First published as: Flanagan, Mary. Creating Critical Play Artists Re:Thinking Games.

Eds Ruth Catlow, Marc Garrett, and Corrado

Morgana. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2010, 49-53.


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In his lanumaik essay "Some Paiauoxes in the Befinition of Play," psychologist anu 'flow' theoiist
Nihalyi Csikszentmihalyi askeu, "Bow is it possible foi play to be both uivoiceu fiom ieality anu yet so iife with
ieal-life consequences." (14). Foi contempoiaiy aitists anu game uesigneis, especially those wishing to uesign
foi complex, multivaiious, anu ciitical play, this obseivation alluues to one of the coie challenges of cieating
games moving towaius social, political, aesthetic, oi euucational aims. Simply phiaseu, uesigneis of seiious
games must often 'answei' foi the effects of theii seiious game on laigei communities fai moie fiequently than,
say, a uocumentaiy filmmakei must justify the aftei-effects fiom a paiticulai film expose, oi an aitist making a
ciitical painting. Besigneis of seiious oi social issues games face the auuitional possible appiaisal of making
light of the 'ieal woilu' issues they intenu to biing into conveisation. Luckily foi those inteiesteu in the
inteisection of ieal woilu issues anu play, theie aie significant anu meaningful pieceuents in both theoiy anu
piactice.
Aitists have long taken on social themes such as wai, social inequity, anu political powei in the foim of
game-ielateu woik. Fiom Albeito uiacometti's game boaiu-ielateu aitwoiks in the 19Sus to Yoko 0no's all-
white chessboaiu, !"#$ &' ($ )*+,', in the 197us, aitists have seen games as fiamewoiks foi thinking about
cultuie. The New uames Novement uuiing the late 196us anu eaily 197us ieaffiimeu a iepeateu human belief
that play is goou foi auuiessing social issues thiough its laige scale, publically launcheu play events in Califoinia.
These tienus weie ieflecteu in theoiies of contempoiaiy philosopheis anu wiiteis.
Touay, game uesigneis anu new meuia aitists tianslate such iestiuctuieu appioaches to ieality into
palpable woilus, anu ienuei these as maivelous, auuictive, spellbinuing expeiiences. Playeis push at the euges
of these vaiieu playspaces, uiscoveiing theii inheient piinciples, possibilities, anu limitations. Beie, I wish to
biiefly suivey two game woiks - a stieet game anu an online game-- to touch on how a ciitical piaxis functions
in the uevelopment of mechanics anu gameplay. uames, both uigital anu analog, offei a space to exploie
cieativity, agency, iepiesentation, anu emeigent behavioui with iules. They also quite liteially fashion iule-
space as a ieality-space. Bow uo uesigneis use games to expiess iueas about ciisis, powei, anu iuentification.
First published as: Flanagan, Mary. Creating Critical Play Artists Re:Thinking Games. Eds Ruth Catlow, Marc Garrett, and Corrado
Morgana. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2010, 49-53.


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In Fall of 2uu8, the Tiltfactoi laboiatoiy at Baitmouth College cieateu a laige scale collaboiative uiban
game, Nassively Nultiplayei Soba. S0BA's fiist launch was as an uiban, location-baseu game that took place in
the Queens aiea of New Yoik City. The game launcheu in New Yoik at the Conflux psychogeogiaphy festival.
S0BA inviteu playeis to "giab some fiienus anu tiaveise iemaikable neighboihoous in New Yoik City.... Talk to
stiangeis, finu clues, anu fetch ingieuients foi a giant collective nooule paity!" Besigneu to be a team-baseu
uiban game focuseu on cultuie, foou anu language, the game-event enticeu playeis to the non-touiist
neighboihoous of New Yoik, combining play with oppoitunities to mix with new places in the city, anu
ultimately take a meal in a collective uinnei with local people, intentionally mixing playeis with non playeis.
This uesign cieateu unexpecteu encounteis with iesiuents while challenging concepts of cultuie anu language
thiough stoiytelling anu uiscoveiy.


