Serious games: "a playful straitjacket"? - Video games, work and instrumentalization

The extension of play to areas not covered by it is a characteristic trend in the contemporary world, commonly referred to as gamification. This phenomenon of considerable scope favors the development of a particular type of game, with an almost oxymoronic name : the serious game, which combines playful means with a productive, formative or communicative purpose. This book takes an original approach to the subject, starting with the functions of playful activity in the animal world and examining its paradoxical purposes in the production and use of video games. Julian Alvarez puts into relation the solitary play offered by the most sophisticated virtual mediations with the most apparently rudimentary animal practices. However, he doesn't stop at this comparison, opening a reflection on the " playful straitjacket " and the constraints opposed to the freedom to play. The book reveals the retroactive and reciprocal effects of cultural standardization on the practice of games. The author, for whom " playing is ultimately an everyday job ", provides the reader (or gamer) with the elements that will guide him or her through a world steeped in video game culture to decide for themselves the degree of confusion or distinction that should be imposed between playful activity and laborious constraint.