The End of Capitalism: Disengaging From the Economic Imaginary of Incremental Games



Ruffino, Paolo ORCID: 0000-0001-7112-9483
(2021) The End of Capitalism: Disengaging From the Economic Imaginary of Incremental Games. GAMES AND CULTURE, 16 (2). pp. 208-227.

This is the latest version of this item.

[img] Text
Ruffino Games and Culture End of Capitalism Submission ACCEPTED.pdf - Author Accepted Manuscript

Download (619kB) | Preview

Abstract

<jats:p>The article investigates how players of the incremental game AdVenture Capitalist write about the end of the game and the end of capitalism with it. The game visually and mechanically represents the economic imaginary of frictionless capitalism, characterized by endless and self-sufficient growth. AdVenture Capitalist has no end and does not require the player’s interaction. The analysis shows that players’ responses to their marginalization from an endless simulation are pataphysical: They privilege the particular over the general, the imaginary over the real, the exceptional over the ordinary, and the contradictory over the axiomatic. In so doing, players occasionally raise imaginary solutions to the end of capitalism. Examining the written traces of players’ disengagement from the simulation, the article intervenes in broader debates regarding the effects of games. It concludes that exceptional cases of overinterpretation reveal a complex transformative approach toward video games and the political and economic ideology represented therein.</jats:p>

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: idle games, incremental games, interpassivity, automation, 'pataphysics
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 06 Mar 2020 10:49
Last Modified: 03 Oct 2023 01:11
DOI: 10.1177/1555412019886242
Related URLs:
URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3061788

Available Versions of this Item