The Republic of Games: Textual Culture between Old Books and New Media

Many of today’s digital platforms are designed according to the same model: they encourage users to create content for fun (a mode of production that some have termed playbour) and to earn points. On Facebook, for example, points are based on a user’s number of friends and how many likes and shares a comment receives. New cultural and literary formations have arisen out of these feedback and reward systems, with surprising effects on amateur literary production.

Drawing on social-text analys...