The rise of the New Games Movement in the 1970's saw the introduction of games that did not necessarily follow the stereotypical standard of the time. Unlike most games, “...the New Games Movement is not merely about play's the thing, it's about the players as people...” (Fron et al 2). One of the games from this movement is Prui. In Prui, one player is singled out to be the Prui. When the game starts players must close their eyes and stumble around shaking the hands of any players they come in contact with. If they are not the Prui and have not yet shaken hands with the Prui, they say Prui every time they shake a hand. However if they are the Prui they say nothing and anyone who they shake hands with them also becomes a Prui. This is repeated until there is no one left saying Prui, at which point the game is considered won.
While Bernie DeKoven, a prominent figure of the New Games Movement, was teaching a group of university students about the games, he had a student break the rules by starting off as a Prui although they were not told to. While most games require the rules to be followed, he “...told the group equably, 'Sometimes you have spontaneously generating Prui's. There's no harm in that.'” (Fron et al 3). This varies greatly from the general conception of games, as shown in Games as Art, where Celia Pearce defines one of the features all games have in common, parameterized play, as “consisting of rules by which a group of players agree to abide for the duration of the game” (Pearce 4). The New Games Movement deviates from most games in that it focuses on the interaction of people instead of following set rules.
Another game played during the New Games Movement was Rock-Paper-Scissors Tag. Players are split into two teams, and before each round agree upon what to throw. Then they line up and the team that wins gets to chase the losing team until they reach a designated base. Any players from the losing team who are tagged before reaching the base change over to the team that tagged them. This continues until one team wins or the players become bored and end the game. What is remarkable about this game is that “the key to the game lies in the fluidity of the teams” (Fron et al 3). While players start on two opposing teams, they are constantly switching sides. The game may have a concept of winning, unlike most from the movement, but the winners constitute a large majority of the players. It is also obvious that winning is not what is important in the game because, as was seen when we played this game in class, fast runners simply cannot be caught within the limited distance given for the other team to tag them, leading to a stalemate.
An interesting example of a computer game that promotes New Games Movement style play is Second Life, a game released by Linden Labs in 2003. In this game players can buy property and pay to import their own textures to use to create anything they can imagine within the constraints of the game engine. This open style game play with specialized tools has attracted many players and has even lead to consequences outside of the game, such as one user's creation “...Tringo (a multi-player puzzle game combining aspects of Bingo and Tetris) obtaining a real-life publishing deal” (Fron et al 5). While most games seek to create an experience for the players, Second Life was one of the first games to instead create a set of tools with which the players could create their own experiences, and set it loose. Second Life would be far from unique in this aspect were it not for the level it takes it to, almost all of the content is created by the users, while traditionally games that can be easily modified already include a vast amount of content.
Bibliography:
Fron, J., Fullerton, T., Morie, J. & Pearce, C. (aka Ludica) (2005). "Sustainable Play: Towards A New Games Movement for the Digital Age." Digital Arts & Culture Conference Proceedings, Copenhagen, December 2005.
Pearce, Celia. "Games as Art: The Aesthetics of Interactivity." Visible Language: Special Issue on Fluxus. January 2006.
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