Imaginary Games by Bateman Chris

Author:Bateman, Chris
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781846949425
Publisher: O-Books

Functional Principles

In the context of common games there is more going on than just the principles of fiction by which art is resolved meaningfully or a narrative is interpreted. These kinds of games are not just representational, they are also functional – the play of any given game has some functionality of play (what is often termed gameplay). Thus the props that comprise any common game can be resolved to some degree into both representational and functional elements (Juul’s fiction and rules), the latter being comprised principally of the rules of the game, but also the background of understanding in which those rules are embedded.

For instance, suppose the rules of a particular board game instruct you to shuffle the deck and deal seven cards to each player. This rule is readily understandable – but it rests on all manner of tacit assumptions (that the cards will be shuffled and dealt face down, for instance; that the cards will be dealt out in a clockwise order left of the dealer barring any other stipulation) – all of which are socially embedded. We have already encountered Wittgenstein and Kripke’s point in respect of the impossibility of ‘private rules’, and consequently even the functional aspects of a game depend in part upon certain principles, which we can call functional principles (as opposed to the principles of fiction).

We could venture to say that there are parallels to RP and SMP in the functional principles of common games. For example, if one is playing an environmental digital game such as the platform games in the Super Mario Bros. series (Nintendo EAD, 1983 onwards), one generally recognizes that falling into an apparently bottomless ravine is not a good idea – a conclusion reached by something akin to the Reality Principle. Similarly, when a Mario game teaches the player that jumping on the head of a monster slays it – something which is not generally true of animals in the real world! – we can say that something equivalent to the Shared Mythology Principle is in effect.

The makers of games can use shared mythology to assert certain fictional truths – in the above case concerning both the gameplay and the accompanying make-believe. Why is make-believe involved? We interpret the act of landing on the monster as ‘killing’ it in our imagination. Pragmatically, all it does is disappear from view, but the principles of fiction are not generally taken as licensing an interpretation that jumping on a monster makes it invisible before it runs off, say. We are prescribed to imagine it has been killed in the authorized games for Super Mario Bros.; if we are to collaborate with the game’s fiction, this is the interpretation we are expected to accept.

The use of dice in board games is a particularly interesting case in respect of functional principles. It is tempting to say that the dice are solely functional – but this can be misleading. In games like Cluedo and Monopoly, the result of the die roll changes where we end up in the game world.

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