Play

General information

The play, following the example laughing it, is candidate with the clean statute of of the man ; indeed, the man would be the only species to be played at adulthood.
Roger Caillois in “ the plays and the men ” (Gallimard, 1957), was tested with a definition of the play. It is an activity which must be:

free : the activity must be selected to preserve its ludic character
separate : circumscribed within the limits of space and time
dubious : the exit is not known in advance regulated unproductive
: it is subject to rules which suspend the ordinary laws
fictitious : accompanied by a fictitious conscience of reality second

Practically, any human activity can be the object of a play, and reciprocally any play can cease becoming it. Indeed, the play is before a a whole institution (like the school, the National Assembly…), limited in time and limited to the players of the part. The play institutes a space of freedom within a particular legality defined by the rules of the game (Duflo Colas, Jouer and to philosophize , university Presses of France, 1997).

However, the two definitions above consider the play only in itself and not in its relationship with the real-world external with the play. The play is also a manner of representing the world. Thus the play transposes in a concrete object of the systems of values or abstract formal systems. From this point of view the play can be regarded as a metaphor of the world (or of one of its parts). To play and/or invent a game, to build a part in interaction with its adversary concern a high level cultural activity then, and each played part is the shape of work of Article.

The play of the actor, by the absence of strict rules, the foreseeable character of the action or by the absence of competition gives an outline of the difficulties of determining the limits of the play.

Moreover, the play does not develop only within one formal framework but is created also spontaneously. To play the headstock, the war, the class or with figurines allow neither to gain, nor to lose, but are satisfied to represent the world and to train the player to face the real life, within a framework where a wrong movement generates only few consequences.

Co-operation and competition

That it is in the shape of two symmetrical teams or in a relation of the type every man for himself , the majority of the plays rest on the direct competition…

There however exists, mainly among the plays Tradition nels, many other mechanisms. For example, the players can change team during the play, it is the case of the convergent plays as the Balle with the hunter where the players gradually will pass from a situation against all to a situation all against a during the part.

The principle of the paradoxical plays is even richer in interactions: They are plays where the adversary is at the same time a potential partner. The simplest paradoxical situation is when three teams are in triangular relation: The players of the team has can eliminate the players from the team B, those of the team B the players of the team C and those of the team C the players of team A. This provision thus implies that if the team has eliminates too much from members of the team B, more anybody will not be able to protect it from the team C. This principle for example is used by the play Poule fox viper or by Atride, a board game created in 1994 by Gauthier Fourcade. But there exist plays such as for example the sitted Balle causing paradoxical situations much more complex.

It should be noted that the relational structure of the plays can be a ideological Enjeu. For example, in the work co-operative Plays to build peace (1988), Mildred Masheder proposes play activities which cannot be carried out to although by solidarity and the co-operation between all the players. These educational plays try to marginalize the competition, estimating that it is a source of violence.

Rules

To play together, one needs initially a minimal agreement on the framework of jeu : the rules. The compliance with the rules of the game was at the origin of a value universelle : fair play. But it is not enough to ensure the compliance with the rules.

Because the transgression of the rules belongs to the gasoline of the play, for at least two raisons : initially the defeat generally makes leave the loser the play, in a kind of virtual death hardly more acceptable than real death; then, the cheater has more possibilities than the player who complies with the rule, which increases its pleasure… or its profit if there is a real Enjeu!

So it is not enough to say that the rule should be complied with, it is also necessary to say what occurs when it is not done. If it happens that the sanction of the Triche appears more advantageous than the defeat, the play can change nature: What, at the beginning, could be regarded as cheating can even be institutionalized. The transmission of information between partners, the bluff, even the lie can form integral part of the rule.

It is for example the case of the plays of bidding like the Bridge or the Poker, of a set of dice as the Jeu of the rikiki where the goal is to announce a pulling always higher than that of its even if it means adversary to lie a little, or Muette, card deck which includes signals between the partners. It is also the case of the video games, where the recovery starting from a former safeguard, or the use of “ codes secrets ”, ends up becoming a normal means to conclude or explore all the richness of the play.

See also: Board game, : Category: Board game

Chance

A play does not fill its object (of pleasure, or drive to a mental activity or physical) that insofar as it conceals a share sufficient of unpredictability for the player.

To ensure this unpredictability, the chance is an important component of many plays. It is then an allowed component, even required (sets of dice, oval balloon likely to rebound in an unforeseeable way).

