| Title | Redirecting Ludification |
|---|---|
| Subtitle | Dutch Game Studies and the Neoliberalization of Academia |
| Contributor | Dennis Jansen(author) |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.53288/0441.1.07 |
| Landing page | https://punctumbooks.com/titles/historiographies-of-game-studies-what-it-has-been-what-it-could-be/ |
| License | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ |
| Copyright | Dennis Jansen |
| Publisher | punctum books |
| Published on | 2025-07-25 |
| Long abstract | This chapter concerns the ludification of the university and the academic politics of game studies. It takes Joost Raessens’ work on the ludification of culture and the politics of serious games as emblematic of game studies’ general disinclination to fully reckon with the role of military technoscience and contemporary capitalism in shaping digital play. The chapter argues that the conceptual tools Raessens offers should be applied not just to games and culture, but to game studies itself and the university as well. Doing so allows us to critique the ongoing instrumentalization of play in the neoliberal university through its institutional interest in games as educational tools, the involvement of the defense industry in game research projects, and the technological acceleration of academic life. |
| Page range | pp. 147–170 |
| Print length | 24 pages |
| Language | English (Original) |
Dennis Jansen (he/him) is a PhD candidate in the Department of Media and Culture Studies at Utrecht University. He was awarded a PhD in the Humanities grant by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) for the project “The Becoming-Playful of Warfare in the Netherlands” (2021–2025). His research focuses on the the mobilization of play in the Dutch military-innovation complex and the increasing usage of training simulations, serious games, and drones by the Dutch Armed Forces. His previous work has appeared in Transformative Works and Cultures, Press Start, DiGRA, Interactive Storytelling, and First Person Scholar.