Abstracted Deaths

My friend Jay, a game design consultant, recently wrote a fascinating piece on the nature of the spoil-sport, and the useful role that the archetype can play in challenging the accepted norms of a society or culture. My favorite anecdote from the post involves a student who “beats” a game by refusing to play it.

All play moves and has its being within a play-ground marked off beforehand either materially or ideally, deliberately or as a matter of course. Just as there is no formal difference between play and ritual, so the ‘consecrated spot’ cannot be formally distinguished from the play-ground. The arena, the card-table, the magic circle, the temple, the stage, the screen, the tennis court, the court of justice, etc, are all in form and function play-grounds, i.e. forbidden spots, isolated, hedged round, hallowed, within which special rules obtain. All are temporary worlds within the ordinary world, dedicated to the performance of an act apart.

-Johan Huizinga