“The Best Experience Is on PC”: Device Hierarchy, Symbolic Violence, and Mobile Player Resistance in Infinity Nikki

Cross-platform gaming is often associated with accessibility and expanded participation, yet shared access across devices does not necessarily produce equal terms of play. Focusing on the Infinity Nikki community, this article examines how device differences become a hierarchy of legitimate play and how mobile players negotiate that hierarchy. Drawing on a qualitative case study combining 24 semi-structured interviews, public community texts, and official game-related materials, the study shows that PC is widely constructed as the “best” way to experience the game. This hierarchy is reproduced not only through overt exclusion but also through benevolent symbolic violence in the form of practical-sounding advice, comparison, and correction. Mobile players respond through selective visibility, self-management, creative revaluation, and mutual support. The article argues that cross-platform accessibility can coexist with uneven symbolic conditions of participation in game communities.