Game culture and material culture have always been closely linked. Analog forms of rule-based play (ludus) would hardly be conceivable without dice, cards, and game boards. In the act of free play (paidia), children as well as adults transform simple objects into multifaceted toys in an almost magical way. Even digital play is suffused with material culture: Games are not only mediated by technical interfaces, which we access via hardware and tangible peripherals. They are also subject to material hybridization, paratextual framing, and processes of de-, and re-materialization.

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Benjamin Beil is a professor for media studies and digital culture at the Department of Media Culture and Theater at the University of Cologne. Gundolf S. Freyermuth is a writer, media producer, and co-founder of the Cologne Game Lab of the Technical University Cologne (in 2010, together with Prof. Björn Bartholdy). Hanns Christian Schmidt is a professor for Game Design at Macromedia University for Applied Sciences (Cologne) and a research assistant at the Institute of Media Culture and Theater at the University of Cologne. Raven Rusch is an artist, musician and game developer. He is coceo of the startup neoludic games, and works parttime as research assistant at the Cologne Game Lab of the Technical University Cologne.