Mindless repetition: Learning from computer games

This paper examines what an understanding of some of the key characteristics of computer games can contribute to design. Drawing on insights from Freud, hermeneutical theorists, and games themselves, we focus on repetition, its variation, and the matter of the ethical in computer games. The essay is concerned less with resolving the ethical questions posed than showing that the ethical also succumbs to the rule of play. Play is at work in design, the computer game and the realm of the ethical.