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Introduction to gaming
This document provides an overview of games and game studies. It defines what constitutes a game, including elements of play under constraints, occurring in a "magic circle" separate from everyday life, and having no material benefit. The etymology of "game" is discussed. Johan Huizinga and Roger Caillois contributed influential definitions of games involving elements of competition, chance, emotion, and role-playing. The document traces the long history of games back to ancient cultures and discusses more modern forms like wargaming, family games, and role-playing games. It also examines big themes in game studies like storytelling versus mechanics and the role of randomness and information in games.
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Introduction to gaming
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- 3. What is agame? •Play under some constraint •In the magic circle •Pointless yet meaningful
- 4. Etymology OED: 1) Amusement, sport,fun; pleasure, enjoyment. 2) An activity which provides amusement or fun; an amusement, a diversion, a pastime.
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- 6. What is agame? Johan Huizinga: • Games are unserious • Ludus: game, play, sport, fun, prank, diversion – school • Play: freedom yet ordered; separate from everyday life • No material benefit
- 7. What is agame? Roger Caillois: • Agon – competition (Udit) • Alea – chance (games must be unpredictable) • Ilinx – emotion/ whirlpool • Mimesis – role play; also simulation
- 8. Negative senses •Childish •Psychological manipulation –mental games •Sexism – sleazy seduction •Malfunction (archaic)
- 9. A long, longhistory Senet, 3,100 BCE
- 10. Başur Höyük, circa3,000 BCE
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- 12. Chaturanga (Sanskrit: चतुरङ्ग)-> chess Circa 600 CE
- 16. Belinda now, whomThirst of Fame invites, Burns to encounter two adventrous Knights, At Ombre singly to decide their Doom; And swells her Breast with Conquests yet to come. Strait the three Bands prepare in Arms to join, Each Band the number of the Sacred Nine. Soon as she spreads her Hand, th’ Aerial Guard Descend, and sit on each important Card, 1712
- 17. First Ariel perch’dupon a Matadore, Then each, according to the Rank they bore. Behold, four Kings in Majesty rever’d, With hoary Whiskers and a forky Beard; And four fair Queens whose hands sustain a Flow’r, Th’ expressive Emblem of their softer Pow’r… Alexander Pope, Rape of the Lock, 1712
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- 25. Games serious, public, and political •Oiligarchy, Molle Industries • Jetset, Persuasive Games • The Great Shakeout, California • DimensionM, Tabula Digita
- 27. Big themes • Storytellingvs mechanics • Theme “ ” • Cybertext • Bad vs good behavior • How a game teaches itself • Industry
- 28. Chance? • Role ofrandomness • Generated: dice, cards • Balance with skill
- 29. Udit vs Andrew •Competition or cooperation? • Collabatition? • Symmetry or asymmetry?
- 30. Information? • Perfect information •Players hide from others • Fog of war
- 31. •Joost Raessens andJeffrey Goldstein, eds, Handbook of Computer Game Studies (MIT, 2005) •Frans Mayra, An Introduction to Game Studies (Sage, 2008) •Pat Harrigan and Noah Wardrip-Fruin, eds. Third Person: Authoring and Exploring Vast Narratives (MIT, 2009) Game studies as academic field