Games and everyday life

Thomas Malaby has a new article out on SSRN which he talks about on his latest Terra Nova entry titled, "Stopping Play: A New Approach to Games" which looks at games as intrinsic to everyday life rather than exceptionally removed from the "real world." It can be downloaded here.
My interest in addiction has me reading his 2003 book, Gambling Life. It's great to see this perspective on games from a cultural anthropologist too, as I've also been working on the idea that games, while having elements of play are not 'play,' in the classic sense of the word and really do have relevance and consequences vis a vis the everyday lifeworld. An example of this is my chapter in the "Gaming as Culture" reader, found here as well as here for those who are far away!