Re: [-empyre-] Forward from Eddo

[Jeff Sonstein <jeffs@it.rit.edu>]

On 5 Jul 2004, at 6:24 PM, eddo wrote:

> > Jeff - regarding the open ended game design problem
> >
> > I think its in Huizinga somewhere defining play as something that 
> > occurs
> > between fixed boundaries - ie rules - this definition carries very 
> > well to
> > ground the difference between games and  open ended "virtual"  worlds 
> > (some
> > MUDs, MOOs, Activeworlds, VRML spaces ...etc..)

hmmmmmmm
I need to go back and re-read some materials
about games and play...
I'm not sure about thinking of them
as being the same thing

> > [...] I felt I was performing in  public and my
> > audience was deeply engaged in the conventions of the world - 
> > allowing any
> > "Subversive" actions to operate as subversive by going against the 
> > game norms.

so there is a way something to "push against" is needed?
I like this idea

> > - doing this in MUDs or any open-ended world simply would not have 
> > that
> > psychological affect for me.

interesting...
so the virtual-space norms and mores which arise
out of the longer-term interactional patterns
of the people who come back over and over
are insufficient?

> >  I think in MMOs its really all about agency(vs
> > the game creators and vs the other players) and maintaining a sense of
> > identity.

would you be willing to speak to this some more?
offline would be okay
if others on the list aren't interested in this issue...
I agree that issues of agency permeate
the interactional patterns in multi-user spaces
and would like to here more of your thoughts

> > I wrote some about this in a paper some time ago - its at [...]

thanks
I'll take a look

jeffs

--
Jeff Sonstein, Assistant Professor
Department of Information Technology
Rochester Institute of Technology
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