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CULTURE: Contextual Schemas
Even though the realm of play may seem expansive and varied compared to the analytic world of rules, play is, in some sense, bounded too. Games take place in definite locales of time and space. It is when we explore games within the realm of culture that the overlap between the game world and the world at large comes to light. When we consider games as PLAY, we confine the analysis to the space defined by the actual game itself. In PLAY, we emphasize the human experience of the game, but without straying too far outside the boundaries of the game. Once we begin to look beyond the internal, intrinsic qualities of games toward the qualities brought to the game from external contexts, the focus extends deep into the territory of CULTURE. The schemas presented under CULTURE are contextual schemas.They focus on the cultural dimensions of games, game design, and play. In considering games from a cultural point of view, our goal is to understand how the design of a game, as the design of meaningful play, engages shared systems of value and meaning. While taking into account both the formal and experiential qualities of games, these schemas look at the effects of culture on games, and the effects of games on culture. From ideas of rhetoric and representation to the leaking of the artificial world of a game into the real world, these schemas highlight the variable boundaries between games and the contexts in which they are played and produced.
The role of context is critical to the study of games because a context is the environment of the game system. It is the space that surrounds and exists outside the system. In creating the outer boundary of the system, the context also helps define the system itself. Furthermore, if the system is an open system, it interacts with its environment, changing its context even as it is changed itself. With this outline of our three Primary Schemas, we end Unit 1 of Rules of Play. In the chapters to come, we flesh out this skeletal structure, building on our fundamental key concepts to bring game design and meaningful play fully to life.
