Love, Games and Gamification: Gambling and Gaming as Techniques of Modern Romantic Love

Theory, Culture and Society 39 (6):121-137 (2022)
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Abstract

A number of authors claim that Western European modern romantic love has been ‘gamified’ by digital apps and platforms, resulting in a ludic market logic that is increasingly compulsive and even addictive. This paper will suggest that modern romantic love was, in fact, predicated on games, particularly games of chance and competition. These games are seen to provide a number of functions, including homosocial bonding, the vindication of personal responsibility, and bringing about the probability of the improbable. The paper examines changing attitudes to chance at several key historical moments in Western Europe, changes which we can discern in romantic codification, as well as in the modern economy. We trace these tendencies to digital corporations, where gathered behavioural data accelerates the capacity to economize and determine futures.

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References found in this work

Love and Structure.Charles Lindholm - 1998 - Theory, Culture and Society 15 (3-4):243-263.
Love and Marriage in the Middle Ages.Georges Duby - 1995 - Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 38 (4):659-667.

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