Services on Demand
article
Indicators
Share
Revista Mal Estar e Subjetividade
Print version ISSN 1518-6148
Abstract
BRANDAO, Roberta Purper; BITTENCOURT, Maria Inês Garcia de Freitas and VILHENA, Junia de. A mágica do jogo e o potencial do brincar. Rev. Mal-Estar Subj. [online]. 2010, vol.10, n.3, pp. 835-863. ISSN 1518-6148.
The invention of digital technology introduced the most complex toy and game ever created: the video game. This new mediums is interactive, immediate, and offers non-linear narratives and environments where "real" and "virtual" worlds can be interconnected. These characteristics contribute to the expansion of the game's "magic" circle into a potential space where the player can communicate, act and interact in real-time with other players and artificially intelligent virtual characters. Through "uncertain" narratives, where the beginning, middle and end are not entirely pre-determined, players can collaborate and have co-authorship of the experience. The article explores the potential of videogames beyond the in-vogue rhetorics of fun and progress for entertainment and serious games. Between the two extremes in the axis paidia and ludus, or the informality of unstructured play and the formality of rule-based games, there is a vast intermediary area to be explored. The theory of a potential space, between what is internal and external to the player, introduced by D.W. Winnicott, offers a conceptual model that expands the borders of Huizinga´s magic circle. From this perspective, the article discusses the complex "magic" of videogames, the "potential space" of creative play, and proposes a healthy inter-game between designer and player.
Keywords : Creativity; Games; Magic circle; Potential space; Inter-game.