Current Times
If games nowadays feel like work, why not consider them as such? Modern Times is a movie by Charlie Chaplin that criticized the problems of the ongoing industrialization in the early 30s. Whereas ”Current Times” focuses of today’s situation with computer games. Overwhelmed by sales and the amount of computer games in general, the stack of unplayed ones grows constantly. Playing them feels not like fun anymore. It is more like a never ending to-do list, one just wants to finish. The joy of each individual game is oftentimes not the prior motivation. If the fun is gone anyways, why not make the playing process as efficient as possible. Inspired by common practices of the industrial world, the game is considered as a product. Like on an assembly line, each input becomes one small part of the complete process. Each player becomes an expert in his or her individual task, without any bond to the end product, which is the finished game.