The Gaming Habitus: An Exploration of Gender and Class Differences among Student Gamers

This study examines how Norwegian students' video game practices reflect their cultural dispositions and classed lifestyles, drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's concept of habitus. It addresses two questions: how preferences for specific game series vary among active gamers, and how those differences, along with habitual play and expressed interest in gaming, align with social differences in gender and social class. The work speaks to two bodies of literature, game studies debates about how mechanics and playing styles appeal to different pleasures, and cultural class analysis, where gaming remains comparatively understudied despite its growing prevalence.

The analysis draws on survey data from Norwegian students collected in 2018 (N = 1,223) and 2020 (N = 1,589). Using Multiple Correspondence Analysis, the authors construct two statistical spaces. The first maps 110 favourite game series mentioned in open-ended responses and yields a typology of four gamer clusters, which are then examined against gender, play frequency, place of study, and parental social class. The second situates gaming habits, preferences, and interests within a space of classed cultural lifestyles defined by indicators of parental capital.

The findings indicate significant differences in game preferences, general interest, and time spent gaming across social class lines. A high level of interest in video games is associated with somewhat lower and more culturally oriented class backgrounds, and this profile correlates with traits such as frequent cinema attendance, interest in fantasy and science fiction, habitual reading, and below-average interest in physical exercise. Students from cultural-capital-rich backgrounds, such as those in humanities or teacher education, tend to favour story-driven, non-competitive games set in fantasy or science fiction worlds. Female respondents in this group are prominent, suggesting an intersection of class and gender, while women who prefer competitive action and online games show socioeconomic profiles diverging from their male counterparts.