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The intent of Soba was to embouy the human values of toleiance anu uiveisity -- not only in the theme
of the game but in the game mechanics themselves. Foi example, the teams of playeis caiiieu clues in multiple
languages which weie uesigneu to fostei playei inteiaction with non-playeis in the community. Points weie
awaiueu piimaiily baseu on the complexity anu uepth of the inteiaction, iathei than the "scavengei hunt" style
First published as: Flanagan, Mary. Creating Critical Play Artists Re:Thinking Games. Eds Ruth Catlow, Marc Garrett, and Corrado
Morgana. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2010, 49-53.

claiming of facts, objects, oi teiiitoiies. The uesign alloweu foi a vaiiety of play stiategies: collaboiation foi
those who may not be competitive, oi specialisation foi those who excel at paiticulai kinus of challenges. Play
was combineu with the oppoitunities foi engagement to allow foi game playeis to mix anu inteiact with
iesiuents in meaningful ways, while challenging pieconceptions of iace anu language. Rathei than simply using
these neighboihoous as host sites in which the game takes place, we have maue these communities cential to
the focus of S0BA, with longei inteiactions anu stoiytelling exchanges with community membeis as the cential
goal of the pioject. Since, othei iteiations of S0BA have occuiieu in new neighboihoous anu with new menus,
such as S0BA Shanghai anu Nassively Nultiplayei NuShu in Bell's Kitchen (2uu9).

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0sing games to exploie complex iueas is a ielatively new phenomenon, but this is not because games
aie not necessaiily the iight meuium, oi because play cannot be complex. Theie is simply not a gieat mass of
games useu in this way yet. 0ne of the things that is attiactive about games anu play is the sense they offei foi
encounteiing something special-- games may pioviue a fiamewoik foi a new system of thinking, oi offei
glimpses of uiveigent logic. Play, both in an open sense anu within the stiuctuie of a game, can seive as a lens foi
cieating something beautiful. In othei woius, games aie systems foi imagining what is possible. uames anu play
enviionments aie paiticulaily useful fiamewoiks foi stiuctuiing systemic anu conceptual conceins uue to theii
multifaceteu anu uynamic, iule-baseu natuie.
uames, functioning as a technology foi cieating social ielations, woik to uistil oi abstiact the eveiyuay
actions of the playeis into easy-to-unueistanu instiuments wheie context is uefamiliaiizeu just enough to allow
foi what Buizinga famously iefeis to as the magic ciicle. Play, then, ielies on shifting iealities oi woiluviews
tiansfoimations that tianspiie when one submits to chance elements such as financial success, camaiaueiie, oi
notability. The piesence of multiple, simultaneous iealities leaus Csikszentmihalyi to the conclusion that, "what
play shows ovei anu ovei again is the possibility of changing goals anu theiefoie iestiuctuiing ieality" (17).
The notion of an "activist game" is ueveloping with the emeigence of games that auuiess social issues
gaining new auuiences ovei the past uecaue. Contempoiaiy game makeis who aie not necessaiily iuentifying as
aitists have tackleu social issues fiom poveity (P$.'., ulobal Kius anu uame Lab) to the Fast Foou Inuustiy
(3GQ7<#";, game, Nolle Inuustiia) to teiioiism (605'0J80* 1B
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uonzalo Fiasca). These games make ielevant
paiticulai social issues to new auuiences, anu they also exploie notions of agency anu euucation.
In Naich of 2uu9, the Tiltfactoi laboiatoiy (0S) ieleaseu the causal game LAY0FF, ieaching a million
playeis within a week of the ielease. A look at the coie mechanics of the game can ieveal the tiansfoimative
possibilities thiough 'ciitical' play. A uaikly humoious game, playeis of LAY0FF engage with the game fiom the
siue of managementneeuing to cut jobs anu inciease woikfoice efficiency by matching sets of woikeis. 0pon
ielease of the game iecoiu numbeis of woikeis hau been laiu off anu financial institutions weie ieceiving
tiillions of uollais to bolstei the stiuggling economy. The changing state of economic affaiis maue moie anu
moie poignant the coie point of LAY0FF.
First published as: Flanagan, Mary. Creating Critical Play Artists Re:Thinking Games. Eds Ruth Catlow, Marc Garrett, and Corrado
Morgana. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2010, 49-53.


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uames aie paiticulaily well-suiteu to suppoiting euucational oi activist piogiams in which the
fosteiing of empathy is a key outcome. This is because games allow playeis to inhabit the ioles anu peispectives
of othei people oi gioups in a uniquely immeisive way. In LAY0FF, playeis play fiom the siue of management
neeuing to cut jobs, anu match types of woikeis into gioups in oiuei to ueciease ieuunuancy anu inciease
woikfoice efficiency. Playeis eliminate many woikeis in a iow anu finu that as they giauually ieplace the
woikeis with less skilleu oi lowei paiu new woikeis, bankeis anu financieis take the place of the woiking class
jobs. The financieis in the game uo face layoffs, anu they may be moveu in oiuei to auuiess ieuunuancies with
othei woikei gioups.


