The Age of Access: The New Culture of Hypercapitalism Where All of Life Is a Paid-For Experience
The Age of Access: The New Culture of Hypercapitalism Where All of Life Is a Paid-For Experience
The Digital Sublime: Myth, Power, and Cyberspace
The Digital Sublime: Myth, Power, and Cyberspace
Half-Real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds
Half-Real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds
Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games
Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games
Play Between Worlds: Exploring Online Game Culture
Play Between Worlds: Exploring Online Game Culture
Cheating: Gaining Advantage in Videogames
Cheating: Gaining Advantage in Videogames
Digital Play: The Interaction of Technology, Culture, and Marketing
Digital Play: The Interaction of Technology, Culture, and Marketing
Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals
Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals
Digital Culture, Play, and Identity: A World of Warcraft Reader (World of Warcraft Reader)
Digital Culture, Play, and Identity: A World of Warcraft Reader (World of Warcraft Reader)
Time to play: the rationalization of leisure time
Proceedings of the 2012 iConference
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This article constructs a new framework for the study of games as sites of social rationalization, applying Feenberg's critical theory of technology. We begin by making the case for a consideration of games as systems of social rationality, akin to other modern systems such as capitalist markets and bureaucratic organizations. We then present a conceptualization of play as a process through which the player focuses attention away from the undifferentiated action of everyday life toward a differentiated sphere of playful activity. This approach reveals how the experience of play changes as it becomes rationalized through the technological mediation and widespread standardization that occurs as games become large-scale social practices. We propose a theory of the rationalization of play (ludification), which outlines the key components of socially rationalized games, which we then apply to the specific example of massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs).