Playing with steam: an ethnographic enquiry into Melbourne household gaming

This thesis aims to ethnographically explore how the digital distribution and videogame platform ‘Steam’ is shaping the domestic configurations of Melbourne (Australia) households. It seeks to analyse several forms of configuration—spatial, temporal and social—through the focal point of the Steam platform. Steam is the largest global online platform that sells and runs games, and is increasingly impacting the types of games we buy and play. In particular, the research attends to the role the Australian National Broadband Network (NBN) takes in how Steam is being played in Melbourne domestic spaces. To understand Steam in Melbourne households this thesis requires an interdisciplinary approach. It does so by attending to the intersecting debates across digital ethnography, games, media and platform studies. Through employing ethnographic methods to examine Melbourne households, this thesis seeks to frame Steam practices within a broader media and social ecology of domestic space. By generating insight into the roles and influences of Steam within Melbourne households, it contributes to academic discussions of the relationship between new media, its users and the domestic space of the household.