playbor en · NOUN
Etymology
Blend of play + labor, coined by Julian Kücklich Julian Kücklich in 2005.
Meanings
-
(uncountable) A hybrid form of play and labour, specifically in the games industry.
The fun, pleasurable aspect of playbor troubles scholars because it seems to suggest that playborers are not exploited; exploitation is supposed to be immiserating, not fun. Furthermore, the characterization of playbor as exploitative might easily be read as something of an insult to the exploitation of real (material) labor, which is in fact immiserating.
2018 January 16, Greg Goldberg, Antisocial Media: Anxious Labor in the Digital Economy, NYU Press, →ISBN, page 51:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| playbour | alternative | lexicographic |