Automation of play: Theorizing self-playing games and post-human ludic agents

Abstract

This article offers a critical reflection on automation of play and its significance for the theoretical enquiries into digital games and play. Automation has become an ever more noticeable phenomenon in the domain of video games, expressed by self-playing game worlds, self-acting characters, and non-human agents traversing multiplayer spaces. On the following pages, the author explores various instances of automated non-human play and proposes a post-human theoretical lens, which may help to create a new framework for the understanding of video games, renegotiate the current theories of interaction prevalent in game studies, and rethink the relationship between human players and digital games.