Play and Game

Play is an open system, while game a closed one.
“Second Life” is play, “World of Warcraft” is a game.

Play is non representational – Game can be representational.

A game can be described, analyzed, copied and consequently a game can be subject of control. Therefore a game can be copy righted.

Games participate in political economy of reproduction (utility, commodity, gain).

Play actually constitutes the general economy of excess (Bataille).

Desire takes forms through playful situations that become later games to satisfy the needs of capitalist world for immediate satisfaction of the remaining fragments of the primary desire.

Capitalism’s schizophrenia production processes, oppresses desires and bust them to pieces and then market comes to offer immediate satisfaction to the pieces that is usually goodies functioning as pain killers to cure the ‘’algos’’ of been broken.

Games can be the masquerades of this schizophrenic contradiction.

Games are pain killers.

Play is in excess of necessity, but also in excess of the now and here of everyday life.

Play is literally somewhere else (Lash); a separate space which Heidegger called “the there.” Not a transcendental space but the empirical space of “the there.”

Game needs always a gamespace to take place and this gamespace is something exterior to it. The frame context which generates the rules and gives sense to the game is in reality outside the magic circle of the game.

Play is spread in every day life – Game creates always a certain magic circle.

Game is a construction made possible because of the playfulness that exists in any aspect of life.

Play entails movement; the more an activity is empirically temporal in its nature, the more dialogic or multivocal, and the more play-like.

A game can be analyzed and its elements can be distinguished. Play cannot.

Play is a primary cause. Play is prior to, and the basis of culture and representation. If play is culture that means it works within representational systems, through metaphor. Play can be seen as proto-culture, as metonymy, that is, working through substitution.

Cheat is also play – cheat alters a game s character

Play has no death, there is no unplay – games have unplay (death) and play connects it to the next level

In Greek language game stands as παιχνίδι while play is παιδειά.

In play users are also creators – In games players are players.

Play can reverse the game and it s rules – A game with no rules can not stand.
These rules usually are imposed from outside, it is very uncommon for the gamers themselves to impose the rules.

In play users can change the rules but the gamers cannot change the rules of the game. Still, they could possibly turn their playfulness toward the gamespace.

In games the gamers usually fight for rating. Games are forms of hierarchies and producers of hierarchies as well, while play is the interrelations of heterierarchies.
More differences are involved in a play field more intense and significant become the play experience.

Therefore, I can play with myself but I cannot play with me.