Rationalization, a long-term historical process, has its most obvious manifestations in the rise of bureaucracies and in the industrial organization of production - which transformed our world in the last two centuries, and continues today engulfing increasingly larger aspects of our social life. The notion was introduced at the turn of the 20th century by Max Weber, in his influential book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.

In sociology, rationalization refers to a process of replacement of traditions, customs and emotions as motivators of human conduct in favor of quantification and calculation. Computer games are the aesthetic form of rationalization.

If computer games, in their immense variety, have anything in common, that may be their compulsion for efficiency and control. You can read the original text below which, being targeted to a different crowd, explains games a little bit more and the problem with capitalism a little bit less.Īs she jumps over moving platforms, blows up barrels at the right time, collects glowing gems, looks for treasure chests, scores a head-shot, storms an alien base, perfects her racing line, upgrades her weapons, allots a perfect square of land, gets an extra life, recruits a companion, seizes mineable resources, invests in a new infrastructure, persuades a character, puts a falling block into place… as she learns by trial and error, wins, loses… as she does all of this, my fellow player may realize that all of her actions pertain to a specific mode of thinking and acting.

It’s also meant to be a companion piece for the game To Build a Better Mousetrap. It’s based on an text I wrote for the catalog of Time & Motion: Redefining Working Life, an exhibition at FACT gallery in Liverpool. This is a talk I gave at Indiecade East 2014 (remotely due to snow-related flight cancellation).

Looking to play capitalism ii online