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Seven Rhetorics of Play
Games embody cultural rhetorics. But what specific ideologies do they represent? In The Ambiguity of Play, Brian Sutton-Smith does more than simply introduce the general idea of cultural rhetoric. Sutton-Smith identifies seven different "rhetorics of play," large-scale value-systems that have historically informed and defined the concept of play. These rhetorics—progress, fate, power, identity, the imaginary, the self, and the frivolous—are part of broad symbolic systems (political, religious, social, and educational) that help construct cultural meanings. They are seven ways that the concept of play has traditionally been brokered by culture. As rhetorics, these seven categories are persuasive discourses, invisibly embedded in our day-to-day lives and conceptions of play, taken for granted until they are challenged by a competing rhetoric.[6]
Although we can't summarize Sutton-Smith's complex ideas and do them justice, we can outline the key concepts of his seven rhetorics. In the chart to the right we describe the way each rhetoric uses, interprets, and justifies the concept of "play." In addition, the chart also lists the types of games and play with which the rhetoric is usually associated, as well as whether or not Sutton-Smith locates the origin of the rhetoric in ancient or contemporary times. Sutton-Smith's work investigates play in general and therefore includes ludic activities that are not games. However, his ideas are still quite valuable to game designers. Games can embody any of the seven rhetorics, and Sutton-Smith's framework can help identify ideological presumptions in your games or help you chart new courses for the cultural rhetoric you want your game to express. For example, according to Sutton-Smith, the dominant rhetoric in our culture is play as progress. By and large, play is seen as an activity for children, and a play experience is valuable because it helps children evolve into better adults cognitively, socially, ethically, or otherwise. Some of the current controversies about computer and video games stem directly from the fact that they do not fit neatly into the idea of play as progress. It is possible, for example, to see video games as part of an ideology of power, in which values of conflict are celebrated through play, as with professional sports; but equating video game play with sports (an adult pastime) would threaten the play as progress idea that games are for children. Similarly, video games could be seen as a form of play as the imaginary, in which video game play is a form of creative cultural production; however, this connection ties games to art, threatening conventional distinctions between high art and popular culture. Sutton-Smith's rhetorics of play are not descriptive terms that identify what play actually is. Instead, his categories identify how games and play embody ideological values and how specific forms and uses of play perpetuate and justify these values. Rhetorics conflict and compete within the ecosystem of culture. A museum exhibit that included video games might spark a clash of rhetorics: perhaps the curator uses play as the imaginary to justify the creative value of video games, offending outraged adherents of play as progress that see no cultural value in games that merely entertain.
Just as one rhetoric can include many games, a single game can embody more than one rhetoric. As complex objects, games can contain many different, and sometimes contradictory, cultural rhetorics in their design and use. The lottery is based on an ancient game form that embodies play as fate; at the same time, in contemporary culture it can be a way for players to share a sense of play as identity (the office workers gather during happy hour to Pick Five, sharing a communal desire to win big and finally tell off the boss.) The parodic inversion of the Mad Magazine Game is premised on the idea of play as frivolous, even while its very reference to Monopoly-style games invokes the rhetoric of play as power.
Play as Progress | Play is a way of turning children into adults. Play is valuable because it educates and develops the cognitive capacities of human or animal youth. | All forms of children's play and animal play | Contemporary origin |
Play as Fate | Human lives and play are controlled by fate in the form of destiny, gods, atoms, neurons, or luck, but not by free will. | Gambling and games of chance | Ancient origin |
Play as Power | Play is a form of conflict and a way to fortify the status of those who control the play or are its heroes. | Sports, athletics, and contests | Ancient origin |
Play as Identity | Play is a means of confirming, maintaining, or advancing the identity of a community of players. | Traditional and community celebrations and festivals | Ancient origin |
Play as the Imaginary | The essence of play is imagination, flexibility, and creativity. Play is synonymous with innovation. | Playful improvisation in art, literature and other forms of culture | Contemporary origin |
Play as Rhetoric of the Self | Play exists to evolve the self, by providing intrinsic experiences of pleasure, relaxation, and escape, either through play itself or through the aesthetic satisfaction of play performances. | Solitary play activities like hobbies and high-risk play like rock climbing | Contemporary origin |
Play as Frivolity | Play is oppositional, parodic and sometimes revolutionary; this rhetoric is opposed to a "work ethic" view of play as a useless activity. | The activities of the idle or the foolish, and the historical multicultural roles of the Trickster and the Fool | Ancient origin |
[6]Sutton-Smith, The Ambiguity of Play, p. 7–17.
