Always Already Playing: Hermeneutics and the Gamification of Existence

Abstract

What if play is more than just an attitude or set of behaviors? What if the world is fundamentally and inherently playful? What if, when we find ourselves playing, we are not the authors or agents who initiate the activity, but instead we are giving ourselves over to the play of the world, being-played as it were? In this essay, we consider these questions in reference to the tradition of philosophical hermeneutics, discussing the work of Gadamer and others and tracing out the implications for gamification research.