Money | Games | Economies

Terms like “money”, “finance”, or “economy” might, at first glance, not seem particularly playful, but they describe concepts that are at the very heart of many game-related phenomena. A closer look reveals that the fiscal and the ludic converge more often, and on more levels, than those concerned with either of these fields would care to admit. Sometimes these links are tangible and concrete, as when games use various kinds of in-game currency, or when games are viewed as part of a business generating immense revenues. In other cases, the relation is more abstract: many games challenge their players to exhibit what might well be described as an “economic mindset”, while economic enterprises and entrepreneurship are often discussed in terms of games to be won or lost, games in which success or failure depend on an understanding of the “system”, and on the skills required to “play” it to one’s advantage. These are also highly ideological matters, revealing how easily the games we make and play reproduce our own capitalist primings, and how, on the other hand, the neoliberal world image Is fueled by logics of gaming and gambling, of competition and zero-sum games. And finally, the systemic nature of games, and even the freedoms of play, are easily exploited for economic gain, of which addictive gambling-mechanics are only the most prominent example; but the same features that enable such dark patterns in game design make it possible to draw attention to exploitative mechanisms in games and beyond, and make us address our own willingness to be paid off with immediate pleasure while ignoring the long term cost.

Matters of Money and Economy in and around Games have been the focus of the 17th Vienna Games Conference “FROG – Future and Reality of Gaming” 2023. In this volume, 16 contributions to the conference have been collected which shed a light on the manifold relations between two seemingly different areas of human activity and experience: the desire for profit, and the necessity of play.