[-empyre-] Games versus Play and other thoughts

[Andy Polaine <a.polaine@unsw.edu.au>]

Hi all,

I think this issues of games versus play that Jim and a few others 
mentioned is an essential area and one that's my particular axe to 
grind I suppose. For me it is really interesting to see gaming being 
more accepted as a valid cultural form. In the early days of Antirom 
(early 90s) we really struggled to get playful interactive content seen 
taken seriously. That's not to say that they were carrying serious 
messages, but that understanding the nature of interactivity itself was 
important.

We had always taken great pains to separate interactive "toys" from 
games. Toys tend to be things you play with for the intrinsic pleasure 
of the activity and, when bored with it, you move onto the next one. 
Games are usually goal-based and competitive in some way when gives 
them a different form and mode of interaction. As Caillois and Huizinga 
have both written, games tend to have a specific space (playing field, 
arena, etc.), a set of conventions (the rules) and some kind of 
competition. One of my frequent complaints about a great deal of 
interactive art installations (or net/CD projects) is that, in an 
effort to be "serious" they don't engage with either the play or game 
aspects of the form. In short, they're dull and if they don't engage on 
an interactive level in the first place there is little point in the 
rest. It is akin to badly lit, shot and edited time-based art (of which 
there is plenty masquerading as a rejection of conventions).

I always found it irritating that if I was to spend the day playing 
games (or getting my students to) that this would be frowned upon, but 
if I spent the afternoon watching Goddard films that would be okay. So, 
ten years on, it is great to see that games (or rather, game 
modalities) are carrying some powerful messages (as in the 9/11 piece 
for example). I would argue that possibly the most sociologically 
interesting aspect of gaming is the multiplayer experience, something 
that has risen to amazing proportions with massively multiplayer games. 
Does anyone know if there are any examples of art events/pieces 
happening inside these semi-public environments? Has anyone ever done a 
performance inside Everquest for example? I am specifically referring 
to environments that have a game as the rationale for the space (so, 
not Alphaworld, etc.).

The other question I would like to raise here is one of generations. 
I'm 32 and have played videogames since the mid to late 70s, but the 
developments in them are still exciting to me and seem new. I'm 
wondering whether we are all still doing the classic "new media" thing 
of being impressed by the newness of it all. The generation beneath me 
will always have known complex videogames and children under 10 will 
always have known the Internet. It is just like  TV to me. To answer 
the question that was raised earlier about whether games are set on a 
trajectory that will not change much, my feeling is that they have only 
just started to become interesting and there is a long way to go. What 
will an under-ten of the 2000s make in twenty-five years time? It's not 
just the technology that will have changed.

Lastly (sorry, this has turned into an essay), I was speaking to Mark 
Pesce (author of The Playful World) the other day who made the point 
that consoles are both the most potent (widespread, fixed target to 
develop for, powerful, dedicated, etc.) yet the most closed. Things 
like the Eye-Toy camera and Sing Start microphone are showing a real 
shift in the kinds of things these consoles are being used for. A shift 
to more playful games/toys that have, essentially, no physical 
interface.

Cheers,

Andy

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Andy Polaine
Senior Lecturer

School of Media Arts
College of Fine Arts (COFA)
The University of New South Wales
Cnr Oxford Street and Greens Road
Paddington
Sydney, NSW 2010
Australia
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T   +61 2 9385 0781
M  +61 413 121 934
F   +61 2 9385 0719
http://www.cofa.unsw.edu.au
http://www.polaine.com
http://www.antirom.com
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