Ludic luxury: Reframing luxury consumption in digital gaming environments

This paper examines how luxury-related forms of distinction emerge within digital gaming environments. While luxury consumption has traditionally been understood through material goods and physically mediated experiences, digital platforms introduce new contexts in which exclusivity, recognition, and value are organised through systems of interaction. Drawing on insights from luxury consumption research and game studies, this paper conceptualises gaming environments as systems of play in which visibility, access and participation shape how distinction is produced and recognised. It introduces the concept of ludic luxury to describe forms of consumption that arise within these environments, where exclusivity is structured through platform governance, recognition emerges through symbolic visibility, and value is generated through participatory engagement. By shifting attention from ownership to interaction, the paper extends existing understandings of experiential luxury and highlights how digital infrastructures reorganise the production of luxury value in contemporary consumption contexts. This article is also included in The Business & Management Collection which can be accessed at http://hstalks.com/business.