Rules.of.Play.Game.Design.Fundamentals [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Ideal and Real Foursquare

In the early 1980s, sociologist Linda Hughes (then a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania) spent three years observing children playing the game of Foursquare on a playground in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Her interest was in understanding how children elaborate rules to support existing social relations. Hughes focused specifically on the difference between the "basic" (or ideal) rules of a game and the rules that were defined as the "real rules" by players. The basic rules of Four-square require that players:

The real rules of the games, however, describe a much more Baby Bottles Frontsies Part-Rules Poison Trades complex set of interactions. A list of in-game calls documented Baby Stuff Goody Rules Purpose Duckfeet Tricks by Hughes reveals a rich language of social play (see Figure 1). Calls include such shots as Babies, Bops, or Spins, as well as types of play, such as Nice or Friends, which describe the quali-ty and social tone of player interaction. The real rules matter a great deal to players, for they transform the formal structure to support existing social relations. Players often dismissed the basic rules as "just things you had to do"—they were not included among the list of "real rules" reported by the children. As Hughes notes,"Players were far more interested in the rules they generated and controlled, and that they could use to introduce excitement, variety, strategy, and fun into the game."[14] This elaboration of basic, ideal rules into a complex set of real rules is transformative social play. It is not that the basic rules of the game undergo a radical change; rather, they are experienced within a social context that decreases their value in favor of a socially-biased ruleset over which players have more control.

In "Beyond the Rules of the Game: Why Are Rooie Rules Nice?" Hughes presents a case study of a specific Foursquare ruleset developed by the children she observed. Foursquare offered fertile ground for such a study because a ruleset is called by an individual player (the "king") before each round of play. "Such calls can be used for a wide variety of purposes, including" increasing game excitement, adjusting the level of difficulty, and assisting or scapegoating other players."[17] These rulesets prescribe and prohibit certain actions while setting a general tone for a particular round of play. A call of "Rooie Rules," for example—a ruleset named after a girl named Rooie who was one of the regular players on the playground at the time Hughes' research was conducted—meant that players were to play "nice." Rooie Rules included the following:"no holding" (the ball must be hit, not caught and thrown); "no slams" (bounces high over a player's head); no "duckfeet" (being hit on the legs); "spins" are allowed; and so on. "Rooie Rules" operated as shorthand for a long list of individual calls.

Figure 1: The "Real Rules" of Foursquare[15]

Many of the social concerns of this play community are apparent in their
terminology. Terms such as “mean,” “nice,” “friends,” and “purpose,” for
example, are extensively used to label game “moves.”

Among the community of players Hughes observed, the call of "Rooie Rules" created a general framework for player interaction. This framework rested upon shared social standards for fairness, perceived intentionality (did a player illegally hold the ball "on purpose," or accidentally), and appropriate demeanor within the group (playing "nice"). Yet interestingly enough, despite the fact that everyone was able to play by Rooie Rules, no player, including Rooie, was able to supply a complete list of the real rules this call encompassed. According to Hughes, "What allows the game to proceed with such apparent ambiguity concerning the precise rules of the game is the tacit understanding that Rooie Rules are 'nice,' and 'nice' is perhaps the paramount concern among these players. It is far more important to understand 'nice' play than to understand the rules."[16] The community of players used the term "nice" to refer to a rather complex matrix of social rights and obligations. The real rules of the game referred to a standard of social behavior, a standard which players had to accept and uphold if they were to remain a part of the game.

[13]Linda Hughes, "

Children's Games and Gaming. " In

Children's Folklore: A Source Book, edited by Brian Sutton-Smith, Jay Mechling, Thomas W. Johnson, and Felicia R. McMahon (Logan: Utah State University Press, 1999), p. 100.

[14]Ibid., p. 100.

[17]Ibid., p. 192.

[15]Ibid., p. 100.

[16]Linda Hughes, "

Beyond the Rules of the Game: Why are Rooie Rules Nice? " In

The World of Play, edited by Frank E. Manning.