Beyond the Game

Think back to the very start of the semester, when we talked about the concept of meaningful play, which occurs when "the relationships between actions and outcomes in a game are both discernable and integrated into the larger context of the game" (from Salen and Zimmerman, Rules of Play). When the game is an alternate reality game such as The Beast, where the game does not have any explicitly declared actions and outcomes, and in some cases does not even acknowledge its own existence, is it possible for there to be meaningful play? Does this type of "game" require us to rethink our definition of games?

It does seem to be highly possible for meaningful play to exist in ARGs. As long as people see it as a game and enjoy it, then there's meaningful play. The Cloudmakers highly enjoyed solving The Beast, and there was a high degree of interaction involved, collaboration and emergent behavior. I also believe that this type of "game" does require us to rethink our definition of games. Zimmerman's definition seems rather restrictive, and games have evolved to an extent that they challenge the importance of having certain criterias like a quantifiable outcome in a game, or a fixed set of rules. I feel that a game is one where people see and treat it as such. As mentioned during lecture, it all boils down to the player's attitude.