AGON - example game: chess, football, soul calibur, MW3 - games with a multiplayer component.
play establishing rivalries. the rivalry is established through a struggle for equality. games present a simulated notion of a 'level playing field'. eventually hierarchies make themselves known. multi-user rivalries evolve into single-user victors. thus the hierarchy is strengthened. victories are clear cut. better skill sets gain more points. evolutionary gaming. the pleasure of agon is derived from winning, from being 'better'. players come to the game to be evaluated and refined. players' skill levels rise the longer they play the game. not necessarily a binary a system, but a structuralist system. (Problem - can you compete against yourself? can past you compete in an agon game against future you? a higher score, a faster time? - rubic's cube...)
ALEA - flipping a coin, roulette, random encounters in RPG, Mario matching in the mushroom hut.
games of chance. passive users. skill is a structuring element as opposed to a requirement. 'total disgrace or absolute favor'. refutes prior need for skill, training, strength. we like the thrill of the unknown. no barrier to entry. so alea is egalitarian, its democratic. winning can bypass labor. alea relates to agon whereby there can be a competition within the chance. this can be seen in poker and dominos. Problems here include control and the illusion of control. once the democracy of these games is questioned, the game fails. cheating here calls the game into question (carnival games). Biggest problem: a suspension of disbelief that TRUE chance can exist.
Is randomness just an algorithm that we do not have access to. The first move in minesweeper is alea.
Do we shoot for the head or do we shoot to where we know the hit markers are? Is the former in the game? Is the second outside of it? Does this separate the game and the game system?
MIMICRY - flight simulators, street simulator, playing 'pirate', playing 'house', aspects of the sims.
imagination / copy-catting / pretend. wearing a costume, leaving reality and being an 'other' identity. mimicry opens up options. it extends both ways, between the user and the game. players can mimic aspects of the game, and then, in turn, the game mimics the wishes of the users. both the game and the role of the user are plastic. players may mimic positions of power (imitating professional football players in a pickup game). pleasure is derived from the element of escape. pleasure is obvious here, but paladia is more complex. early on, we learn by emulating. it could be said that we are engaging RC's mimicry when we learn to be humans as children. Problem: do we learn to become something or do we learn to mimic paradigms better. Feral children. Raised by wolves. Education/re-education. The mimicry of archetypes needs to be supported or denied. #aspiration.
ILINX- carnival rides, horror games, max payne carnival levels, REZ, the Wii at its best.
the loss of equilibrium. the intentional expression of vertigo. heavily linked with ludis/pleasure. stepping beyond the boundaries of normal archetypes. skydivers, drugs, spinning to you fall down. expressions of the limitations of the structuring rubrics (human body). hedonism. sometimes linked with agon, to show that your limits are further out than your competitors. not unique to man. not unique to the modern. might be the a divorce of the instinctual - not always in the best interest of the preservation of the 'self'. not purely rational. mimicry provides a contextual escape, this provides a more (but not entirely) physical/neurological/emotional escape. 'an attempt to momentarily destroy the stability of perception'. this became a game when put in opposition to the industrial structure.
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