Paidea games are designed to let the player do whatever it is they please, there are no goals and there aren't any rules or restrictions from doing anything.
An example of this would be game names Spore. The idea of Spore is to start out as a single cell organism then to consume, grow and evolve into whatever creature you so desire. You get to control what the creature does, eats, how it acts and how it evolves by making it friendly to birds and not reptiles or giving it big fluffy ears or huge scaled wings.
Ludus games give you very little freedom, they give you an objective and a specific way to do it. The goal of the game is to reach the end by doing what they have told you to do. Sometimes here are little instructions given and you may feel as if you are making your own choices, but really you aren't.
An example of this would be Half-Life, you are told that you need to go to certain places and do certain things and if you don't, you can't progress through the game.
There are some games which can be classed as both such as the Saints Row franchise, when looking from a Ludus point of view, you have to do each mission the way the games says otherwise it's not possible. On the other hand, looking from a Paidea point of view, you can also freely roam the city doing anything you feel like such as; driving quietly around roads sight-seeing or seeing how much you can destroy before the police are forced to either kill or arrest you.
Hi James,
ReplyDeleteCaillois also thinks of play as falling into four categories, which he designates agon (competition), alea (chance), ilinx (vertigo) and mimicry (simulation). Most games (ludus) or forms of free play (paidea) will also fall into one or more of these categories.
After thinking about how Caillois' categories might be applied to games that you know, you might also consider if this form of categorisation provides a useful or interesting way to think about play.
Hi James,
ReplyDeleteDon't neglect your blog: if you post regular updates on your reading and other aspects of your studies, the blog will provide a useful record of your ongoing engagement with the course.