Play in the infosphere: the dominion of videogames

Are videogames games one plays with a video? They are actually the playful dimension of the hyper story, the time of the infosphere. In the 20th century, the phenomenology of videogames usually concentrated on stories, hardware and the gigantism of industry. Above all, there was a great deal of reflection on the stories: videogames were said to be simulation or learning, a way to liberate multiple identities, handle competition, and voluntarily accept the rules for the purposes of entertainment. But none of these make videogames any different from other forms of games. If anything, videogames reveal these qualities of play in a very explicit way. Their implicit characteristics are more interesting: rules are often discovered along the way to continue and win the game; the combination of the author-led story and the user taking a leading role in that story; the shifting border between voluntary play and compulsory reality. Play in the infosphere explores the reality of the infosphere: the algorithm.