GAM3R 7H30RY 1.1

The book/website GAM3R 7H30RY 1.1 is an innovative approach to studying the interdisciplinary nature of gaming in a multimedia setting. The "About this Project" section sets you up for something that you can't imagine, this interactive, user friendly display of information. Here the concept of the chapters pales in comparison to the concept of the presentation. The Book (and its online presentation) are broken down into a large number of chapters, each broken down into 25 sections, each of which are only a paragraph long. I found the reading to be very wordy and abstract, almost too much so, considering they are trying to present profound ideas to the public. Even I, a college student, had to go back and reread, another reader might not be inclined to do so. The content of the sections, the few I read at least (Ch1, sect. 1-10), seemed to be about the parallel relation of gaming to real life. It presented examples of each that supported this claim. I found section 10 of chapter one particularly interesting, it makes a miraculous connection;

"...each agonizes over their worth against others in the price of their house, the size of their vehicle and where, perversely, working longer and longer hours is a sign of winning the game. Work becomes play. Work demands not just one’s mind and body but also one’s soul. You have to be a team player. Your work has to be creative, inventive, playful – ludic, but not ludicrous. Work becomes a gamespace...Play becomes everything to which it was once opposed. It is work, it is serious, it is morality, it is necessity."

This seems to contrast the quote I used in a previous post, whose conclusion was humans who don't play are just pigs that work. If work and play are now interchangeable (in the 'major leagues' of work at least) then which author is right? I think they both are.


Wark, McKenzie. "About This Project." GAM3R 7H3ORY. 22 May 2006. The Institute for the Future of the Book. 2 Feb. 2007-http://www.futureofthebook.org/gamertheory/?page_id=2- .

Wark, McKenzie. "Agony." GAM3ER 7H3ORY. 22 May 2006. The Instuite for the Future of the Book. 6 Feb. 2007 -http://www.futureofthebook.org/gamertheory/?p=1-.