Game science

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The Game Science researched and systematized with a number of different disciplines the comprehensive phenomenon field of the game and playing. As such, the game focused disciplines, the games are psychology , the educational play that game didactics , the game methodology , the history of the game or the game sociology continue to, Ludologie primarily for computer games . Game science thus encompasses both purely theoretical and application-related research areas that are closely related to game practice. In addition, cooperating subject areas such as sports science provide findings from their special research sector (sports games, extreme sports, etc.).

The research interest of game science is directed on the one hand to the development of the subject area game, its (changing) spectrum of features, its structures, its historical roots, its variety of forms, its social significance, its evaluation. On the other hand, it deals with the personality of the player (the so-called ' homo ludens ') with his gaming behavior, his meaning, his ability to be influenced, the meaning of the game for him in the different phases of life.

The term game theory describes a subject area of mathematics and economics to a very limited extent and is not a central part of game science, which, in contrast, deals comprehensively with traditional, mostly one-dimensional and current, multi-dimensional game theories.

The phenomenon complex game

Game is an extremely complex, multi-layered and therefore elusive phenomenon. It ranges from folding and scribbling a sheet of paper with a ballpoint pen in the doctor's waiting room to challenging fighting games that can also be played as a highly paid job. It can take on the form of a funny jingling with tonewoods, but also as a virtuoso piano or violin playing. Playing can be realized as an insignificant dalliance, as a pastime, but it can also take on a cultural and creative meaning. In the game of waves, wind or fate, it also takes on a metaphorical meaning . The conception of games and games has also changed again and again over the millennia. These changes require a differentiated scientific analysis, if one wants to do justice to the phenomenon and learn to understand it.

So it turns out z. B. the common contrast between play and seriousness as only very limited and only tenable in individual areas: Even the child takes his play very seriously. Losing in betting games or being exposed in heme games can lead to tears and abandonment. With the Indian Mughals , the game of chess was played with living figures who lost their heads when they were "hit". The Olympic Games in Ancient Greece were considered to be a highly significant religious, cultural and socio-political institution that shaped and changed all life in the region during the Games.

The contrast between play and work (“First the work, then the game”), the distinction between “ homo ludens ” and “ homo faber ”, can only withstand the reality of the game in a few areas: certain types of play such as football, basketball or Tennis are now also practiced professionally. The resulting education, attitude, training performance and payment of the players characterize the game as a demanding profession, which is characterized by regular hard physical and mental work. Even with children, the distinction between play and work is often not realistic: What is professional work for the baker and unpleasant housework for the mother (baking, cooking, looking after small children) can be play for children. In contrast, prescribed playing (sports or flute lessons) can be perceived as work.

Systematization of the game

The will to systematically grasp the complex phenomenon as well as the need to create an overview and thus the possibilities of an appropriate assessment and professional handling, led game science to develop various ordering schemes:

Purposeless and purposeful game

The game science distinguishes z. B. Basically between games that follow a spontaneous impulse after playful activity that make sense by themselves and games that serve a specific purpose from outside the game:

The so-called purposeless play arises directly from the play instinct. The child has no intention of learning or getting well. The purposeless player lives out the pure love of function of movement, imagination, creativity or language. He does not need any further justification or justification. Science speaks of primary motivated gaming . Animal play also largely follows the desire to function, not specific learning intentions.

This original type of game was developed by Friedrich v. Schiller with his much-quoted sentence in view: “. . . man only plays where he is in the full meaning of the word man, and he is only fully man where he plays ”In its exclusive formulation this sentence is, however, open to attack.

Purposeless play is mainly realized in unguided play, for example when the child is forgetting himself playing in the sandpit, with devices and materials, in juggling and communicating with a ball, in self-determined extracurricular games or in card games without stakes or monetary profit. Reaching goals, points or striving for a victory are part of the game's intrinsic events. It is anchored in the game idea and must not be misunderstood as a purpose or benefit.

Purposeful games instrumentalize the game for interests outside the game. They use the attractiveness of the game for educational, didactic or therapeutic purposes and are found primarily in educational institutions, in rehabilitation centers or in care for the elderly and the disabled. For example, didactic games are used for learning purposes, therapeutic games with healing intentions, games of chance and competition games from a commercial point of view, meditative and cooperative games to reduce aggression and for psychological regeneration. Science speaks of a secondary motivation for gaming.

The philanthropist J.CF Guts Muths already favors this conception of the instrumentalisation of the game in his game collection when he emphasizes: “Games are flower ribbons that you use to tie young people to yourself; therefore I would rather hand them over to their educators than to them "

There are also overlaps in the reality of the game between purposeless and purposeful play. In this way, the child can play for his part without any purpose without noticing the adult's instrumentalization for learning. An obtrusive schooling of the game can, however, lead to tiredness of the game. Ultimately, therefore, the inner attitude, the intention of the players, is of decisive importance, whether the game is played primarily out of a primary or a secondary motivation. The two game motivations are outside of any scientific evaluation.

