Students in Dr. Nicole Pfannenstiel’s summer Games and Writing class crafted blog posts exploring play theory. Over the next several weeks, we will share their theory posts in this space to offer a variety of perspectives on play, games, and writing, written by current graduate students in the MA and M.Ed. English programs.

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What Is Play?

by: Megan Tyson

What is play? Play is something that we typically only apply to children because what is play really? As Huizinga and Sicart, respectively, point out, “all play means something” (1998, 1) and “play is a mode of being human” (2014, 1). Because play is about being human, it is for everyone in order to continue to grow, learn, and make sense of the ever changing world around us. Play is an activity used to make sense of the world around us and who we are through creativity, choice, and a suspension of time.

Play is an activity, not a game. Like Sicart points out, “we are the fools looking at the finger when someone points at the moon. Games are the finger; play is the moon” (2014, 2). Like the finger in this expression, games are only a small part of the bigger picture of looking at the moon (play). While it is true that people are able to play games, people can realistically play anything they create.

One of the ambiguities of play is that it allows for players to create anything, meaning “practically anything can become an agency for some kind of play” (Sutton-Smith, 2006, 301). Play is a creative expression of who we are as people. What is valued will show through the time and creativity put into creating and playing. “It is a creative way of expression, shared but ultimately personal. Play creates (itself) through objects, rules, players, situations, and spaces” (Sicart, 2014, 17). This creativity teaches people about themselves and others, specifically what is valued and not because those are the rules, situations, and more that will make their way into play.

Through creativity, players are constantly making choices about what play will value.

However, before play begins, a player must choose to participate in the play itself. “All play is a voluntary activity. Play to order is no longer play; it could at best be but a forcible imitation of it” (Huizinga, 1998, 7). If someone is participating in the play, but was forced to do so, they can disrupt the play, ruining it for everyone involved because they never chose to play.

All of this creativity and choice takes place outside of reality, in what Huizinga calls the “magic circle” or a suspension of time. “We find play present everywhere as a well-defined quality of action which is different from ‘ordinary’ life” (Huizinga, 1998, 4). Play takes place in a context outside of what is considered ordinary life because play rules can transcend what might be chosen to do in real life, in either a positive or negative way.

Through creativity, choice, and suspension of time, play is an activity that everyone participates in to grow and learn throughout their lives. Play is not something that needs a game board or cards, but something that is created to fit the needs of the players. It is something people do throughout their lives to continue to grow, learn, and make sense of the world by choosing to play.

References

Huizinga, J. (1998). Nature and Significance of Play as a Cultural Phenomenon. In Homo Ludens (pp. 1-27). EBSCO Publishing.

Sicart, M. (2014). Play Matters. MIT Press.

Sutton-Smith, B. (2006). Play and Ambiguity. In The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology (pp. 296-313). MIT Press.