Friday, January 9, 2009
Types of play
Few things are as controversial among gamers as discussions of types of game play. Most gamers will agree that there as two broad categories of game content, PvE (player versus Environment/Enemy) content which pitches users against their virtual environment and PvP (payer versus Player) content in which users compete with each other. What makes discussions of types of gamer play so controvertial is the ways in which broad categorizations is the way they are inextricably bound to player experiences and motivations. While broad categorizations can help one begin to identify patterns on gaming practices they are generalizations and thus ultimately not reflective of any particular reality. To really get to the bottom of what gaming practices are one needs to examine them in partcular contexts, getting the lived experience of users in order to understand how their practices may fit into broader contexts.
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Interesting. I often encounter individuals who speak of Second Life as if it were a game, which seems to misunderstand it, or perhaps not -- what I am getting at is we need some working definition of game that is efficacious, otherwise we could end up thinking of *all* of social life as a game (not that I think you are doing that in any way). What do you think?
ReplyDeleteI think that you are right, a working definition of game is probably a good idea.
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