Juul
Jesper Juul
IT University of Copenhagen
jjuul@itu.dk
The Game, the Player, the World: Looking for a heart of gameness
Why is there an affinity between computers and games? Computers appear to work as enablers of games, supporting and promoting games much in the way that the technologies of the printing press, cinema, and television have promoted storytelling. But how do we explain this affinity?
This paper is an attempt at creating a simple practical definition of games: While many such definitions have been attempted, this one is created with the clear goal of explaining: 1) What relates computer games to other games. 2) What happens when you cross the border from what is a game to what is not a game. 3) What is required in order to play a game. 4) How games can move between different media.
While there is no single medium or set of props that is the game medium, games do contain recognizable features whether being card games, board games, computers games, sports, or even mind games. Looking at all these, it is quite clear that there is no set of equipment or material support common to all games. What is common, however, is a specific sort of immaterial support, namely the upholding of the rules; the determination of what moves and actions are permissible and what they will lead to.
While some writers have claimed that games are forever undefinable or ungraspable, the paper argues that games do have something in common, that we can identify the borders between games and what is not games, and that it makes sense to look at computer games as being the latest development in a history of games that spans millennia. All things considered, understanding games is the key to understanding why we play games on computers. Finally, the revolution in games that computers have provided brought about is one of their strongest contributions to human culture.
CV
Jesper Juul has done research on the relation between games and narrative, on time in games, on emergent gameplay, and currently on transmedial gaming. He has an M.A. in Scandinavian Literature, and is completing a Ph.D. at the IT University of Copenhagen. He is the review editor of the Game Studies academic journal on computer games. Jesper has developed and programmed web-based multiplayer games and chat systems.
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