In parallel, a too large chance prevents from making recognize the technical merits of the players. The chance will then be fought by very strict and deterministic rules: Set of failures, Set of ladies, Football; or neutralized by a multiplication of the parts or blows before designating the winner: Tennis, 421, Poker, this being able to involve aberrant behaviors like the compulsif Play.

Random component is particularly important in plays of money, which has an indisputable criterion to determine the best (it is that which gains more), and can thus allow a larger part of risk.

Sports and plays

The distinction between the sports and the plays is a question which is not the subject of an general agreement.

The sports are rather physical and real, the plays are rather mental and symbolic systems (virtual). But this distinction does not seem basically sufficient, of the plays like the failures, the Scrabble or even certain video games having acquired a real sporting dimension, with drive, tournaments, champions, spectacle, money, physical tiredness, etc While conversely even a sport as the race can be practiced only as play, without competitive spirit.

Another element to be quoted is the share of chance: for the sports, the unpredictability is ensured by the number of the protagonists and the extent of their possibilities (which characterizes their control of the play). They are thus generally less random. But this element does not seem either discriminating.

It seems that it is rather necessary to seek side of the motivation of the player: when it acts for its only pleasure in the action or to involve itself, one will speak rather about play, while if it acts within a framework of comparison (in English: “match”), its pleasure in term of result, he is a sportsman. If the distinction is well on this level, it then becomes difficult to be sure owing to the fact that one is within a framework ludic or sporting, because the sportsman also has fun, while the player finds a share of his pleasure in the result.

An element can still be added, the sport that it is collective or not, remains élitiste: It supports some and excludes from others, the beginners not having strong physical capacities find their place neither on the ground, nor in the cloakrooms, whereas the play takes account of each player: It supports integration, puts forward the Enjeu X like the sacrifice, the taking risk for the other, protection… which have real positive impacts on the dynamics of a group.

Philosophical aspects

The most obvious feature of the play is not other than its difference with reality. To play, it is to play being someone else, or is to substitute for the confused order of the reality of the precise and arbitrary rules, that it is however necessary to respect scrupulously. It is necessary to enter the play, it does not support skepticism noted Paul Valéry. However, the play is pleasant only insofar as this entry in the play, in Latin in-lusio , i.e. illusion, is voluntarily agreed. The play is the occasion of powerful emotions, related on its risks, the desire to gain, the weight of the Enjeu X. However, the play is, in first analyzes at least, " innocent" , in the sense that to overcome with the play, it is not to humiliate the adversary. To take its revenge is in always possible right. “ All new part seems a beginning absolu ”, Roger Caillois underlines. Play “ is condemned nothing to found nor to produce, because it is in its gasoline to cancel its résultats ”.

Play and unreality

Thus, the play obeys a logic diametrically opposite with that of profitability. Born according to Schiller, as well as art, of a superabundance of vital energy compared to the needs, the play is thus before any occasion of pure expenditure. The activity deployed by the player is basically superfluous. Admittedly, it is there to seem not to take account of the sets of moneys. But those do not produce anything overall, at most enrich certain players at the expense of the others, notices Caillois. In this direction, there are plays strictly speaking only with null sum. The profit is not wages, notes Johan Huizinga. The wages granted a player transform it ipso facto into a professional.

The play is thus an activity with share, distinct from the useful activities. It is necessary to bring closer this dimension to a remark of Johan Huizinga: like crowned, the play is worth only inside temporal and space borders precise, the duration of the part, the stage or the checkerwork. The play would be an expression striking of creative freedom, of the triumph, but circumscribed perfectly, the determinism weighing of the things or the social statuses. With reading the Player of Fedor Dostoïevski, the player regards the chance as an odd, foreign being with any durable rule; a being which can all give and all to begin again, for which all is possible. A toss of the dice abolishes, not the chance, but the need. Not that the play cancels all the laws. It makes them rather particularly readable and univocal. The games of chance opened the way with the probability theory, because they make it possible to strip the chance of all its contingent features by introducing it into an artificial and closed system, homogeneous, subjected to the number and the repetition: card deck or the caster. The rules of the game lead to an extreme stylization of reality, make the latter a simple alibi of the competition.

The plays, notes Caillois, and are regulated fictitious not only regulated so much or fictitious. the show would have the same function as the arbitrary rule : to put except play reality.

