This paper deals with the relationship between gamblers and Electronic GamingMachines (EGMs), which leads to the automation of desire through procedures."Pokies", as EGMs are known in the Australian context, are both desiring-machines(Deleuze and Guattari) and cross-platform media where digital gambling and videogameconventions and procedures intersect. I make a case that, as desiring-machines (entitiesthat are defined by their connections), pokies and gamblers form couplings that generateassemblages, which are "passional", "a composition of desire" (Deleuze and Guattari). Ialso argue that pokies share aesthetic and procedural similarities with videogames andthat the gameplay's objective is not always to merely win money, but to fulfil a desire toaccomplish missions and embark on adventures. I also argue that these "missions" arerelated to chasing, the overarching procedure that defines EGM consumption and allowsfor the automation of gambler-pokie couplings. The aesthetics of most of these procedure-images can be traced back to a postcolonial disposition over foreign lands, peoples andcultures -faux Chinese and Aboriginal lore, exotic deserts, untamed jungles and Arcticlandscapes that need to be conquered. This disposition echoes notions such as class-related aspiration (desire) and exotica. I analyse the imagery in some of the pokies thatcirculate in the New South Wales (Australia) EGM market.This reading of Electronic Gaming Machines adds a ludic dimension to the analysis of ahighly class-bound social practice that is part of a wider socioeconomic trend that pointstowards a new and contradictory consumption ethic. The application of videogametheory is absent in current discussions on poker machine interfaces and legislation,which generally focus on the figure of the pathological gambler and disregard thecomplexities of gambling platforms
展开▼
