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The Labor of Fun

How Video Games Blur the Boundaries of Work and Play

Nick Yee

Stanford University

Video games are often framed as sites of play and entertainment. Their transformation into work platforms and the staggering amount of work that is being done in these games often go unnoticed. Users spend on average 20 hours a week in online games, and many of them describe their game play as obligation, tedium, and more like a second job than entertainment. Using well-known behavior conditioning principles, video games are inherentlywork platforms that train us to become better gameworkers. And thework that is being performed in video games is increasingly similar to the work performed in business corporations. The microcosm of these online games may reveal larger social trends in the blurring boundaries between work and play.

Key Words: labor • online gaming • massively multiplayer online games • MMORPGs • MMOs • work

Games and Culture, Vol. 1, No. 1, 68-71 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/1555412005281819
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