Games and Culture

● Game history à game histories

● Game history from the perspective of North Americans
● USA, UK, Japan
● Examples from the Finnish history of games
○ Local histories tied to the local cultures
Angry Birds (2009)
Clash of Clans (2012)
Max Payne (2001)
Cities: Skylines (2015)
My Summer Car (2016)
Chesmac (1979)
Other Finnish Games
● Example games:
○ Uuno Turhapuro muuttaa maalle
(1986)
○ Netherworld (1988)
○ Sanxion (1986)
○ Stardust (1993)
○ Crayon Physics Deluxe (2009)
○ Zen Bound (2009)
○ The Swapper (2013)
○ Trine (2009)
○ Rally Trophy (2001)
○ Trials (2009)
○ Alan Wake (2010)
○ P.O.L.L.E.N. (2016)
Punaisten ja Valkoisten Taistelu Suomessa
Vuonna 1918 (1918)
Lohikäärmepuu (1990)
The Finnish Museum of Games
Senet
Play
● Everybody plays
● The play of a game is the experiential
aspect of a game
○ Play occurs as the game rules are set into
motion and experienced by the players

● Play is free movement within a more

rigid structure (Salen&Zimmerman)
Games and play
● Games are subset of play
● Play is subset of games

play games

games play
Children's
rules
play

joking culture
Schemas of play
Games as the play of experience
Games as the play of pleasure
Games as the play of meaning
Games as narrative play
Games as the play of simulation
Games as social play
Levels of play
Being playful

● Game play
Ludic activities
○ “Dance” of the player between play tokens, rules
and environment
Game play

● Ludic activities
○ (Physical) play with structures, testing limits and
boundaries
● Being playful
○ State of mind, playing around wider structures of life
Caillois on play
● French anthropologist Roger Caillois (1913-1978)
● Ludus/Paida
● Fundamental catogories of play
● Agôn
● Alea
● Mimicry
● Ilinix
Agôn
Alea
Mimicry
Ilinix
Frames
1. RULES (form)
2. PLAY (experience)
3. CULTURE (context) rules

play

culture
Schemas of culture
● Games as Cultural Rhetoric
● Games as Open Culture
● Games as Cultural Resistance
● Games as Cultural Environment
Culture
● Culture according to Bodley (1994):
○ Topical
○ Historical
○ Behavioral
○ Normative
○ Functional
○ Mental
○ Structural
○ Symbolic
Why culture?
● Games reflect and transform culture
● Culture is the context for games and play
● Understanding culture, is a tool for creating
meaningful and successful games
● Creating games is creating culture
● Localization and culturalization
Cultural Rhetoric

● Rhetoric = persuasion
○ Method of discussion or
expression that contains
underlying values or beliefs, a
method that attempts to
persuade others that it is
correct.
7 Rhetorics of play
● Brian Sutton-Smith
○ Seven rhetorics of play
■ Play as Progress
■ Play as Fate
■ Play as Power
■ Play as Identity
■ Play as the Imaginary
■ Play as the Rhetoric of the Self
■ Play as Frivolity
Play as Progress
Play as Fate
Play as Power
Play as Identity
Play as the
Imaginary
Play as
Rhetoric
of the Self
Play as Frivolity
Open Culture

● A game designed as open culture

allows players in some way to
access the game structure and
directly change its meanings
○ Potential for emergent cultural effects
○ Open system games are designed to
be manipulated and modified
● Player-as-producer
● Game systems
Inside out-outside in

● Breaking the magic circle

○ Artifacts feed the game from outside in
■ Costumes, skins
■ Absorbed in, made meaningful through play
○ Artifacts feed the game from inside out
■ Machinima, picture stories
■ Bringing meaning to the game through their
circulation within culture
● Cultural resistance?
Summary
● Games are cultural objects
● Games give birth to cultures
● Games draw from the context of culture
● Games can change cultures
● Games can preserve cultural information
Further Reading
● Rules of Play, Salen & Zimmerman (2003)
That’s it for this lecture
Thanks for tuning in!