The Ludologist. These are some comments from my keynote at Rutger’s Extending Play conference in 2016, co-presenting with Shaka McGlotten. Hasn’t our sense of play suddenly become quite dark? There is a change in our primary conceptions of playing, and game-playing. In Brian Sutton-Smith’s Ambiguity of play, he lists 7 common rhetorics of play, meaning 7 common ways in which play is framed. When the field of game studies began, we probably used four quite positive rhetorics of play: Rhetoric of play as progress.Rhetoric of play as fate.Rhetoric of play as power.Rhetoric of play as identity.Rhetoric of play as the imaginary.Rhetoric of the self.Rhetoric of play as frivolous.
This is not surprising. We emphasized learning (play as progress), playing with identity, we emphasized the positive creations of the imaginary, and we emphasized the me-time of playing (the self). But now it seems we are in a darker place. We no longer talk about smart mobs, just mobs. Writings of Mass Deduction. Destructoid.com - For Gamers. By Gamers. * Semi Secret - Official Blog for Semi Secret Software, Creators of Wurdle and Canabalt. Rock, Paper, Shotgun: Capital letters are amphetamines for the soul.
Game Tourists. BioWare Blog. UMBC Games, Animation and Interactive Media | Game Development at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Video Game News, Updates and Commentary - GiantBomb.com. Critical Distance. Game Industry News, Interviews and Videos | Game Theory. Kotaku, the Gamer’s Guide. Edge Magazine - Video Games, Game News, and Gaming Jobs | Edge O. Destructoid.com - For Gamers. By Gamers. *