Magister Ludi: Play Anything, by Ian Bogost

Ian Bogost writes for the Atlantic, my go-to for that vicarious thrill of instant publication, instant readership, that sense that words still matter even in the most ephemeral online news. He edits the series of games studies books from MIT that make up that recent Humble Bundle my friend Ryan recommended to me. And he's got a new book out with a provocative subtitle: The Pleasures of Limits, the Uses of Boredom, and the Secret of Games.

So, Play Anything. Here's what I take to be the central claim:

Suddenly, a silly, forgettable activity--reciting words in order--becomes a compelling experience that warrants serious attention. The experience becomes much larger than the constraints that create it.
By embracing more limitations, a seemingly meaningless idea becomes a more meaningful experience. This paradox of play--the idea that fun arises from limiting freedoms rather than enhancing them--isn't only true of board games or card games or playground games or video games. It can be found in any kind of material whatsoever. (140)

Poetry, "reciting words in order," is discussed in the following chapter, and a brilliant synopsis of Homeric style it is! But up to that point, the leitmotif that dominates Bogost's argument comes from an anecdote about going shopping with his daughter, whilst she plays at skipping cracks, propelled by his guiding hand across the tiles on the mall floor.

For more on this--ironic distance and David Foster Wallace-style compassionate angst, shades of Huizinga and Foucault, and the applications of all this to video games--check out episodes 16 & 17 of Bookwarm Games!