In his paper The Labor of Fun: How Video Games Blur The Boundaries of Work and Play (Games and Culture, Vol. 1, pg. 68-71 (2006) ), Nick Yee explains how "video games are inherently work platforms that train us to become better game workers". The underyling assumption in this paper is that work being performed in video games is increasingly similar to the work performed in business corporations. The author hence studies online games and sees them as a way to "reveal larger social trends in the blurring boundaries between work and play". In order to assess these statements, he taks relevant examples such Star Wars Galaxies players who "operate a pharmaceutical manufacturing business for fun". He also underlines this interesting point: "The central irony of MMORPGs is that they are advertised as worlds to escape to after coming home from work, but they too make us work and burn us out". And now, the bunch of studies about virtual goods which have a real value can lead us to think that game play can constitute a real work... His last word is strikingly pertinent: "he blurring of work and play begs the question - what does “fun” really mean? ".

Yes guys, playing is hard and it's not a matter of toying with simple things as people reluctant to consider video games as a serious activity think.