Page 108 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report

108which can be competitive (agon), chance (alea), involve mimicry, or produce a state of dizziness and disorder (ilinx). Caillois’s classi cation spans the whole gamut of games, from crosswords and ying kites to chess, the theatre, dancinga waltz, and mountain climbing. It thus shows how games encompass an unusual variety of activities.Games have also given rise to rich and varied discourses that re ect their richness as a socio- cultural phenomenon. Brian Sutton-Smith (2001: 9–17) de nes the di erent rhetorics that are used to speak of games; each rhetoric expresses a di erent relationship between games and society. The identity rhetoric (91–110) is a type of discourse that explains the examples dealt with in the previous paragraph; it is a discourse focused on ludic activities as a de ning part of collective identity, a shared knowledge deriving from the fact that traditional games normally require a group of players. Sutton-Smith also draws attention to the rhetoric that speaksof games as a type of progress (18–34), whichis the discourse used in pedagogic sciences,such as Piaget’s work (1945). According to this rhetoric, games are a test of the challenges of adult life, providing activities that help develop intellectual and motor abilities. Sutton-Smith also points out the existence of a rhetoric that presents play as something frivolous (201–3). The rhetorics of play as progress and as a frivolous activity echo people’s condescending attitudes towards games, even though, as we have seen, play is an essential part of social identity. This condescendence is also associated with the rhetoric of the self (173–200), which views games as an individual and escapist activity that isolates the player from the rest of the world – a stereotype associated with people who spend hours glued to video games, like Don Quixotes of the PlayStation.To counter the rhetorics that undermine the cultural importance of play, we tend to justify its role in other elds that enjoy cultural prestige,such as literature or the ne arts, referring to its educational potential (the rhetoric of progress that Sutton-Smith describes). However, as we have seen, the cultural tradition of games has existed since Alfonso X’s day. Our perceptionis changing thanks to the digital media, which, as well as expanding the de nition of what is considered to be play, are contributing to the emergence of new disciplines associated with the development of video games and in turn help us understand other cultural expressions in a new light.Digital media are expanding the de nition of what is considered to be play and are contributing to the emergence of new disciplines associated with the development of video games.Game design as a disciplineWith the industrial revolution, games went from being part of folklore to commercial products, as artefacts considered part of the toy industry were created. Games began to be sold in boxes, with specially designed pieces, cards and boards for playing new activities in a social context, and were not aimed solely at children. Throughout most of the twentieth century, game creation thus became a commercial activity and the cre- ators of games came to be considered inventors, because their products were associated with the physical side of the game (boards, pieces, dice, cards) as well as the rules.These rst inventors show that games, as a cultural expression, can also re ect ideologies. Lizzie Phillips’ The Landlord’s Game (1904) was designed to criticise the capitalist system through its rules (Pilon 2015). Parker Brothers purchased the patent from Phillips and con- verted it into the famous Monopoly in 1935; a good example of abstraction, the Parker Broth- ers’ version has become an apology for capital- ism all over the world.GAME DESIGN AS A CULTURAL DISSEMINATOR · CLARA FERNÁNDEZ VARASmart culture. Analysis of digital trends