Nohr, Rolf F2024-03-012024-03-012021https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.14361/dcs-2021-0104/htmlhttps://mediarep.org/handle/doc/23203Under the gamification heading, we are currently discussing a collec- tion of control policies that—depending on the perspective—are either considered omnipotent opportunities to control behaviour and create motivation or, on the other hand, dystopian and inhuman ‘sublimi- nal’ disciplines aimed at breaking the subject in. Regardless of one’s own position: the discussion of a gamified rationality cannot abstain from looking at the discursive prerequisites that led to the gamifica- tion debate of the 2010s. To do so, the following aims to (briefly) trace gamification back to two preceding historic developments: to a specific from of (‘playful’) learning and the consequences related to control policies that arise from this ‘expanded definition of learning’.2 The digitalisation of classrooms and gamified educational offers developed and applied today are not without historic precedent. In the past, tremendous efforts (and investments) were made to equip classrooms with the latest media technology.engCreative Commons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 Genericteaching machinesdystopiansubliminal disciplinesgamified educationSkinner70030010.14361/dcs-2021-010410.25969/mediarep/218782364-2114