homo ludens

Play and games are vital to human development and are present in every culture as well as in the animal kingdom. There are many reasons why games are played and enjoyed by so many people. It allows people to escape from ‘real life’ into a fantasy world where normal rules don’t apply. This special place has its own time, space and rules and is what Johan Huizinga called ‘the magic circle’. When people decide to play a game, which can only be their choice, they enter the magic circle. In Mario Kart for the Nintendo 64 each race has fixed duration, which is from when you start to when you finish. Although this can often be varied by the skills of the racer, a race will only potentially last a maximum of three very slow laps. Mario Kart also have a fixed space in which it can be played, which is usually a screen or monitor. Also, it has a specific set of rules which differ greatly from real life and if these rules are ignored then play can either cease to be fun or even happen at all. One of these rules is that racers are not allowed to deviate much from the racecourse or else a race steward named Lakitu will pick you up and drop you back in the racing line costing precious time. This rule stops players from cutting corners and therefore bending the rules.

Some other people play games to release excess energy. Tekken II is a good example of a game that can be played to release energy. Tekken is a beat-em up game where two players compete to try and knock the other player out first using a combination of fighting styles. It is very fast paced and a lot of ‘button bashing’ is adopted by inexperienced players. But due to the fast paced intense nature of the game, you really do feel like you have utilised excess energy and some people do feel genuinely exhausted. Experienced players will get quite involved in this game and although they understand that it not real, the game will absorb ‘the player intensely and utterly’ Huizinger (1938). When players are in the magic circle their perspective is changed by the new set of rules. This new perspective is called the Lusory Attitude. Huizinga said that games were inefficient and a waste of energy because at the end of it all you gained no material benefit. He also said that in order to play games you have to willingly accept a new set of often unusual rules that provided you with unnecessary obstacles. In Tekkens case players had to adopt a set of moves given to them and could not vary from these. The player can not make the avatar move faster in anyway as the avatar has certain defined characteristics.