The Aesthetics of Play | Why We Play Games, and the Search for Truth and Beauty In Game Design

In this Video, we examine The Aesthetics of Play, that is, the question of Why we Play Games.Play is an impulse that exists across every culture, and expresses itself in different forms, but we don't have a consensus as to why. In this video, we survey the many different conceptions of the aesthetic of play, from the mechanics dynamics aesthetics framework, to Jesper Juuls art of failure, and on to Frank Lantzs ideas about Metacognition, to see if we can identify a unifying purpose.

To build an understanding of this idea, this video surveys the history of games, play, art and aesthetics to illustrate how culturally contingent the very question of the aesthetic of play is. However, this does not mean there aren't unifying themes across space and time, that speak to a higher purpose for play, perhaps one that interrogates the very ideas of truth and beauty.

Sources

-Homo Ludens, Johan Huizinga

-Eric Zimmerman, Let Games be Games

-Mechanics Dynamics Aesthetics

-Erin Hoffman, Precision of Emotion

-Scott Rigby, The Freedom Fallacy

-Jason Vandenberge, Engines of Play

- Nick Yee the 12 motivations for Play

-The Aesthetic of play , Brian Upton

-Brenda Romero, Train

-Persuasive Games , Ian Bogost

-Against Procedurality , Miguel Sicart

-The Ambiguity of Play, Brian Sutton Smith

-The Art of Video Games, Grant Tavinor

-Free to learn, Peter Grey

-Trickster makes the world , Lewis Hyde

-Thomas Henricks , Play as Self Realization

-The Grasshopper , Bernard Suits

-David Hume, Of the standard of taste

-Immanuel Kant , The Critique of Judgement

-Hegel - Lectures on fine art

-The secret art history of games -John Sharpe

-Works of games John Sharpe

-The Art of Failure Jesper Juul

-Pragmatist aesthetics in Games

-Hearts and Minds Gdc Frank Lantz

-This is your brain on games gdc

-Go Poker and the Sublime Gdc

-Dynamics Clint Hocking

- Truth in game design Jonathan Blow

-Design Reboot Jonathan blow

-What art is, Arthur Danto

[thesephiam]

I am writing a paper on the concept of the “rule of cool” and was running into a brick wall about why games exist and why we play and this video has given me so much to work with. This is so excellently broken down and concise. Thank you so much!

[naenoart]

Absolutely fantastic video! I'm almost shocked how underrated your channel is, this is some insanely high quality content with very solid philosophical argumentation behind everything...

[michaelkindt]

“It started with tennis, and then we went to space.”

—This video @0:00.

[FLP]

I was searching about the different styles of games in a visual way, like low poly, high poly, etc as a study to define how the game i'm making would be artistically speaking. I'm fully into intentionality in game design, and i already have the core mechanics of my game, but i'm trully understanding why it exists now. Thanks for the insight, i'm gonna pursue a simple thing in my gamedev quest: touch the heart of those who play.

[dantevahezleicaf]

This is amazing keep it up, and thank you very much. You've earned a citation on my Thesis... 👍

[magnuscritikaleak]

First! I love this analysis of Videogames design aethestic history.

[Visigoth_]

DAMN! this is quickly becoming one my new favourite YT channels... I'm enjoying these videos so much.
🤘😄

[a]

Your videos are really fuckingly amazing. Never give up, keep producing videos. I would keep
appreciatting them all.

[janisberzins]

A lot of ideas that I have been struggling with, have been answered in this video. Thank you for making these, because the amount of research done for this video is just... wow! Thank you!

[ruanmontelo]

This is an excellent video. Making me think a lot in a perspective of art and meaning instead of this technical view of a programmer I have always had about software in general and games weren't different, even though I always make sure to play games whenever I can. Liked and subscribed, really like the content!

[Chocolatepain]

You have a really soothing voice. Also great content.

[dosboot]

Very stimulating, there are many branches off this topic that I now want to explore further. Tell me, how are you using the word "instrumentalization"? I feel like I couldn't understand 10% of the video without a clearer explanation.

[BlackJar]

I still, and probably always will, reject the assertion that narrative is an important or inherent aspect of games in general. It can be important to some games and defining of some genera, but not all games and for many it isn't even relevant -- thus it makes sense to say it is one of the aethetic that some games appeal to, but not to talk about it in relation to all games or games in general. The idea that games are somehow fundamentally about story, the telling a story is just something games are supposed to do, is a very new idea in the grand scheme of things -- chess, poker, basketball, pinball, pac-man, centipede, mancala, and the royal game of Ur do not tell stories and even in the early 90s Doom resisted focusing on story giving enough to justify the premise. Games and stories are fundamentally two different thing even if they are now often packaged into a single product.

[dunnygoop]

dang, you're popping these vids out like they're teenage pimples. nice work!