For a creative expression to be widely recognized as art, sociology of art scholars argue that proponents must apply a legitimizing discourse that supporters of past art forms have successfully used. Unfortunately, sociology of art scholars have ignored the affective connections people have with these art forms and how proponents draw upon these meanings in their push for legitimation. To be sensitive to this dimension, scholars must adopt principles from the Strong Program (SP) of cultural sociology. To demonstrate the insights we gain from a SP approach, I examine how video game fans responded to disparaging comments made by the prominent film critic Roger Ebert. My findings indicate that certain aspects of fans’ push for artistic recognition are consistent with previous research. However, fans also express meaningful attachments to video games, and this affective dimension influences the narratives they construct in their pushes for legitimation. Moreover, the narratives fans construct disagree on whether video games are or can become art. Despite these disagreements, all the narratives emerge from the same affective foundation. These findings demonstrate the need for sociologists to examine how pushes for artistic legitimation build upon a deeply felt foundation.

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电子游戏、竞赛和意义：一种研究艺术合法性的强大程序方法

为了使创造性表达被广泛认为是艺术，艺术社会学学者认为，支持者必须应用过去艺术形式的支持者已成功使用的合法化话语。不幸的是，艺术社会学学者忽略了人们与这些艺术形式之间的情感联系，以及支持者在推动合法化时如何利用这些意义。为了对这个维度敏感，学者们必须采用文化社会学强计划（SP）的原则。为了展示我们从 SP 方法中获得的见解，我研究了视频游戏迷如何回应著名电影评论家罗杰·埃伯特 (Roger Ebert) 的贬低评论。我的发现表明，粉丝推动艺术认可的某些方面与之前的研究一致。然而，粉丝也表达了对电子游戏的有意义的依恋，这种情感维度会影响他们在推动合法化过程中构建的叙事。此外，对于电子游戏是否成为或可以成为艺术，粉丝构建的叙事存在分歧。尽管存在这些分歧，但所有的叙述都来自同一个情感基础。这些发现表明，社会学家需要研究推动艺术合法化的过程是如何建立在一个深刻的基础之上的。