ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts discussed in the various chapters of this book. This book presents one of the central theses drawn from the case studies that relates to how play is often constructed and defined by commercial or institutional ideologies. Adult play is also part of consumption web; corporations employ synergy to encourage adult players to play in multimodal ways, purchasing, for example, a Marvel Heroes comic book series, tickets to its associated film(s), action figures, board games, T-shirts, mugs, and so on. While play remains a slippery subject, impossible to fully define or nail down, analyzing acts of play, players, and ludic spaces through the lens of performance spotlights important considerations that could be overlooked by other theoretical lenses. Indeed, because players are physically embodying another character, moving, speaking, and pursuing objectives as that character, they layer the character's identity on their entire bodies.
