Regulating (virtual) subjects: finance, entertainment and games

In this article the author examines a number of ways in which the real world economy is currently merging with practices that have been classically understood as belonging to the spheres of culture and play. The article discusses several areas in which the conceptual line between the supposedly rational technologies of finance, and the ‘less serious’ or ‘irrational’ sphere of culture, is fading as finance is progressively enlisted to serve the purposes of entertainment, including film, fiction, and computer games. In addressing areas such as these, where play is steadily entering into the realm of finance, and finance is becoming ever more ludic, the argument also focuses on various ways in which financialised subjects are currently being produced and regulated.