“ This conscience of the fundamental unreality of the adopted behavior separates from the everyday life, instead of the arbitrary legislation which defines others jeux. ”

Play and challenge

The play is not always competition, as the building sets show it, or the cup-and-ball. It is however hard to imagine a game of chance or address without uncertainty. It however seems that the roleplays obey another principle: to take part of an existence which is inaccessible for us. However, even in this case, there is a kind of challenge well because it is not so easy to act continuously like another. According to Caillois, the rules of the game are then single; it consists “ to fascinate the spectator, by preventing that a fault leads this one to refuse the illusion ”. One can pointed out that in certain plays, it is enough, to carry it, to comply with the rule more the possible for a long time, to remain in the play: thus the " neither yes nor non". Lastly, there is a certain proximity between triumphing over the chance, or an adversary, sometimes over death, but in a strictly conventional universe, and freeing themselves by the imitation from its own limits. Caillois still recognizes a fourth kind of plays, beside the competitions (agôn), of the games of chance (risk), and of the roleplays (mimicry). They are these activities which do not have an other goal only the giddiness (ilinx), like many attractions of fun fairs. Indisputably, they wrap a dimension of challenge, i.e. here of physical courage. Whatever the Stake X, the good player should not attach too much importance to the victory, or the defeat, because it is precisely only one play, famous without consequences. However, if it did not attach any importance to them, the play would lose any interest. All the course of the part of failure is attached to the safeguarding of the king, with his provisional assimilation with Ego of the player. This one must be able most intensely to invest possible this convention, and to withdraw this investment instantaneously when the part is finished. The play is thus a creation whose player remains Master (Karl Groos).

Play and company

Huizinga affirmed that “ up to a certain point, the competition, like any other play, is deprived of but ”. However, if the play of failure is useless, the intelligence is not it. The play does not learn from receipts, it develops general aptitudes (Caillois). It is true that an intelligence purely échiquéenne would be remarkably unsuited to the life. Piaget also showed which role played the game in the moral training of the child, his report/ratio with the rule as with the values of equality and justice. Let us add that if the important thing is " to have gagné" , independently of any consequence, Huizinga itself noted that this superiority tightened “ to take the appearance of a superiority in general ”. To read it, the play is even integral part of the logic of whole companies, in their political, legal, warlike existence. These companies would obey indeed more the expensive impulse of play in Schiller that with the principle of reality. In these ludic companies, individuals and groups would be less fond of delicacies material advantages than of to have played the well honor. Thus, it will not be a question of gaining the war by all the means, but of leaving a chance to the adversary, of exposing oneself with valiancy. The homo ludens must show that it is able to put good heart concerned its life. He intends to clash with the destiny, always ambiguous, and with his giddiness, to cause it, even. The risk is thus as much clean ludic detachment, of a certain party of the " all or rien" , that engagement or faith. But if it is easy all to lose, one could not all gain…

The show

When he plays, the player does not know his role in a more or less explicit way. It is undoubtedly one of the most antiquated facets of the play.

Jean Piaget described particularly well the importance of the play symbolic system in the development of the young child. It is very frequent that the play is a recovery symbolic system from what occurs in reality. But capacity to be invested in “as if…” from the play goes hand in hand with a capacity to distinguish the literal one from the metaphorical one: so that the play exists, it is necessary that there remains a certain difference between reality and fiction.

There thus exists a certain ambivalence between the player and the character whom it incarnates: he places there part of itself but guard always a critical glance on the reality of this incarnation. Institutionalized, this aspect of the play activity gave rise to the dramatic Jeu then with the theatrical play .

The exploit

The going beyond of oneself (real or symbolic system) is also an important engine. It comes from the pleasure of achieving a physical or intellectual task which seems in extreme cases of its own possibilities.

One can also mention what Roger Caillois calls ilinx (plays of giddiness) where the ludic pleasure comes from a certain panic of the directions (horse-gears of fun fair, sliding sports, swing…)

Play in the animal

The play appears really only in the mammals, in particular the dolphins. It seems that is mainly made possible by the relative immaturity of small and the slowness of their development. Thus, for Karl Groos “the purpose of the youth, which exists only at the raised species, is to get for the animal the time necessary to adapt to its very complicated duties and which could not be accomplished by the instinct alone. ” One can indeed observe that the plays of the young animals generally consist in carrying on a motor activity or mimer adults: social huntings, behaviors…

Play and education

Play like educational tool

A long time, the teachers held the play in poor regard. For Herbert Spencer “the play is a means of employing superfluous energy, a kind of valve of youth. ” Although the play had some defenders among the pedagogs during the history (one can in particular quote Plato or John Locke, philosopher English of the 17th century), its role in the development of the child was really included/understood only during the 20th century.

