{"id":2067,"date":"2015-03-11T22:43:12","date_gmt":"2015-03-11T21:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/?p=2067"},"modified":"2026-03-10T10:54:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T09:54:00","slug":"safety-in-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/2015\/03\/11\/safety-in-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Safety in games, from Shakespeare to Plato to Play Theory"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is my twelfth\u00a0monthly\u00a0Patch Wednesday<\/a>\u00a0post where I discuss a question about video games that I think is unanswered, unexplored, or not\u00a0posed yet. I will propose my own tentative ideas and invite comments.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The series is\u00a0called\u00a0Patch Wednesday to mark the sometimes ragtag and improvised character of video game studies.<\/em><\/p>\n

A modest\u00a0observation, connecting Greek Mythology, Shakespeare, play theory and game definitions. I wrote\u00a0this after\u00a0learning that Brian Sutton-Smith had died<\/a>, though he would have outlined\u00a0a learned book\u00a0in the same time I took.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

In Chris Crawford’s game definition,<\/a> the notion of Safety means that “a game is an artifice for providing the psychological experiences of conflict and danger while excluding their physical realizations<\/em>“.<\/p>\n

Going back to Roger Caillois’ definition, games (jeux) are\u00a0unproductive\u00a0–<\/em>\u00a0a\u00a0similar (though not identical) observation.<\/p>\n

These are two\u00a0variations of\u00a0one of the most basic, and most difficult observations about games, and play: the idea that play\/games do not have the full weight or impact of regular non-game activities. Why is that?\u00a0The strange thing is that we in a backwards way can find a similar consideration in Greek mythology. Consider when Plato lets a\u00a0voice\u00a0describe\u00a0man<\/em> as a plaything for the gods:<\/p>\n

God is the natural and worthy object of our most serious and blessed endeavours, for man, as I said before, is made to be the plaything of God, and this, truly considered, is the best of him\u00a0<\/strong>(<\/em>Plato: Laws<\/a>.)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Why would we be playthings of the gods? Gods are generally\u00a0immune to human action, but what makes it play<\/em>? Enter\u00a0play theory.\u00a0Gordon Burghardt’s\u00a0The Genesis of Animal Play: Testing the Limits<\/a> (MIT Press 2005) lists 5 criteria for identifying play in animals (I am paraphrasing them here):<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The activity has limited immediate function.<\/li>\n
  2. The activity has an endogenous component \u2013 it is voluntary and autotelic.<\/li>\n
  3. The activity differs structurally and\/or temporally from the \u201creal\u201d activity it is based on.<\/li>\n
  4. Repeat performance.<\/li>\n
  5. The activity happens in a relaxed field \u2013 the animal is not stressed or frightened.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Number 5 is the interesting one: for play to happen, the animal has to feel\u00a0… we could call it safe<\/em>. Which an immortal does in the presence of mortals.<\/p>\n

    This is also what makes the standard\u00a0Hollywood villain\u00a0scary:\u00a0when he says “Let’s play a game”, he is saying that he considers himself above any potential consequences of the activity. I.e. he believes himself infinitely\u00a0stronger than our protagonist and\/or he\u00a0is not afraid of death. It can also be found\u00a0outside Hollywood, now that I\u00a0think of it<\/a>. James Bond villains tend to hubristically\u00a0believe that they can play a game with James Bond.<\/p>\n

    Also Shakespeare, King Lear<\/a>:<\/p>\n

    As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods.
    \nThey kill us for their sport.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    In my own game definition<\/a>, I used the softer\u00a0idea of negotiable consequences. <\/em>This idea points to the fact that\u00a0gods can\u00a0make bets about their\u00a0playthings, but\u00a0that those bets may have dire consequences for them. So it is entirely possible for two gods (we are probably polytheistic in this argument), to suffer consequences that are not quite safe, but it is a bet they must\u00a0make between themselves in order to get outside safety.<\/p>\n

    *<\/p>\n

    On two occasions I heard Brian Sutton-Smith\u00a0claim that\u00a0play<\/em> provides a modicum of joy in\u00a0our pain-filled\u00a0lives.\u00a0Although\u00a0that wasn’t meant as\u00a0a\u00a0definition of play,\u00a0it is interesting\u00a0by reversing the order of events: we aren’t safe, and therefore we\u00a0play. Rather, play is the animal deliberately pretending to be safe, while play lasts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    This is my twelfth\u00a0monthly\u00a0Patch Wednesday\u00a0post where I discuss a question about video games that I think is unanswered, unexplored, or not\u00a0posed yet. I will propose my own tentative ideas and invite comments.\u00a0 The series is\u00a0called\u00a0Patch Wednesday to mark the sometimes ragtag and improvised character of video game studies. A modest\u00a0observation, connecting Greek Mythology, Shakespeare, play … Continue reading “Safety in games, from Shakespeare to Plato to Play Theory”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-games","category-patch-wednesday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2067"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3351,"href":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2067\/revisions\/3351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}