The first season of the Weird Economies podcast is called, “Exploits of Play” hosted by Max Haiven. Over ten episodes, Max, Halle and guests explore how games and gamification have moved from the margin to the centre of the ever weird-ing capitalist economy. From subcultures grown around video games, which has become a major entertainment industry, to the gamification technologies that tech and speculative capital have invested heavily in as a means to gain and hook new users. We examine what play may have lured us into participating in games we cannot win and where on the fringes play is a tool of resistance changing the game itself.

Ep01 - Conspiracy Plays - Hugh Davies on the temptations of alternate reality

Ep02 - The Game at War with the World - S. M. Amadae on the powers behind the prisoner’s dilemma

Ep03 - All Against All - Tom Boland on our modern gladiators and the real world hunger games

Ep04 - Frontiers of Play - Mary Flanagan on games, colonialism, and the playful imagination

Ep05 - The Cheating Other - Gargi Bhattacharyya on how racial capitalism scams us twice

Ep06 - Gaming Authority - Thiago Falcẫo on exploitation and far-right politics in the games industry

Ep07 - “It Is What It Is” - Sophie Lewis on Love Island, game shows, and the banality of capitalist eros

Ep08 - Toyed With - Alfie Brown on the gamification of affect and love’s digital futures

Ep09 - The Singularity Bluff - Christian Nagler on Silicon Valley’s dangerous dreams of cheating death

Ep10 - Our Moves and Movements - Jay Jordan and Isa Fremeaux on the playfully subverting capitalism