Game categories

Another classification system is based on an analysis of the historical phenomena of the game. Game theory distinguishes between various game categories that are consistently distinguishable from the early beginnings to the present day using the technical terms Ludus, Agon, Alea, Mimikri, Ilinx and Circenses:

The name ludus (from Latin pastime, amusement, fun, teasing, children's play) has its origin in everyday Roman life. These are simple forms of games that children play on the street or board games that the legionaries use to pass their boring waking hours. Corresponding incisions can still be seen today on stones in the Roman ruined cities.

The agon (= Greek fighting game, competition) has its historical roots in Greek antiquity . It was already part of the prehistoric Olympic Games . Its main characteristic is the struggle. Agones were held in the oldest times as chariot races of the higher and richer classes. The lower strata were active in pankration (= all-round combat) and other forms of direct physical confrontation. In the course of history, more and more forms of play have accumulated under the umbrella of the Olympic Games, until in modern times games and sports have assumed an almost synonymous meaning. Today's great sports games grew out of the agon tradition in terms of their meaning and structure.

Alea (= Latin dice> dice game , game of chance , game of chance ) refers to all forms of play, the success or failure of which can be ascribed less to one's own performance than to chance. Their tradition continues to this day in the lottery , toto and roulette games .

Mimikri (from the Greek mimos, English mimic = imitation, masking, imitation) primarily refers to playing on a stage and in front of an audience and has been realized since time immemorial in the game cultures as theater , clown or puppet play .

Ilinx (= intoxication, ecstasy) is the name for ritual games with a religious reference, which are usually performed in trance , also under the influence of drugs, and to which people ascribe magical and prophetic meaning. They still have a living tradition in Buddhist, Hindu and natural religious cultures such as Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal, India and Africa.

Circenses (from Latin circus games , plays ) got their fame and reputation from late antiquity , especially the Roman Empire. In order to calm down the masses and win them over, the emperors organizedspectacular games with free access (“panem et circenses”)in large arenas built especially for them. It was a bloody fighting game between different predators, with gladiators , under Nero also with the involvement of the hated Christians. This category of games above all satisfied the spectacle and sensationalism of the broad masses of the population.

Structure of the game material

The first European game collections such as that of the satirist Johann Fischart (Geschichtsklitterung / Gargantua 1575) or that of the Dutch peasant painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Ä. (Children's games 1560) were accidental inventories of the common forms of play. With the preparation for educational use, the philanthropist Guts Muths (1796) already needed a meaningful structure of the extensive toys . According to the complexity of the problem area, the classification aspects in the game literature vary according to the chosen perspective and the area of ​​application. For example, game collections for immediate practical use are classified according to the age of the players, the type of use, the playground, the materials or the playground equipment. The widespread system of Warwitz / Rudolf is based on the 'meaning' of similarly structured game forms and comes - without claiming to be exhaustive - on fourteen large groups of games:

Theories of origin

Game and play are as old as humanity itself. They are closely linked to the character and needs of human beings. But since they can also be controlled, gaming research is interested in the causes, beyond the pure striving for knowledge, which allow this fascinating form of activity to emerge and keep alive in every generation and in every person. In their historical analyzes, Warwitz / Rudolf found ten fundamental theories, which result from different technical aspects:

  • The theory of excess force ( Herbert Spencer 1865) bases the need to play on an excess of physical and psychological energy that urges activity.
  • The work recovery theory ( Moritz Lazarus 1883) puts the desire to regenerate after hard work in the foreground.
  • The exercise theory ( Karl Groos 1899) sees the training of elementary survival techniques in humans and animals as an essential starting point for playing.
  • The fear defense theory ( Sigmund Freud 1901) ascribes an important role to the self-healing powers in acting out fear-inducing situations.
  • The theory of escape from reality ( Sigmund Freud 1903) names taking a camouflage role (as a clown or fantasy hero) as a motive to escape from the sobering reality.
  • The drive theory ( Frederik Jacobus Johannes Buytendijk 1933) favors the drive system of humans and animals (play instinct, movement instinct , social instinct) as the driving force.
  • The cultural creation theory ( Johan Huizinga 1938) assumes that all significant cultural achievements (philosophy, poetry, art, science) ultimately grow out of the game.
  • The theory of environmental assessment ( Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt 1969) assigns the decisive importance to curiosity behavior.
  • The cognitive theory ( Jean Piaget 1975) interprets playing as an outflow of the intelligence development of the different phases of life.
  • The dialectic theory ( Brian Sutton-Smith 1978) describes playing as a correspondence between “adaptive” (absorbing) and “innovative” (creative) handling of environmental conditions.

