underdogs & superheroes

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		INTRODUCTION \| GAME THEORY \| DESIGN THEORY \| GAMES { 1 2 3 4 5 6 }
		Game Play Principles of game and play theory guide have guided our development of game-based methods for user involvement in design. Understanding game play requires, to some extent, understanding the broad distinctions between play and games. While distinctions between the two are admittedly controversial, we have chosen a general understanding that effectively supports application of the theories to our methodological domain. Play can be understood as a voluntary action extending imagination in time and space whereas a game creates a format for play to take place separated from ordinary life both materially and ideologically. Play can exist alone as a pure activity free of worldly constraints without past or future. A game offers a controlled framework including immersive narratives, rules, and social factors for play to transpire. Game play is an occasion defined by the dimensions of the stage and duration of the spectacle. Game play absorbs the player intensely and utterly allowing them to stand outside of ‘ordinary’ life and to proceed within its own boundaries. The player assumes a role, entering into the fantasy and illusion created by the combination and interplay of game rules and narrative thereby losing his or her real identity for the duration of the game. Games stir the imagination, engaging players emotionally, intellectually, physically and socially. Through enactment, players are not only immersed in the space of the game, they are engaged in actively creating – together as social beings and through the act of playing – the personal and social functions of the game. In practice, it is the set of principles outlined below that constitute a general framework for game play as a means and methodological framework for design. ______________________ Immersion and Suspension of Disbelief “A game is a way to create another reality and allow people to enter into it. [1]” The most fundamental aspect of game-play is the willing suspension of disbelief, a term coined by Coleridge in 1817, and widely applied in game, literary, and performance genres. Players must be able to loose themselves within the narrative created during game-play through the act of making believe. This act of stepping inside the fictional game space should not be obligatory but have a sense of free will attached to it. Instilling a suspension of disbelief creates a safe haven, a world separate from reality, for people to access and express themselves within. Once people are immersed in a game experience, they are able to articulate their internal thought processes and emotions more easily.	Enactment A step beyond instilling a suspension of disbelief is allowing players to ‘actively create belief’, empowering the player as an actor inside the game narrative. One way to engage players in this enactment is to increase the agency of the player in manipulating objects, tools, or accessories. With a greater sense of control and investment, actions performed with these interaction mechanisms, such as choices or decision-making in game play, is matched by an increased feeling of enthusiasm and tension, drawing the player further and more deeply into the experience. Players who are personally and emotionally engaged tend to reflect and learn from their experience in a more a more spontaneous and intuitive way. ______________________ Rules and Boundaries Game-play is governed by rules. Boundaries or rules of time, space and rituals of completion must be observed for a game to occur. These rules help create and reinforce the game fiction. For example, a chess player following the rules of the game is in fact creating their own bounded space outside the ‘laws’ of the real world because there is no actual activity in the real world that corresponds with the act of playing chess. Another example is in playacting games, where the boundary of the stage and the applause of the audience define the space and time of a game through physical limits and social rituals. Rules exist as support for imagination and play. Like the applause, breaking the rules is like breaking a spell, shattering the illusion of immersion and the temporary identity with an enacted detective, pirate or superhero. ______________________ Social Function “Games attain their goal only when they stimulate an echo of complicity. [2]” Social aspects of game-play mimic real life social order. Although it is possible to play alone (painful lonely spectacles), most games depend on social competition and rivalry, reflecting stimulus and response, provocation and contagion as well as enthusiasm and shared tension. Socialized aspects such as competition and cooperation provide a heightened level of emotional engagement in group play. There is a certain pleasure, thrill, or excitement of working for and against other players. Social outcomes can’t be foreseen or envisioned – they occur spontaneously in the situation of play. Once a group chooses to engage in a game, the outcome is not only the end result of the game but also an unpredictable evolution of a group identity through the act of playing.
		References:
		[1] Andersen, K., Jacobs, M. and Polazzi, L. (2003) Playing Games in the Emotional Space. In Funology: from usability to enjoyment. Blythe, M.A et al., ed.s. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer. [2] Callios, R. (1958/2001) Man, Play and Games. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.	[3] Huizina, J. (1950) Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture, Boston:Beacon Press. [4] Murray, J. (1998). Hamlet on the Holodeck. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Underdogs & Superheroes is a project within the Public Play Spaces research platform at the RE:FORM & PLAY studios, Interactive Institute.

Project team:
Margot Jacobs + Ramia Mazé
Anna Dahlberg + Anna Götesson