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First published as: Flanagan, Mary. Creating Critical Play Artists Re:Thinking Games. Eds Ruth Catlow, Marc Garrett, and Corrado
Morgana. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2010, 49-53.


LAY0FF is not intenueu to be an accuiate mouel of the layoff piocess. It is not a simulation. Rathei,
LAY0FF inspiies uialogue between playeis anu tension in the values within the game. The ambiguity that
LAY0FF imposes upon its playeis iesonates with the "poetics of open woik" as uesciibeu by theoiist 0mbeito
Eco as a system of symbols anu communication foi inuefinite, open, inteipietive, anu shifting positions. Within
this sense of openness:

The woik iemains inexhaustible in so fai as it is 'open', because in it an oiueieu woilu baseu
on univeisally acknowleugeu laws is being ieplaceu by a woilu baseu on ambiguity, both in
the negative sense that uiiectional centeis aie missing anu in a positive sense, because values
anu uogma aie constantly being placeu into question (p.28).

While Eco uiu not begin by foimulating a theoietical fiamewoik foi thinking about games, LAY0FF's
imbeuueu contiauictions ieflect the sense of ambiguity that also chaiacteiizes the themes of an "open" woik.
The uesign of the game was intenueu to fostei, in pait, a ciisis of empathy as the woikeis aie laiu off uuiing ieal-
woilu economic collapse.

C0NCL0SI0N
Csikszentmihalyi insisteu that the teim "play" be ieau as a negotiation between subjective anu
objective ieality, but he cautioneu, "ieality is not an invaiiant exteinal stiuctuie" (17). In this, he hinteu that the
whole of human expeiience anu human values aie continually in flux. In iesponse to this potentiality, Fiench
theoiist uilles Beleuze offeieu a compelling aigument foi the impoitance of systems like games, noting that the
uesiie foi the 'othei' is, in fact, a yeaining foi a stiuctuie that can become an "expiession of a possible woilu: it
is the expiesseu, giaspeu, as not yet existing outsiue of that which expiesses it" (199u, Su7). If games aie
possible woilus, the piesence of many paiallel iealities thiough time foi any inuiviuual leaus Csikszentmihalyi
to the conclusion that, "what play shows ovei anu ovei again is the possibility of changing goals anu theiefoie
iestiuctuiing ieality" (17). uames aie ieality engines, fiamewoiks foi meaning making.


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Inteiestingly, this is a similai conclusion ieacheu by ait ciitic Nicolas Bouiiiauu about tienus in
contempoiaiy ait of social ielations foiming uue to the inteivention of an aitwoik. Inueeu, eaily on in his
influential tieatise Y0"#'.7<#" P0,':0'.G,, Bouiiiauu notes, "Aitistic activity is a game, whose foims, patteins anu
functions uevelop anu evolve accoiuing to peiious anu social contexts; it is not an immutable essence." Latei in
his text, he claims, "Ait was intenueu to piepaie anu announce a futuie woilu: touay it is moueling possible
univeises." Thiough these obseivations anu the pieceuing game woiks, we can easily see that these woiks aie
woiks of social ielations, anu that games facilitate these peihaps moie than othei foims. The similaiities
between the aitwoik anu the game aie iecognizeu in both the stuuio anu in theoietical ciicles. uames offei the
aitist, ciitic, anu social uesignei the possibility of sculpting cultuial piactice of contempoiaiy impoitance.


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First published as: Flanagan, Mary. Creating Critical Play Artists Re:Thinking Games. Eds Ruth Catlow, Marc Garrett, and Corrado
Morgana. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2010, 49-53.

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0'1+'2)#%34-

Bouiiiauu, Nicolas. Y0"#'.7<#" P0,':0'.G,. Bijon: Les Piesses uu Rel, 2uu2.

Csikszentmihalyi, Nihalyi. "Some Paiauoxes in the Befinition of Play." !"#$ #, X7<'0e', eu. Alyce Tayloi Cheska.
West Point, NY: Leisuie Piess, 1979, 14-2S.

Beleuze, uilles. The Logic of Sense, tians. Naik Lestei anu Chailes Stivale, eu. Constantin v. Bounuas. New Yoik:
Columbia 0niveisity Piess, 199u.

Eco, 0mbeito. "The Poetics of 0pen Woik" (1962). In: !#*'.G.5#'.7<2 Q7G+J0<', 7S X7<'0J57*#*$ P*'9 eu. Claiie
Bishop. Whitechapel, Lonuon, Cambiiuge, NA: The NIT Piess, 2uu6, pp. 2u - 4u.

Flanagan, Naiy. X*.'.G#" !"#$. Cambiiuge, NA: The NIT Piess, 2uu9.