Video Games - The Video Game Industry: Formation, Present State, and Future - page 22

notions of major and minor (Colebrook 2002) and particularly Deleuze
and Guattari's (1986) analysis of Kafka and his position as torn between
the cultures of Prague Jews, Germany and Austria-Hungary. The philo-
sophical inquiry of defi ning the relationships between minority and major-
ity culture is far beyond the scope of this study. Nevertheless, it is pivotal to
emphasize the recursive and paradoxical nature of the subculture notion,
and how this exhibits its social constructivist underpinnings (Berger and
Luckmann 1967), where the reality and its defi nitions are part of a mutat-
ing negotiation process of cultural meaning.
Although implying a symbolically subordinated and hierarchically
lower culture the term subculture is commonly not used with this nega-
tive and confrontational meaning. The sub-prefi x in many cases no longer
implies an oppressed or discriminated cultural minority but one that is
dif erentiated from the majority culture, where the term dif erentiation is
used with the most value-neutral and anti-hierarchical meaning. A sub-
culture in this context refers to “cultural variants displayed by certain
segments of the population” (Yinger 1960, 625). The term subculture
is frequently within consumption and commercial application used as a
synonym to community , but also in relation to consumer segmentation.
Subculture is now simply a “world within a world”, which is becoming
increasingly positive in its connotations of meaning. The positive mean-
ing is driven, in the commercial arena, by the strong (commercial) success
of brand communities / subcultures where a wide range of diverse consum-
ers are organizing themselves in relation to a particular product/service
as part of their consumption.
The consumer electronics manufacturer Apple and its devoted consum-
ers epitomize a successful commercially driven subculture: consumers from
hundreds of countries, nationalities, cultural backgrounds, professions and
values create, despite odds, a fairly cohesive subculture that nurtures the
Apple business model. It is not merely a question of having a loyal follow-
ing among consumers but a separate ecosystem which manifests itself with
numerous user communities, blogs, news sites, media pundits, investor ana-
lysts and fans around the globe. The subcultural ecosystem provides not
only a bankable demand-driving fan base, but also a global and loyal work-
force that provides support, information, excitement and most importantly
a massive advertising and PR arena—for free. In reality the workforce actu-
ally pays for the privilege of subcultural membership by purchasing Apple's
premium-priced products. Despite its success Apple users still remain a
minority culture—the vast majority of the information technology-driven
Western society relies on completely other technologies and manufacturers.
Actually most of Apple's branding emphasizes and relishes this status as an
exclusive minority. Whereas those in the Apple subculture passionately dis-
cuss, let's say, the probability of Retina Display technology in an upcoming
iPad model—a majority of society barely knows what an iPad is, let alone
what “Retina Display” technology is.