The Infinite Game in the Engine of Control: Proletarianization, Platform Capitalism, and the Future of Playful Pleasure

Abstract

This paper examines how contemporary game production software---specifically game engines and asset stores---systematically transforms the intrinsic pleasure of game development from James P. Carse's concept of an "infinite game" of open- ended creativity into a "finite game" of optimization and data extraction. Through a critical theory analysis of the Unity Engine ecosystem and AI-driven narrative tools like AI Dungeon, we argue that the political-economic logics of platform capitalism (Srnicek 2017) and surveillance capitalism (Zuboff 2019) enforce finite-game structures upon developers. This process is theorized as a triple movement of proletarianization (Stiegler 2010), where developer savoir-faire is captured by the platform; aesthetic standardization (Adorno and Horkheimer 2002), which creates a new digital "culture industry"; and the instrumentalization of creative intuition through datafication. The paper concludes by proposing a framework for reclaiming infinite-game development practices through critical technical literacy, open platforms, and a renewed valuation of non-instrumental creative labor.