Play and school apprenticeship

The teaching plays contribute to the acquisition of knowledge or competences. They are recognized more and more by the pedagogs and the teachers like useful, for the following reasons:

the children like and needs to play . Contents perceived like tedious, can impassion them once formulated in ludic form.
the players play together: their attention is constant , contrary to a course where the pupils can think of another thing.
the motivation to gain reinforces the attention
the board games socialize the children who learn how to comply with a common rule, which belongs to the objectives of the nursery school and primary.
the parents are generally favorable to this approach, which sometimes enables them to prolong the school experiment at the house.

It is also noted that the board games promote the spirit of co-operation:

the co-operative plays aim at arriving to a common objective. They contribute to render comprehensible the value of team work, essential in the real life.
One often notes classifies some that the strongest pupils help least strong to progress.
the compliance with the rules is in oneself a form of cooperation

This is why the teaching plays traditionally used especially in nursery school develop now at the elementary school, the college and later.

The recent development of the teaching plays in continuing education of the adults is remarkable. One notes the frequent use of the roleplays or simulation, which put the participants in situations close to real situations of work. They also make it possible to simulate the employment relationships for to educate the behaviors , not only competences.

Bibliography of the teaching play: references of almost 200 pounds, memories, and re-examined.

Ludant and Ludé

Each play has two faces, indissociable at least. On the one hand, there is one () object (S) material (S) (a ground, a plate of play, pawns, a balloon,…) the use is constrained by the rules of the game. In addition, there are values which return symbolically to the operation of the world. Thus, there exist plays where to starve its adversary allows to gain (Monopoly, for example) and others where that is prohibited (Awélé, for example), of the plays where the extermination is the rule (Jeu of ladies) and others where to dominate is enough (Jeu of failures).

The first face is it “ludant”, which makes it possible to play. The second what is played, “ludé”. Example: The play of doll's tea party makes it possible the child to be caught for an adult who devotes himself to the domestic tasks of the household. The child thus tries himself to occupy the place of the adult who, in the family, fact to eat. He makes then as if he were large. Of with dimensions ludant it “doll's tea party”, other ludé “the social place”.

This faculty of the play to model the values morals, but so formal of the world, in fact a potentially powerful educational tool. However, its educational value can not be relevant inside the school.

Types of plays

Mathematical plays

Linguistic plays

They can be sets of spirits, like the word games, of individual activities like the cross Mots or their alternatives. There exists also many sets of letters, of which most known are the Scrabble and the Boggle.

Money plays

The majority of the money plays are plays where the chance has its place: games of pure chance (Lottery, caster…), games of chance reasoned practitioner with charts like the Poker or with dice like the Backgammon.

In the games of pure chance, the strategies which try to increase the chances are called Martingale S. the people who devote themselves to these games of chance and of money ( gambling ) can develop a strong dependence with those. One names this psychopathology ( addiction ) “pathological Jeu” or “excessive Jeu”.

In certain countries, the States draw a big part from their incomes of plays organized on a country scale: Lottery or national Lotto, urban mutual Bet, etc Also, the clandestine money plays varies in relative importance according to the countries.

The casinos and gaming rooms accommodate traditional plays like the caster, the swell or the Machines with under. One can practice there card decks like the baccara, the railroad or the blackjack.

The excessive play is similar to the dependence with alcohol and drugs. By the play, the person having a problem of excessive play maintains a whole of behaviors which put in danger its personal life, family or professional and that of her entourage.

See also: : Category: Money play, Game of chance, Casino (place), Lottery

Board games

This family is very vast and one counts there all kinds of varieties of plays: plays of reflection, games of pure chance or reasoned, plays of deduction, sets of letters, plays of knowledge, etc

See also: Board game, : Category: Board game

Certain board games, become very important, join together communities of players who devote themselves to it almost exclusively.

