Sociology has long searched for a basic handle on the notion of action. In a paper I wrote many a moon ago, and just published as a Google Knol, I posit that we can extend the metaphor of "gaming" as a useful tool to examine social action. In this description of gaming, I look closely at how the game controls the attitudes of its players. It does this not through some overt coercive force, but by rewarding the proper attitude with a range of subtle benefits. If society as a whole is a giant hierarchy of serious (and not so serious) games, then how can this be resisted? Here is a quote from Serious Games:
"Serious game theory suggests that real subversion takes place on the level of the trivial, that cultural change occurs when those aspects of culture that culture takes seriously (its myths) are subject to the trialectic process—a process that has no overt leaders or followers and no defensible agenda, no counter-culture, no planned covert actions. And so, a particular culture change cannot be orchestrated, the trialectic process cannot be aimed at anything specifically; the trialectic process of cultural change can, however, be generally nourished by encouraging the venues where trivial actions take place, where farce and fantasy are encouraged. Amateur theatres, dark cafés, underground presses, rock and roll concerts, back alleyways, pirate radio stations, street festivals, costume parties, dorm rooms, circus side shows, church socials, office parties, universities (ideally): wherever people meet, and whatever they do and think without risk, will feed the trialectic process. Conversely, the threat of trialectic change is best preempted by controlling these same venues, by colonizing the world of the trivial. In short, if the revolution is to come (and who knows where this will take us) the coffee shop must be recaptured from the underwriters (Lloyds of London was a coffee shop) and from the avant garde, who take it all too seriously, and preserved as a sanctuary for the trivial."
Photo Credit: cc license by olivander http://www.flickr.com/photos/olivander/280763240/sizes/s/
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