Century of Play: 18th Century Precursors of Gamification

The article traces back a games-related and allegedly brand-new phenomenon that is called gamification, but has been known, theorised, used, misused and exploited avant la lettre. The notion of gamification is often said to have been coined in 2002 by Pelling and popularized in the 2010s by Deterding, Khaled, Dixon and Nake (2011), McGonigal (2011), Zichermann (2011), and Werbach and Hunter (2012). There are, however, precursors to the idea of our society being infiltrated, revolutionised or spoiled by play. I will present examples for gamification before the word even existed and will refer to ideas brought forward by Gerhard Tersteegen, Johann Philipp Kirnberger, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Mozart, Daniel Bernoulli, the Roentgens, and others. The focus of the historical comparison is on the second half of the 18th century.

The hypothesis is that gamification is not exclusively linked to digital cultures and that processes that can with good reason be compared to and called gamification are constituted by human playfulness in the context of various constellations of historic and economic settings. Rococo game craze (ludomanie) and the impact of Lotto di Genova on 18th century society can be compared to the hyped monetary expectations resulting from gamification and the social phantasms created in our contemporary context. Eighteenth century and twenty-first century ludofetishism (and jeu pathologique) will be analysed as particular forms of zeitgeist and lifestyle. Musique aléatoire by the successors of Marcel Duchamp will be critically rethought with a look back on aleatoric composition and the ludification of music in the second half of the 18th century.