Today's game science advocates a pluralistic explanatory model and sees the various historical patterns of interpretation as partial aspects that overlap and complement each other in many ways in the reality of the game.

See also

literature

  • Bernd Badegruber: Games for problem solving . Linz 1994
  • Johannes Bilstein, Matthias Winzen , Christoph Wulf (Ed.): Anthropology and pedagogy of the game . Weinheim 2005
  • Frederik Jacobus Johannes Buytendijk : The essence and meaning of the game . Berlin 1933
  • Wolfgang Einsiedler : The children's game. On the pedagogy and psychology of children's play . Bad Heilbrunn 3rd edition 1999
  • Roger Caillois : The games and the people. Mask and intoxication . Frankfurt 1982
  • Andreas Flitner : Play - Learn. Practice and interpretation of the children's game . 12th edition Munich 2002
  • Birgit Fuchs: Games for the group atmosphere . Munich 1998
  • Johann Christoph Friedrich GutsMuths : Games for exercise and relaxation of the body and mind . Schnepfental 1796 (Berlin 1959)
  • Johan Huizinga : Homo ludens. From the origin of culture in the game . 6th edition Hamburg 1963. ISBN 3-499-55435-6
  • Hans Mogel: Psychology of children's games: from the earliest games to computer games . Berlin 3rd edition 2008
  • Rolf Oerter : Psychology of the game . Weinheim 2nd edition 1997
  • Terry Orlick: New Cooperative Games. More than 200 competitive free games for kids and adults . Weinheim and Basel. 4th edition 1996
  • Jean Piaget : imitation, play and dream . Stuttgart 1975
  • Anita Rudolf, Siegbert A. Warwitz: Playing - rediscovered. Basics-suggestions-help . Freiburg 1982
  • Hans Scheuerl : The game. Investigations into its nature, its pedagogical possibilities and limits . Weinheim and Basel 11th edition 1990
  • Siegbert A. Warwitz (ed.): Games of other times and peoples . Karlsruhe 1998
  • Siegbert A. Warwitz, Anita Rudolf: From the sense of playing. Reflections and game ideas . 4th edition, Baltmannsweiler 2016, ISBN 978-3-8340-1664-5 .
  • Hans Zulliger : Healing powers in children's play . Stuttgart 1979

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b J. Huizinga: Homo ludens. From the origin of culture in the game . 6th edition Hamburg 1963
  2. ↑ H. Mogel: Psychology of children's games: From the earliest games to computer games . Berlin 3rd edition 2008
  3. ↑ A. Rudolf / SA Warwitz: Playing - rediscovered. Basics-suggestions-help . Freiburg 1982
  4. ^ SA Warwitz / A. Rudolf: From the sense of playing. Reflections and game ideas . 4th edition, Baltmannsweiler 2016, pages 18–22.
  5. ↑ W. Einsiedler: The children's game. On the pedagogy and psychology of children's play . Bad Heilbrunn 3rd edition 1999
  6. ^ A. Flitner: Play - Learn. Practice and interpretation of the children's game . 12th edition Munich 2002.
  7. ↑ FJJ Buytendijk: the nature and meaning of the game . Berlin 1933
  8. ↑ F. Schiller: About the aesthetic education of man . 15th letter. Complete Works Vol. 4. Stuttgart 1874. pp. 591–595.
  9. ^ B. Badegruber: Games for Problem Solving . Linz 1994.
  10. ↑ H. Zulliger: Healing powers in children's play . Stuttgart 1979
  11. ^ B. Fuchs: Games for the group atmosphere . Munich 1998.
  12. ↑ T. Orlick: New cooperative games. More than 200 competitive free games for kids and adults . Weinheim and Basel. 4th edition 1996.
  13. ↑ JCF Guts Muths: Games for the exercise and relaxation of the body and mind . Schnepfental 1796 (Berlin 1959).
  14. ^ SA Warwitz (ed.): Games of other times and peoples . Karlsruhe 1998
  15. ^ SA Warwitz, A. Rudolf: From the sense of playing. Reflections and game ideas . 4th edition, Baltmannsweiler 2016.
  16. ^ Jean Piaget: Imitation, Game and Dream . Stuttgart 1975
  17. ^ R. Caillois: The games and the people. Mask and intoxication . Frankfurt 1982
  18. ^ R. Caillois: The games and the people. Mask and intoxication . Frankfurt 1982
  19. ^ SA Warwitz, A. Rudolf: From the sense of playing. Reflections and game ideas . 4th edition, Baltmannsweiler 2016, pages 37–125.
  20. ^ H. Scheuerl: The game. Investigations into its nature, its pedagogical possibilities and limits . Weinheim and Basel 11th edition 1990.
  21. ^ SA Warwitz, A. Rudolf: From the sense of playing. Reflections and game ideas . 4th edition, Baltmannsweiler 2016. pp. 9-17.