It is for example the case for very traditional plays, like the Jeu of failures, the Bridge or the Scrabble. But it is also the case of more recent plays like the plays of simulation, whose rules aim at describing in a fine way certain situations and in particular, the roleplays and war games and more especially sets of figurines.

Solitary plays

Among the plays which are only practiced, one finds all the Casse-tête like the Cube of Rubik or the Tangram. Certain plays require only one paper and a pencil like the enigma S, the cross Mots or the Sudoku S which one generally finds in newspapers.

The card decks which are only practiced are called patiences.

The Puzzle S are in English all the headaches. In French, a puzzle is an image to be reconstituted starting from cut out elements. The puzzle is in theory only practiced, but it is not rare that quickly several people devote themselves together to this pleasure and the puzzle then becomes true a Jeu of co-operation.

See also: Headache, : Category: Headache

Video games

The video games use average specific techniques, that is to say consoles of video game, terminals of arcade, or of the Ordinateur S. Of rather recent invention (in the years 1950), they opened the field with new manners of playing. Several standard of video game was born. Here an not-exhaustive list:

the Play of simulation
the Set of platforms
the Play of subjective shooting ( FPS )
the Play of adventure
the Strategy game in real-time ( RTS )
the Shot them up
the Tamagotchi (pet virtual)
the roleplay ( RPG )
the Network game
the Online game massively multijouor ( MMOG )
the Play on Internet ( site play )
the video game of management

to also see Gameplay for specificities of the video game.

See also: Video game, : Category: Video game, video games Category

Strategy games

The expression “strategy game” has the many ones and various significances. For the ones, it is of a war game or a play of simulation, computerized or not. For others, of a play of reflection which can be abstract like the Jeu of ladies.

Plays by correspondence

The play by correspondence was initially practiced by postal mail. it preserves many followers today.

The emergence of Internet deeply upset the practices. With the electronic email or navigator Internet, free generally and rapids, the play by correspondence conquered new followers. This practice is sometimes indicated by the English abbreviation PBeM (Play by e-mail).

They can be in several forms:

the mailing list , where each one carries out its turn by the sending of email containing the orders of play.
the forum, where one will be able directly to read the actions undertaken by the other players, and to pass to them his.
the specialized site, which automates a play and makes it possible to immediately note the result of its actions.

Plays of outdoor

Many plays are practiced in sport. It is the case of the majority of the sporting plays or the traditional childish plays of the courses of recreation like One, two, three, sun, the Marroneur, or Zagamore. It is also the case of the plays of beach or park like the Jokari, the Frisbee or the Tetherball.

Plays of outside bring together important assemblies, sometimes over a rather long duration. It is the case of the traditional big games practiced in the vacation centres or of the plays of track.

A Roleplay life size is practiced sometimes in outside, in a decoration and with accessories adapted to the topic of the play.

Plays with coiner

One can gather under this denomination all the plays to which it is possible to play in a coffee or a gaming room. To insert a part in the coiner makes it possible to buy one or more parts.

Certain plays did not appear in the shape of plays to coiner, like the Flipper, the Jeux of arcade and to a certain extent the Baby-foot. Sometimes, of the traditional plays are adapted. It is for example the case of the Billard or the Fléchettes.

Plays with drinking

A play with drinking is a play of which the goal or the rules imposes a consumption of alcohol.

Plays symbolic systems

August 1st

Plays which are not plays

Although they carry the substantive play in their name, certain activities do not answer the definition given in introduction: " activity of leisures of a physical or psychic nature, been subject to rules conventionnelles". They are generally to classify in the heading of the toys or the equipment of leisures, since they do not comprise contractual arrangements.

The plays of outside, or Tackle, like the Swivel, the rattletrap, the Toboggan, the Vat with sand or the Balançoire are in fact of the equipment of leisure. It is the same for the plays of basin like the Pataugeoire.

A Building set is not strictly speaking a play but a toy which leaves free course to imagination.

The " jeu" scarf which consists in practicing the Strangulation results in Traumatisme S and sometimes death.

Etymology

As indicates it Etienne of Boétie in his Discours of the voluntary constraint , Xerxès in its construction of the empire Perse has assujeti the Lydie, not by the force or the destruction, but by developing the houses of plays which weakened the will of resistance of the Lydian people.

Thus in Latin the play is indicated by ludi , which gave ludic in French and his derivatives (game library, ludant, ludé, ludion,…). Play comes from the Latin word jocus meaning joke or banter.

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