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This text is the result of years of ethnographic fieldwork among market research analysts at XPG [pseudonym]—a small firm that specialized in collecting, processing, and reporting on consumer data for the videogame industry. Acting as a participant-observer at XPG, I examined the socio-technical processes through which large videogame publishers came to know their audiences, weigh their opinions and desires, and develop new products for them. In the pages below, I alternately explore the perspectives and practices of professional consumer analysts, entertainment capitalists, and outspoken consumers of games, showing how the dynamic relationships between such actors help constitute the warp and weft of the mass-market gaming scene, a variegated cultural context that connects and divides people across the globe. More broadly, this text represents an ethnography of popular demand, showing how players’ demands were incited, expressed, elaborated, interpreted, performed, and accounted for both in public gamer discourse and behind the closed doors of the videogame industry. My aim in this approach is to show how and why certain demands come to matter for businesses—and others do not. Along the way, I encounter myriad complications to the notion of popular demand, detailing how players’ demands are historically situated (Chapter 1), relational (Chapter 2), multiple (Chapter 3), and cyclical (Chapter 4). Taken as a whole, I argue for a reconsideration of demand and its role in capitalism, one that understands capitalists as more than rational, profit-maximizing machines responding to demand automatically as if it were merely a market “force” or “pressure.” Rather, I depict capitalists as thickly enmeshed in tangles of collective judgments which they recognize, incite, and attempt to shape, but never fully control. Similarly, I argue for a reconsideration of videogames as a medium, showing how their current instantiation as mass-market, viral entertainment—in the style of Hollywood blockbusters—differs greatly from scholarly understandings of videogames as text, as rule-based systems, or as virtual worlds. Rather, as viral products, I describe how the point of mass-market videogames is to propagate, generate, mutate, connect, and trigger the deeply held feelings, associations, and fantasies that we share in common.

Objective To quantify the effects of a series of text messages (safetxt) delivered in the community on incidence of chlamydia and gonorrhoea reinfection at one year in people aged 16-24 years. Design Parallel group randomised controlled trial. Setting 92 sexual health clinics in the United Kingdom. Participants People aged 16-24 years with a diagnosis of, or treatment for, chlamydia, gonorrhoea, or non-specific urethritis in the past two weeks who owned a mobile phone. Interventions 3123 participants assigned to the safetxt intervention received a series of text messages to improve sex behaviours: four texts daily for days 1-3, one or two daily for days 4-28, two or three weekly for month 2, and 2-5 monthly for months 3-12. 3125 control participants received a monthly text message for one year asking for any change to postal or email address. It was hypothesised that safetxt would reduce the risk of chlamydia and gonorrhoea reinfection at one year by improving three key safer sex behaviours: partner notification at one month, condom use, and sexually transmitted infection testing before unprotected sex with a new partner. Care providers and outcome assessors were blind to allocation. Main outcome measures The primary outcome was the cumulative incidence of chlamydia or gonorrhoea reinfection at one year, assessed by nucleic acid amplification tests. Safety outcomes were self-reported road traffic incidents and partner violence. All analyses were by intention to treat. Results 6248 of 20 476 people assessed for eligibility between 1 April 2016 and 23 November 2018 were randomised. Primary outcome data were available for 4675/6248 (74.8%). At one year, the cumulative incidence of chlamydia or gonorrhoea reinfection was 22.2% (693/3123) in the safetxt arm versus 20.3% (633/3125) in the control arm (odds ratio 1.13, 95% confidence interval 0.98 to 1.31). The number needed to harm was 64 (95% confidence interval number needed to benefit 334 to ∞ to number needed to harm 24) The risk of road traffic incidents and partner violence was similar between the groups. Conclusions The safetxt intervention did not reduce chlamydia and gonorrhoea reinfections at one year in people aged 16-24 years. More reinfections occurred in the safetxt group. The results highlight the need for rigorous evaluation of health communication interventions. Trial registration ISRCTN registry ISRCTN64390461 .

OBJECTIVES: MSM Internet Survey Ireland (MISI) 2015 was an anonymous, self-completed, cross-sectional internet survey assessing sexual behaviours and health needs among men who have sex with men (MSM) in Ireland. We explored factors associated with self-reported STI diagnosis among MSM who were sexually active and had an STI test in the previous year. METHODS: We compared the study population (n=1158; 37% of total population), with the sexually active MISI population not testing for STIs (n=1620; 52% of total population). Within the study population, we identified sociodemographics and sexual behaviours associated with self-reporting STI diagnosis. We used multivariable logistic regression to estimate adjusted odds ratios (aORs). RESULTS: The sociodemographics, lifestyle and sexual behaviours of the study population differed significantly from the sexually active MISI population who did not test for STIs. Within the study population, 65% met a sexual partner via geosocial networking smartphone application (GSNa) and 21% self-reported an STI diagnosis in the previous year. On univariable analysis, factors associated with STI diagnosis included: older age, identifying as gay, HIV-positive status, increasing number of sexual partners in the previous year, condomless anal intercourse (CAI) with ≥2 non-steady partners and using GSNa to meet a new sexual partner in the previous year or most recent sexual partner. On multivariable analysis, STI diagnosis was associated with: being aged 25-39 years (aOR 1.8, 95% CI 1.04 to 3.15), CAI with ≥2 non-steady partners (aOR 2.8, 95% CI 1.84 to 4.34), total number of sexual partners (aOR 1.02, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.03) and using GSNa to meet a new sexual partner (aOR 1.95, 95% CI 1.12 to 3.39). CONCLUSIONS: STI diagnosis among MSM testing for STIs is associated with GSNa use, as well as sexual behaviours. GSNas are key settings for STI prevention interventions, which should prioritise men with high numbers of sexual partners and those with multiple CAI partners.

Presentation at the 5th International Barcode of Life Conference, Kunming, China, 27-31 October 2013

Plenary presentation at the Third European Conference for the Barcode of Life, 17-20 September 2012, Brussels, Belgium

Plenary presentation at the Third European Conference for the Barcode of Life, 17-20 September 2012, Brussels, Belgium