IAT210W02

IAT 210 – Week 2
Summer 2014

Culture I

How do games and play spring from not just our culture, but all cultures?

Culture I

Why is golf a good walk spoiled?

The Magic Circle
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A finite space with infinite possibilities
Either concretely or abstractly marks the boundary of the game space
Defines a space that is enclosed, separate and temporary.

Once Inside the Circle
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Creates a space of safety

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Ritualized interactions govern gameplay

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There can be role-playing and experimentation

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Cheating is bad; breaking the circle, worse

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The game ends when the circle is broken

Games as Rituals
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Games are separate from the “real world” and exist within a frame

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Frames communicate to players/audience that a game is being played

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Frames are psychological but often have a physical component or can be completely abstracted by the rules themselves.

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The frame is created when players decide that it is time to play.

First play, then games
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Homo Ludens, a 1938 study by Johan
Huizinga

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Play not only pre-dates civilization, it is a necessary condition for civilization

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More than instinct, more than need, not an abreaction – not biological

Characteristics of Play

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Free activity
Not serious
No material interest
Uncertain outcome

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Outside of Life
Immersive
Bounded
Fixed dictates

First play, then games
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Play is that which takes us out of ourselves: from the ordinary to the extraordinary. 

Theatre, ritual, games are all cultural expressions of this impulse.

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Play requires... fun. And fun isn’t rational. Garneau’s 14 Forms of Fun
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Beauty
Immersion
Problem Solving
Competition
Social Interaction
Thrills / Danger
Physical Activity

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Love
Creation
Power
Discovery
Advancement
Using Ability
Comedy

Group Work

Break into groups and discuss how the
“14 Forms of Fun” relate to the games you played last week!

A More Formal Structure
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Articulated by Roger Caillois in Man,
Play and Games (1958)

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Caillois suggests that Huizinga is both too broad and too narrow

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He re-affirms much of Huizinga: games are a manifestation of culture

De-Mystification
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Masks – no longer sacred objects

Kites – in Asian societies, no longer spiritual... or even practical

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Tag – originally the selection of sacrificial victims 

Checkers – an instrument for divination in
Egypt

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Ring Around the Rosies – the Black Death

Modes of Playing
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Ludus is the notion of adding discipline, training, boundaries to play

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This limits the free-form of play and sets boundaries as to what is possible

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Players must use ever-greater patience, skill and ingenuity

Modes of Playing
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Paidia is the exuberant, unrestricted, and emergent

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The player moves away from structures and limits towards fantasy

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Players revel in the spontaneity of the experience Classification: Agon
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Competition to determine who is better at a thing, bounded by equality, fairness, and balance.

Can be physical or intellectual
Requires attention, application of skill, and a desire to win

Classification: Alea
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Fortune’s favor is determined through chance, with a weighting of risk and reward providing balance.

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Rather than active determination, players await the outcome

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Attention, application of skill, training... these things are unimportant.

Classification: Mimicry
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At one extreme, immersion – at the other, intense identification

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Theatrics require immersing oneself to beguile an audience

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Fan identification at wrestling events or the Final Four allows them to “share” the experience Classification: Ilinx
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Experiences that momentarily up-end our perception

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Can be harmless or destructive, ritualized or trivial

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Industrial revolution allowed the gameification of vertigo

Modes of Playing
Agon

Alea

Paidia

Random feats and challenges Flipping a coin Ludus

Structured contests and tournaments Lotteries, stock markets

Mimicry

Vertigo

Children’s Childhood imitations racing about

High theatre Whirling dervishes Homework!
For next week, please:
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read Rules of Play, Chps 3 & 7 play Risk online submit a journal of your game

That’s It!

Have a good night - any questions, please come find me at the front or send a message to [e-mail]