defining culture

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defining culture

game design persepctive

• games reflect culture, just as they can transform culture.
• transformative play: free movement of play alters the more rigid structure.
• games can reference, influence, and alter cultural contexts beyond the formal limits of the game.

games as cultural representations

• culture is an open-ended concepts with many definitions.
• cultural analysis aligns with the goals of meaningful play.

cultural structure

• examples of cultural structures in games:
  • social hierarchies in fans
• example: basketball
  • roles -> players, coaches, referees cheerleaders, and fans
  • physical context -> the arena, the vendors, the media.
  • players and spectators generate, embody, and transform the cultural meaning of the game.
  • meanings are never fixed, and are in some way "at play."
• recognize what cultural structure can be brought into a game's cultural play is a powerful design strategy.

games as cultural texts

• shifting perspectives

  • we might consider games as culutral objects in their own right, as objects that reflect their cultural contexts.
  • we can view them as culutral texts in this way.
  • example: mafia
    • our reading of mafia can change what we consider the game from a point of view of external culture.
    • could be a glorification of the mafia
    • our a commentary on the struggle of a people when a mafia is involved.
    • or as a teaching tool about a informed-minority can subjugate uninformed-majority.

• cultural texts

  • meaning that we read culture as a text

  • example: deck of cards

    • the symbols could be aread as a representation of society
    • spades: the nobility
    • etc.

• design as a cultural practice

  • "an activity of ordering, disordering, and reordering in search for understanding..."
  • the designer's role
    • "does not lie entirely within the framework of design culture or in the hands of a few gifted individuals. it lies within the framework of culture as a whole."
    • part of a good idea is putting in reality and getting feedback
  • denial does not excuse responsibility
    • you can choose to remain "neutral", by relying on the cultural conventions set by others.
    • however, consider:
      • at best, these conventions that are obstacles to innovation
      • at worst, they are destructuive ideologies tied to racism, sexism, and xenophobia
    • "if you are neutral in the situation of represssion, you are the oppressor" (not exact)
  • games area indisputable cultural and acknowledge this fact can