Download Are puzzles and games important?

Are puzzles and games important?
• How long have people played with puzzles and games?
• Which human cultures develop and employ puzzles and games?
• What purpose do puzzles and games serve?
Play is most evident in children.
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Les Evans, Children’s Games. Poster commissioned by Play Wales (www.playwales.org.uk).
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Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Kinderspiele, oil on wood, 1560, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
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Abraham Teniers (1629-1670), Tobacco Collegium of the Apes. Kunsthistorisches Museum,
Vienna, Austria Photo Credit : Erich Lessing / Art Resource, NY
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David Teniers, the Younger (1629-1670), Monkeys Playing Cards. Pushkin Museum of Fine
Arts, Moscow, Russia
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Origins of Puzzles and Games
Interacting with puzzles and games is a form of play , and thus fulfills a basic
human need. Johan Huizinga in Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in
Culture (Roy Publishers, 1950) writes,
Play is older than culture, for culture, however inadequately defined,
always presupposes human society, and animals have not waited for
man to teach them their playing . . .
Here we have at once a very important point: even in its simplest
forms on the animal level, play is more than a mere physiological phenomenon or a psychological reflex. It goes beyond the confines of
purely physical or purely biological activity. It is a significant function
— that is to say, there is some sense to it. In play there is something
“at play” which transcends the immediate needs of life and imparts
meaning to the action. All play means something.
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The Nature of Play (Huizinga)
• Play is fun. (Fun is an aesthetic quality, like beauty that resists logical
analysis.)
• Play is a voluntary activity: it expresses freedom.
• Play is not “ordinary” or “real” life, but has a disposition all its own.
• Play requires repetition.
• Play involves tension (uncertainty) that is resolved in solution. (This includes puzzles and solitaire games.)
• Play has rules.
• Play can build and define social communities: e.g., bridge clubs.
• Play is often serious.
• Two categories of play :
1. A contest for something, (e.g., a competitive game or puzzle), or
2. A representation of something (e.g., playing make believe, dance, or a
dramatic performance)
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The Language of Play Transcends Culture
Huizinga argues that words associated with games and play are found in most
(if not all) cultures. (Hence, play is universal.)
Ancient Greece:
• the suffix -inda denotes a child’s game, thus
◦ sphairinda is a ball game,
◦ helkustinda is ancient tug-of-war,
◦ streptinda is a throwing game,
◦ basilinda is king of the castle.
• paidia means “light-hearted” (or child-like) play
• agon describes competitive play (e.g., the Olympic games)
Ancient India (Sanskrit):
• krı̄dati signifies play.
• divyati denotes gambling as well as joking.
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The Language of Play Transcends Culture (cont.)
Ancient China:
• wan denotes children’s games, as well as joking.
• chen denotes games of skill.
• sai denotes a tournament.
Ancient America (Blackfoot):
• koani means to play denotes a children’s games.
• kachtsi means to play a game with rules, including both games of chance,
and games of skill.
• skets or skits means to win a game.
Likewise, various cultures have myths and legends that invoke play, games, and
riddles.
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Huizinga’s Central Thesis
“Culture arises in the form of play.”
Real civilization cannot exist in the absence of a certain play-element,
for civilization presupposes limitation and mastery of the self, the ability not to confuse its own tendencies with the ultimate and highest
goal, but to understand that it is enclosed with certain bounds freely
accepted. Civilization will, in a sense, always be played according to
certain rules, and true civilization will always demand fair play . . . True
play knows no propaganda; its aim is in itself, and its familiar spirit is
happy inspiration.
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Roger Caillois’s Classification of Games
PAIDIA
Tumult
Agitiation
Laughter
Kite-flying
Solitaire
Patience
Crossword
puzzles
LUDUS
AGÔN
(Competition)
ALEA
(Chance)
MIMICRY
(Simulation)
ILINX
(Vertigo)
Racing
Counting-out
Make believe
“whirling”
Wrestling
Etc.
Athletics
rhymes
Heads or tails
Magic
Tag, Arms
Costumes
Horseback
riding
Swinging
Waltzing
Boxing,
Billiards
Fencing
Chess
Contests
Sports
in general
Betting
Roulette
Simple, complex
and continuing
lotteries
Theater
Spectacles
in general
Volador
Carnivals
Skiing
Mountain
climbing
Tightrope
walking
Roger Caillois, Man, Play and Games, University of Illinois Press, Urbana, IL, 2001
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