Identifying communities and fan practices in online retrogaming forums

A noteworthy trend that has developed in video games in recent years is retrogaming. Retrogaming could be defined as a specific subculture of digital gaming typically characterised by playing (or collecting) obsolete personal computer, console or arcade video games in contemporary times, although it can also include playing modern games with "retro" aesthetics. However, it is not limited to that; it is also related to a wider cultural phenomenon that involves research, artistic activities, preservation and online discussions. This paper studies such activity in two separate sites, PlanetVB and AtariAge, aiming to uncover how the fan practices and the social networks that arise in these forums shape their communities, using natural language processing techniques combined with social network analysis. The results of the descriptive analysis on the language used in online forums show how most users participate in such online sites to buy and sell collectibles, to program new games for old systems or to simply socialise with like-minded people, collectively bringing new life into discontinued game systems.