Adults' consumption of videogames as imaginative escape from routine

This paper considers the adult consumption of videogames as a form of escape from routine and often unsatisfactory aspects of consumers' everyday lives. Drawing from a phenomenological study of 24 adult players, I illustrate aspects of escapism through play, specifically: Nostalgia; 'everyday' daydreams; media-derived fantasies, and; virtual tourism. I consider these themes in light of the sociology of consumption and of play to highlight adult videogame consumption as a significant trajectory of experiential economies where the market provides commodities that allow for the actualisation of the imagination.