Carlton Reeve http://playwithlearning.

com

Play & Games

Play is one of the fundamental human activities and provokes core emotions.
Many evolutionary biologists and psychologists suggested that play was solely a
deterministic and utilitarian pursuit (Gordon, 2007) but Huizinga (1950) argues
that play is an activity that exists only for its sake; is fully absorbing, includes
elements of uncertainty, involves a sense of illusion or exaggeration and is
separate from ordinary life. Play theorist, Brian Sutton-Smith (1997) believes
that the dynamics of play mirror the biological processes that lead to adaptive
variability, that is, play is characterised by quirkiness, unpredictability and
redundancy.

From our earliest days, play is instinctive behaviour. It is also, despite its
separation from ordinary life, a crucial part of learning. Piaget (1962) recognised
socio-dramatic play as a component of the preoperational stage of development
within children. This role-playing helps children establish accepted norms of
behaviour in society and helps them identify their place in it (Hyder, 2005) and
according to many teachers, when children play they learn how to manage
school and family issues (Newman, 1996). Play detaches experiences from real
life and creates a new framework for them that enables greater freedom,
interactivity and creative possibilities (Millar, 1968).

Separating socio-dramatic activity from the requirements of daily life is a key

characteristics of play. Huizinga (1950) and, later, the French sociologist, Roger
Caillois (1958), argue that social play can only take place within predefined rules
the so-called Magic Circle. This Circle represents the conditions where all
involved agree, unconsciously, to suspend their own disbelief. The circle
separates activity of play from the seriousness of normal life, often by a literal
physical precinct, by temporal distinction and by artificial rules and conventions
that only apply within the enclosure (Rodriguez, 2006).

A game is structured play: a set of activities involving one or more players; it has
goals, constraints and consequences; it has rules; it involves some aspect of a
contest or a trial of skill or ability (Dempsey et al, 1997).

Researchers Salen and Zimmerman (2003) compared 8 academic definitions of

games and distilled the results into:
A game is a system in which players engage in an artificial conflict,
defined by rules that result in a quantifiable outcome.

Crawford (2003) extends the definition of a game, and especially digital games,
as a series of dichotomies - elements that when compared become a game. The
elements are:

• Plaything - an interactive piece of entertainment

• Toy - a plaything, with no associated goals
• Game element - a toy where player makes up rules around it
• Challenge - a plaything with goals
Carlton Reeve http://playwithlearning.com

• Puzzle - a challenge with no 'active agent against whom you compete'

• Conflict - a challenge with an 'active agent against whom you compete'
• Competition - a conflict where a player can outperform an opponent, but
not attack them to interfere with their performance
• Competitive game - a competition where opponent attacks are allowed

Additional references

Avedon, E. & Sutton-Smith, B. (1971). The Study of Games, J. Wiley

Crawford, C. (2003). Chris Crawford on Game Design, New Riders

Dempsey, J., Lucassen, B., Haynes, L. & Casey, M. (1997). An Exploratory Study
of Forty Computer Games Coe Technical Report No. 97-2, University of South
Alabama. Available at http://www.southalabama.edu/
coe/coe/programs/TechReports/tr97_2.pdf Last Accessed 28 February 2010

Gordon, G. (2007). What is Play? In Search of a Universal Definition. Available at

http://www.gwengordonplay.com/pdf/what_is_play.pdf Last accessed 8 March
2010

Salen, K. & Zimmerman, E. (2003). Rules of Play:Game Design Fundamentals,

MIT Press

Sutton-Smith, B. (1997). The ambiguity of play. Cambridge, MA: Harvard

University Press