Reified Gameplay: Revisiting Playbour Through Critical Theory

Manninen's article argues that the concept of "playbour," which blurs the boundary between play and labour in digital games, can be sharpened through critical theory. Its central proposal is "reified gameplay," a framework built on Marx's account of alienation, Lukács's notion of reification, and Adorno and Horkheimer's critique of the culture industry. The author contends that the traditional liberal-romantic view of play as a sphere separate from work is outdated under neoliberal conditions, where play is increasingly absorbed into economic purpose.

The argument rests on a set of empirical cases. Modding, streaming, gold farming, and the economy of EVE Online are examined as sites where playbour appears, with EVE Online treated as a simulation of capitalism. Drawing on Taylor et al.'s study of EVE industrialists and Möring and Leino's analysis of Pocket Planes, the article shows how shifting goals, structurally limited player agency, and repetitive, technical engagement with game systems make play resemble labour. Reified gameplay is thus defined as play that becomes instrumentalised, repetitive, and economically purposeful.

The article's most recent case study, CryptoKitties, extends this framework to blockchain-based games, where gameplay is oriented largely toward generating and trading cryptocurrency value. The author notes that players retain some choice, so play under the culture industry is best understood as a prolongation of work rather than its complete replacement. The article's scope is primarily conceptual and theoretical, grounded in examples from online multiplayer and digital economy games rather than a broad survey of the industry.

Manninen concludes that reified gameplay offers a more rigorous alternative to the ambiguous term playbour. Yet the article leaves open whether Adorno's hope that art retains emancipatory potential applies to contemporary games, identifying this as a question for future research.