Towards a cartography of the transformations in the forms of playing and conceiving childhood in digital culture

Abstract

Incorporating perspectives from childhood studies in Latin America and video game studies, we analyze the case of Railander Games, a video game rental store located in the interior of the Ceará state. Through a social project funded primarily by donations from the gaming community that experienced the video game rental store phenomenon in the 1990s, it establishes a space where working-class children play video games and allows for reflection on the collective practice of playing games in childhood. Considering the inequalities in access to and use of technology worldwide, particularly in peripheral regions of the Global South, we analyze the ways of playing and being a child that emerge in the technodiscourses surrounding the project, which has become popular in recent years through digital platforms such as X. By analyzing the posts shared on the Railander Games account, which showcase the routines of the rental store and its patrons, we can see how technodiscourses allow for reflection on contemporary ways of thinking about childhood and playing.