Blog Task 2 - Paidea and Ludus Games

Newman, Author of the book, What Is A Video Game?, refers to a French sociologist,when describing games as Paidea and Ludus.

Paidea -effectively means playing for pleasure.

Ludus - refers to being constrained by rules where there is a clear winner.

there are also four other terms to define specific games under Paidea and Ludus.

Agon - competition games

Alea - games that involve chance/randomness

Ilinx - games that involve movement

Mimicry - games that are simulation, make-believe or role play

Here is a table that shows some games that fall under each of the four terms

	Paidea	Ludus
Agon	Battlefield 4	NBA 2K14
Alea	Terraria	Chess
Linx	Sims	Metal Gear Solid
mimicry	Star Wars The Old Republic	Need for Speed

Battlefield 4 - Is a highly competitive action/fps game and without a doubt it easily falls under the category of Paidea as you are not constrained by rules like in other game, for example there is no order you have to kill your enemies or certain way you have to kill them, you just kill them however you see fit

NBA 2K14 - Is a highly competitive basketball game and easily falls under ludus as the rules of the game cannot be changed you have to play the game according to the rule set and no matter how good you are at the game or how high up in the leader-boards you are you must play according to the rules.

Terraria - This game is a 2d open world builder this game allows the player to play at their own pace this game is centred around exploring and allows the player to explore as much or as little of the game as much as they like, Terreria's chance/random aspects are forever present as you could be digging down to search for gold but instead you find that you have dug into cave full of enemies

Chess - is undoubtedly confined to strict rules not only does the game have its own rules but so do the pieces such as how far they can move what direction they can/can't move, the idea of the game is to move your piece's around the board in order to capture your opponents pieces and preventing the other players king from moving this is called checkmate

Sims - is a movement game in which you control the characters lives you tell them wheat to do and where to go, you move them around as they build houses and construct families

Metal Gear Solid - the metal gear solid series is widely know and respected for its movement in games in relation to its stealth mechanic, the plauer must move around the game area whilst hiding from the hostile npcs, the player is restricted by rules suchas the player must get from A to B and in some cases the player must do this without getting spotted

Star Wars The Old Republic - is an mmo (massively multilayer online) game. In this game the player creates their own character in terms of allegiance (republic or empire), race, appearance, class once this is done the player can complete quests as the see fit there are optional quests and main story quests the player does not have to complete quests in any set order (except for main story quests) but they are free to play and roam around as they see fit. 

 
Need For Speed - is a racing game in which you race famous cars around different tracks, the player is restricted by the rules the main rule that the player has to follow is usually to come first