MIT OpenCourseWare http ocw mit edu Game Design CMS 608 CMS 864 CMS 608 CMS 864 Game Design Spring 2008 For information about citing these materials or our Terms of Use visit http ocw mit edu terms April 24 Social Play Game Design CMS 608 CMS 864 Jesper Juul Today Social play Exercise The Magic Circle Salen Zimmerman This is Not a Game Play in Cultural Environments 2003 The classical notion of a game implies that there is a clear and unambiguous border between the game and the world outside the game manifest most clearly in Huizinga s concept of the magic circle The magic circle of a game is a delineation in time and space of the game s existence the sports match for example takes place only within the borders of the playfield for a duration that lasts between the starting whistle and the final second of play While this model of a game does describe many experiences of play there are many examples of games that purposefully blur the border between the world of the game and real life From live action role playing games to games like Majestic or Assassin there is a wide variety of games that intentionally blend in with their surrounding cultural environment Criticisms of the idea of the magic circle Thomas Malaby Beyond Play A New Approach to Games 2006 games thinkers have relied on an exceptionalist approach to games seeing them as a form of play necessarily set apart from the everyday and therefore requiring a distinct treatment In short this inherited and largely unexamined theory of games assumes there is a rupture in experience in form between games and other aspects of social life But while understandable this is precisely the wrong approach we must work from an approach that 1 sees them as never fully separable from other aspects of experience This approach is both consistent with a range of existing social theory and avoids many of the limitations that have characterized much games scholarship to date in particular its tendency toward unsustainable formalism and exceptionalism Sorry Parcheesi a shallow abstract game Why is it social Images courtesy flickr users DrBaloney and robotpolisher The meanings players add to a game Image courtesy flickr user altuwa Socially embeddable games Game as puzzle piece that fits into a context Games latch on to existing social structures Gift giving helpfulness In game helpfulness As out of game condescension In game antagonism as unfriendliness Or as out of game friendliness Animal Crossing Social embedding out ofgame Image removed due to copyright restrictions Please see any screenshot of Animal Crossing such as http img gamespot com gamespot images 2002 gamecube animalcrossing animal screen002 jpg A story of game meaning http animalcrossingtragedy ytmnd com Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess Social embedding in game Images removed due to copyright restrictions Please see screenshots from Ilia s kidnapping and Link s transformation into a wolf such as http www youtube com watch v wXNfxBRx1Gk Games and players Social meaning attaches to goals 1 Players play for personal goals 2 They are aware of goals of other players 3 Helping thwarting goals Knowing that they know that you know etc Shared understanding of goals lets players be nice and not so nice to other players Goals allow in game actions to be attached to social setting Three frames for gameplaying Three frames in Sorry Parcheesi You have the opportunity to capture Now what 1 You want to win capture 2 Other player is far behind don t capture 3 Ongoing competition with other player capture Goals are good for telling stories Tellability Ryan Bad story Plan that succeeded Good story Plan that failed Tellability adds social value Exercise pick one or two Take existing non digital game 1 That only allows hostility blocking other player s goals and add the possibility of helpfulness 2 Make game involve social taboos 3 Find way to bring more social content into the game 4 Find way to bring more social content out of the game 5 Enhance social dynamics like in Rooie rules Playtest Present 16 25 Social play How do you get the most out of it