On Feeling Productive: Videogames and Superfluous Labor

Many early materialist studies of videogames framed the medium as ideological training for future participation in a computerized workplace. This article takes the contemporary stagnation of postindustrial economies as an occasion for problematizing this account, turning to videogames, players, and game designers themselves for an exploration of how gaming culture imagines its relationship to the labor process. The article finds that many videogames are not played as preparation for work but preparation for underemployment, providing affective relief from its associated stresses and enabling feelings of productivity, accomplishment, and social significance that are unavailable in the form of actual labor.