P1246990957scToq

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LECTURE
WHAT Is a GAME? DEFINING OUR OBJECT OF STUDY
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An entertaining exhibit
William a. higinbotham (1958)
US government nuclear-research facility, Brookhave
n National Laboratory
I considered the whole idea so obvious that It
never occurred to me to think about a patent
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IT IS one of the strange ironies of
human History, that the games played and
developed Over thousands of years have turned out
to fit The modern digital computer so well (juul,
2003, p. 44)
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Game of contest
Game of chance
Divine will could be glimpsed through
seemingly Random machinations (Poole, 2000, p.174)
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civilization
Games of strategy seem to have emerged
when Societies increased in complexity to such
an Extent that there was a need for diplomacy
And strategic warfare (sutton-smith)
Mancala
Wari
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Purist, abstract videogames
Alexei pajitnov
pentominoes
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Is Furby a videogame? (Aarseth, 2001)
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Paidea
ludus
Roger caillois
Physical or mental activity which hAS NO
IMMEDIATE USEFUL OBJECTIVE, AND WHOSE ONLY
REASON TO BE IS BASED IN THE PLEASURE EXPERIENCED
BY THE PLAYER (FRASCA, 1999)
Activity organized under a system of rules That
defines a victory or a defeat, a gain or A loss
(FRASCA, 1999)
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Jean piaget (1951)
unbounded
Rule-based
0-2 years
7 years
Socialisation
Kinaesthetic games
2-7 years
Symbolic role-play
who won?
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Saint-omer (1168)
pilloried
bale (1386)
Eyes out!
Amsterdam (15th century)
Anomic and impoverished precisely because Games
have been torn from their organic place At the
heart of the community and neatly Cordoned off
(Huizinga)
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What are the properties of a game?
How do we interact with them as players?
What is the relationship between play work?
The game
The player
The world
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games
A free activity standing quite consciously Outside
ordinary life as being not serious But at
the same time absorbing the player Intensely and
utterly It proceeds within its Own proper
boundaries of time and space According to fixed
rules and in an orderly Manner (Huizinga, 1950,
p.13)
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The magic cricle
all play moves and has its being within
a Playground marked off beforehand Materially or
ideally, deliberately or as a Matter of course
the arena, the card- Table, the magic circle, the
temple, the stage, the screen, the tennis court,
the Court of justice, etc. are all in form and
Function play-grounds, I.e., forbidden Spots,
isolated, hedged round, hallowed, Within which
special rules obtain. All are Temporary worlds in
within the ordinary World, dedicated to the
performance of An act apart. (johan huizinga,
1955, HOMO LUDENS, p.10)
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Agôn (competition)
Alea (chance)
Roger caillois (1958) LES JEUX ET LES HOMMES
mimicry (simulation)
ilinx (vertigo)
IT IS A QUESTION OF SURRENDERING TO A KIND
OF SPASM, SEIZURE, OR SHOCK WHICH
DESTROYS REALITY WITH A SOVEREIGN BRUSQUENESS (P.
23)
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CONTINGENT COMBINATIONS
chance
vertigo
Entranced by the question of where the ball
will Stop or what card will turn up (P. 73)
fundamental COMBINATIONS
chance
competition
Dominoes, Backgammon card games
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Game design designing rules

• Number of people
• type of interactions
• succession of advancement
• point system
• game environment (board/field/level/world)

X
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interface
theme
Procedures things to do
components with tools
environment
Aki jarvinen (2003)
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Star wars chess
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components

• Source of identification
• Provide challenges

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environments

• Boards/fields (static individual environments)

2) worlds
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(aarseth, 2003)
vagrant
Omni-present
geometrical
topological
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themes
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Jesper juul (2002) The open and the closed
progression
Discover (game as unchartered territory) (LeBlank)
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Games do have something in common, that we Can
talk about the borders between games and What is
not games, and that it makes sense to Look at
computer games as being the latest Development
in a history of games that spans Millennia (Juul,
2003, P. 43)