer label have weakened its capacity to organize belonging and meaning as an umbrella-identity. This does not imply the end of identity, but rather the emergence of post-identity scenarios in a restricted sense: contexts in which certain labels lose their exclusive centrality without ceasing to operate socially. The case of video games thus makes it possible to rethink the relationship between practice, identification, and the construction of meaning in contemporary society.