{"product_id":"experimental-games-critique-play-and-design-in-the-age-of-gamification","title":"Experimental Games","description":"In our unprecedentedly networked world, games have come to occupy an important space in many of our everyday lives. Digital games alone engage an estimated 2.5 billion people worldwide as of 2020, and other forms of gaming, such as board games, role playing, escape rooms, and puzzles, command an ever-expanding audience. At the same time, “gamification”—the application of game mechanics to traditionally nongame spheres, such as personal health and fitness, shopping, habit tracking, and more—has imposed unprecedented levels of competition, repetition, and quantification on daily life.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Drawing from his own experience as a game designer, Patrick Jagoda argues that games need not be synonymous with gamification. He studies experimental games that intervene in the neoliberal project from the inside out, examining a broad variety of mainstream and independent games, including \u003ci\u003eStarCraft\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eCandy Crush Saga\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eStardew Valley\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eDys4ia\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eBraid\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eUndertale\u003c\/i\u003e. Beyond a diagnosis of gamification, Jagoda imagines ways that games can be experimental—not only in the sense of \u003ci\u003eproblem solving\u003c\/i\u003e, but also the more nuanced notion of \u003ci\u003eproblem making\u003c\/i\u003e that embraces the complexities of our digital present. The result is a game-changing book on the sociopolitical potential of this form of mass entertainment.","brand":"The University of Chicago Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47866875707736,"sku":"9780226629971","price":29.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9780226629971.jpg?v=1771307129","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/experimental-games-critique-play-and-design-in-the-age-of-gamification","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}