Paidea and Ludus & Other Concepts

Games can be difficult to constrain into broad archetypes but a very elegant form of it can be seen in the 'Paidea vs. Ludus' discussion.

Paidea means 'play' and is essentially the concept of enjoyment for its own sake. Running around with a toy plane pretending that it is flying would be considered paidea for example. The idea is that this is what you do when you're feeling imaginative or creative, there's no ultimate purpose to what you're doing beyond the fact that it's something you like to do.

Ludus is the concept of playing towards a specific goal. This could be things like football, where your goal is to get a higher score than the other team while abiding by a strict set of rules as to what you can and cannot do to achieve this. Generally less creative, as your role and what you must do are usually more restricted to fit the game.

With these broad ideas in mind I'll now state a few gaming examples of each:

Paidea

Dungeons & Dragons [D&D] - this is one of the better fitted games due to the nature in which it's played. A storyteller/adjudicator gives the players a situation or setting and lets them attempt what they like. There is usually a set of rules appropriate to specific tasks in these types of games but the important thing to take is that there's no set win or lose condition. The storyteller (called a DM in Dungeons & Dragons) adjusts and improvises the world and situations based on what the players want from the game. A game could end up with the players being more interested in making and selling shoes than fighting monsters, which is entirely fine. The rulebooks state on many occasions that they are simply guides and that if ignoring them would make for a better game then that's the way to go. Paidea at its core.

X3: Albion Prelude - the game and game engine obviously have many rules inherent within them and also contain some story and missions you can pursue if you wish. However, this game fits under the paidea category because you don't have to do any of the story or missions if you don't want to. You are given a spaceship at the start with a few simple guns and cargo space and you can make of yourself whatever you wish. If you want to start a haulage service you can do so. If you want to shoot everything you see this is also fine. Alternatively you can avoid conflict entirely, just exploring the universe and taking in the scenery. You can fly where you like from the beginning and do whatever you like at any step of the way. It's a game where you can make your own story. It also doesn't have an end (much like D&D) and therefore the only reason to stop would be by your own volition.

Ludus

Grim Fandango - A classic Lucasarts adventure game in which you guide the protagonist through a set narrative, making minor choices along the way but ultimately never affecting the outcome. The goal of this game is to solve the puzzles and further the story until it reaches its conclusion. Despite being entirely restricted throughout the game (even down to areas you can go to or people you can talk to) it isn't a downfall in any sense. The restrictions mean that the story can be better written and the dialogue more appropriate and witty. The puzzles and game-play elements help you to get immersed by making you think within the reality of the world and thereby become more involved with the story. This is something that is only possible in the rules and restrictions of a ludus game.

Pandemic - A board-game in which the player(s) must work within the rules to 'defeat' the game itself as it attempts to take over the world with deadly pathogens. There are a number of different modes to play the game in, especially with the expansion 'On The Brink' which adds more variation. Each mode has clearly defined win and lose conditions however and the players must attempt to think strategically about how to achieve their goal within the constraints imposed. The game would have little purpose if the rules weren't abided by as they determine the challenge and the point of playing. Without the board introducing the pathological cubes to various cities then there would be no lose conditions and therefore no challenge.

Paidea vs. Ludus

There is no justification for fun (as long as no-one is harmed in the process!) and what one person finds enjoyable another may find crude and unappealing. I don't think there is a competition between the two, as they both clearly have their place in the gaming world. However; the question of whether any game is singularly ludus or paidea is a difficult one and I'm not sure anything truly is. In D&D there is always the semblance of rules in the very fact that a storyteller is present and it is their decisions that ultimately affect the fate of the player's characters. Similarly X3 would not work if it did not have all of the content and coding that makes it what it is. You can do whatever you like in X3, as long as that involves flying spaceships around the X3 universe.

On the other end of the scale you can cheat or bend the rules of games such as Pandemic or Grim Fandango. There's still a set ultimate goal of course and if you're not adhering to that then you're not truly playing the games but using another person's savegame to get past a hard puzzle or ignoring the next 'Epidemic' card which comes up is not truly playing within the game creator's confines. This is a moot point however and we could be scrutinising games forever if don't get past the notion of absolutes when we're talking about such grey concepts as 'play' and 'fun'.

Agon, Alea, Ilinx & Mimicry

These weird looking words are further ways to categorise our theories of fun and how it's enjoyed:

* Agon - competition or struggle. The idea of a game being a fight or opposed challenge where something needs to be bested. An example would be fencing, where you must physically and mentally best your opponent with swordplay. Another example would be Starcraft, where you must outwit your opponent on a tactical level while also knowing the game mechanics on an intuitive level.

* Alea - chance or randomness. A game with a large degree of chance involved, such as Snakes & Ladders, where the winner is entirely determined by chance. Another example would be many popular MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft, where equipment and items have a percentage chance of appearing each time you perform a certain task (such as killing a boss monster).

* Ilinx - movement. A game that has large part of it revolving around movement in some manner. Flight games are a primary example of this, where you get a feeling of freedom of moment from being in control of your vehicle. Assassin's Creed or Mirror's Edge are great examples of this, where one of the main game elements involves mastering the movement of the characters and navigating the world with ease.

* Mimicry - role-play or simulation. This is the concept of being involved with the game, either caring about the characters (which're ultimately not real in any sense) or being able to believe the world or environment to some degree. Suspension of disbelief is the key to enjoying games that involve this, such as accepting that you're in danger and allowing yourself to get scared when playing a horror game. Another example would be the Armed Assault series where a large draw of the game is the attempt at portraying a realistic war environment. This wouldn't be an important part of development if mimicry wasn't a strong part of people's enjoyment of games.

Of course, most games are various mixtures of these 4 sub-definitions and will also fall under the main definitions as well. It is important to be aware of these concepts because it will allow you to understand what it is that people find appealing about particular games. I imagine that the most popular games have understood these concepts (or something very similar) and have managed to effectively promote those aspects and presumably cater to their strong points.