Fabian Arlt – författare

This interesting book discusses why, as an activity, topic and metaphor, play and game have become an integral part of modern life. Empirically exemplary and theoretically grounded, this book discusses the developments and expansions in gaming, from easily accessible casual games to the galaxy-spanning gaming worlds of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs). It shows how gaming has become a focal point of the entertainment industry, marked by boundless professionalization and monetization, especially in the realm of sports, and how games become global platforms for social networks, where players from all over the world meet in digital sandboxes. The combination of the virtual and the ludic creates hyperreal spaces in which people try out new forms of interaction, cooperation, and even brainstorming. The authors ask if this behavior has become the new way of life and the new normal, and if this heralds the ludic century. They take readers on a journey to understand the dynamics of today''s gaming society, and base their observations and analyses on an original theory of play, which, in contrast to social normalcy, revolves around the allure and threats of the unexpected.

This book is of interest to students and researchers of social science and communication studies, especially those working on the interface of AI and society.

Fabian  Arlt, M. A., hat Medienmanagement studiert und promoviert im Studiengang Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftskommunikation der Universität der Künste (UdK) in Berlin.

Prof. Dr. Hans-Jürgen Arlt  ist Sozialwissenschaftler und Publizist, er lehrt am Institut für Theorie und Praxis der Kommunikation der Universität der Künste (UdK) in Berlin.

A concept of game is justified and unfolded that revolves around the lure and threat of the unexpected. The author duo places their theory of ludic action in classical concepts of the game as well as in the current discourse of game studies. The phenomenal multiplicity of games is outlined in historical perspective and structured in a systematic manner. The authors explain the media-technical and communicative preconditions of the computer game boom and reflect on the discussion about escalations of ludic violence. The instrumentalization of games, which is becoming increasingly popular under the heading of gamification, is critically examined. The conspicuous inflation of the game metaphor is brought into connection with ludic connotations in the social structures of modern and digital society.

Prof. Dr.Hans-Jürgen Arlt is a social scientist and publicist, he teaches at the Institute for Theory and Practice of Communication at the University of the Arts (UdK) in Berlin.

This book is a translation of an original German edition. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence (machine translation by the service DeepL.com). A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content, so that the book will read stylistically differently from a conventional translation.