Playing Software

Miguel Sicart argues that in the information age our relations with ubiquitous digital systems are fundamentally playful, and that playing with software shapes both software agency and human agency.

He explores how make-believe, mimicry, and world-traveling inform digital play, and contrasts digital play with analog play.

Sicart also considers the cybernetic aspects of digital play and critiques how play can be instrumentalized by platform capitalism, highlighting risks like exploitation and the weaponization of play in online conspiracy and gamified labor.

Through theoretical synthesis and examples, the book proposes an ethos of digital play grounded in loving world-traveling and responsible interaction with software agents.

It aims to reframe how scholars and designers understand play in computational culture.