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You've Been Played: How Corporations, Governments, and Schools Use Games to Control Us All

You've Been Played: How Corporations, Governments, and Schools Use Games to Control Us All

by Adrian Hon

Basic Books ·2022 ·320 pages ·Technology
Maybe Someday
Maybe Someday
I Index
32/99
Maybe Someday

40/99

Critics

Bottom of the Pile

24/99

Readers

n/a

Scholars

27/99

Rating

52/99

Volume

24/99

Rating

25/99

Volume

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About This Book

How games are being harnessed as instruments of exploitation—and what we can do about it Warehouse workers pack boxes while a virtual dragon races across their screen. If they beat their colleagues, they get an award. If not, they can be fired. Uber presents exhausted drivers with challenges to keep them driving. China scores its citizens so they behave well, and games with in-app purchases use achievements to empty your wallet. Points, badges, and leaderboards are creeping into every aspect of modern life. In You've Been Played , game designer Adrian Hon delivers a blistering takedown of how corporations, schools, and governments use games and gamification as tools for profit and coercion. These are games that we often have no choice but to play, where losing has heavy penalties. You've Been Played is a scathing indictment of a tech-driven world that wants to convince us that misery is fun, and a call to arms for anyone who hopes to preserve their dignity and autonomy.


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Reviews

"This passionate survey is a wake-up call for workers and political leaders alike."

Publishers Weekly Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"Still, the book is charming and accessible enough to overcome these moments of overreach, just as you might excuse some hyperbolic asides in a conversation with your nerdiest friend about why he is both worried and optimistic about tech's future."

Alexandria Symonds· The New York Times Read review ↗ Near the Top

"While Hon warns of the dangers of gamification, his book is not entirely a tech apostate's account."

Rhoda Feng· The New Republic Read review ↗ Near the Top

"Anyone in the tech world and human resources will find this book helpful in making decisions about gamification."

Jennifer Adams· Booklist Read review ↗ Near the Top

"An expansive view of how gamification permeates modern culture that lacks a strong conclusion."

Tina Panik· Library Journal Read review ↗ Maybe Someday

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