Pop Culture: Everything I Ever Needed To Know I Learnt From... [Thurs, 1st Period]
Today the desks were arranged to form four tables, each with a box in the middle of them. As each student entered, Oz sent each of them over to one of the tables in turn.
"Last week, I mentioned that video games were the newest big concern when it came to violence in the media," Oz began. It should be noted that none of the boxes was big enough to contain a video game console. "But that's not quite the point this week, since we'll just be looking at plain old games this week, which can still be plenty violent. Take chess, your object there is to wipe out the other guy's army and force his king to surrender, it's abstracted warfare, heck checkers your intent is to wipe the other guy out completely, which is even worse, and neither of these games are very new, in fact game pieces have been found in archaeological sites that are thousands of years old. So people have been playing games, often violent games, for a very long time.Longer than we've even been people if you ask guys like Huizinga, who argued that play is a fundamental manifestation of culture, so remember his name next time your parents accuse you of goofing off."
"So that brings up the question of what exactly makes a game? Is it that it's fun? Which yes, but by the very definition of play it should be, otherwise it stops being play and becomes work, and Jack ends up a dull boy chasing his wife through a hotel with an axe." That metaphor got away from Oz a little. "So what distinguishes game play from other types of play, is that it's a specific kind of structured play. A game has a goal, an end condition that counts as winning, or losing, and it has rules on how you can achieve that end."
"But wait Oz, you say, rules? How can that be, don't rules keep it from being fun? To which my reply is that they make it fun, or else keep it from getting unfun. Take chess for instance. If the goal is capture all the other guy's pieces, what's to stop you punching the other guy in the face and taking his pieces that way, because it's against the rules. Partly because because being punched in the face is not fun, usually, but also, because being able to punch the other guy in the face makes it unfair, and unfair games are, again, not fun. Basically, games need rules because otherwise they start to break down, and different games need different rules."
"Which brings us to today's activity, which is going to demonstrate my point to you. Each table has the equipment for a game, hopefully you will already know the rules, but in any case there are notes with the equipment. You are going to to spend the rest of the class breaking these games by changing the rules, then playing the game to see how that effects the game. Start with the one rule, then try others, try stacking them to see what happens. Hey, maybe you'll figure out a new variation on your game."
"Last week, I mentioned that video games were the newest big concern when it came to violence in the media," Oz began. It should be noted that none of the boxes was big enough to contain a video game console. "But that's not quite the point this week, since we'll just be looking at plain old games this week, which can still be plenty violent. Take chess, your object there is to wipe out the other guy's army and force his king to surrender, it's abstracted warfare, heck checkers your intent is to wipe the other guy out completely, which is even worse, and neither of these games are very new, in fact game pieces have been found in archaeological sites that are thousands of years old. So people have been playing games, often violent games, for a very long time.Longer than we've even been people if you ask guys like Huizinga, who argued that play is a fundamental manifestation of culture, so remember his name next time your parents accuse you of goofing off."
"So that brings up the question of what exactly makes a game? Is it that it's fun? Which yes, but by the very definition of play it should be, otherwise it stops being play and becomes work, and Jack ends up a dull boy chasing his wife through a hotel with an axe." That metaphor got away from Oz a little. "So what distinguishes game play from other types of play, is that it's a specific kind of structured play. A game has a goal, an end condition that counts as winning, or losing, and it has rules on how you can achieve that end."
"But wait Oz, you say, rules? How can that be, don't rules keep it from being fun? To which my reply is that they make it fun, or else keep it from getting unfun. Take chess for instance. If the goal is capture all the other guy's pieces, what's to stop you punching the other guy in the face and taking his pieces that way, because it's against the rules. Partly because because being punched in the face is not fun, usually, but also, because being able to punch the other guy in the face makes it unfair, and unfair games are, again, not fun. Basically, games need rules because otherwise they start to break down, and different games need different rules."
"Which brings us to today's activity, which is going to demonstrate my point to you. Each table has the equipment for a game, hopefully you will already know the rules, but in any case there are notes with the equipment. You are going to to spend the rest of the class breaking these games by changing the rules, then playing the game to see how that effects the game. Start with the one rule, then try others, try stacking them to see what happens. Hey, maybe you'll figure out a new variation on your game."