Production 5: HuizingaUnknown's Battlegrounds
A Definition of Play
Play is nearly undefinable. As Mary Flanagan explains in her book Critical Play (2009), "play is a notoriously difficult concept to define; it is a culturally and socially specific idea." (4) Nevertheless, drawing from the work of historians Roger Caillois and Johan Huizinga on play, this production will attempt to define play and apply said definition to one of the most prolific games current available, the battle-royale title PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. It will, in other words, parse out how PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is, and can be, played.
In their theories of play, Huizinga and Caillois agree that play is voluntary and free. Huizinga notes that, "first and foremost, then, all play is a voluntary activity." (102) Caillois says something similar. He writes, "there is also no doubt that play must be defined as a free...activity." (125) Additionally, both note that play ought not be binding, and that participants can decide to stop at any time. The two authors also concur that play typically concerns rules: Huizinga calls rules "order" that ought to be followed for the game to work (105), while Caillois says, "the...intricate laws of ordinary life are replaced...by precise, arbitrary, exceptionable rules that must be accepted." (125-6)
Furthermore, the duo believe that play has its own spaces and is at least partially fantastical. Caillois posits that play is, "circumscribed within limits of space and time," (127) and Huizinga affirms that players limit their activities via time and space (105). One way Huizinga and Caillois diverge, however, is in their views on the "seriousness" of play. Huizinga thinks that play is non-serious and pure make-believe (107-108). Caillois points out that some games, and especially gambling, can have significant and serious material stakes (34). He classifies this kind of play as "alea", games of chance where, "the role of money is also generally more impressive than the role of chance."
Huizinga and Caillois' ideas converge on the social and theatrical nature of play. Huizinga calls it a "social function" (99), and asserts that a fundamental element of play is the act of "dressing up", or when one comes to "play [the] part" of another character (107), a tendency that makes itself obvious in rituals. Caillois, naturally, says similar things. He thinks that games are usually social, but that they are playable alone as well, and, "possess so many different characteristics that many approaches are possible" (129). One of these characteristics he shares with Huizinga is the concept of "mimicry", games where players present themselves as others, often with children masquerading as adults (136). One last noteworthy elements of play is Caillois' notion of play as "paidia" or "ludus", play as either "free improvisation" or tension, skill and obstacles (130).
PUBG
Overviewing these traits, we can safely describe play as being: free, social or alone, ruled, a specific space, involving some sort of mimicry, and either spontaneous (paidia) or bounded by conventions (ludus).
Thinking of a specific digital game example, players incorporate many of Huizinga-Caillois' characteristics of play when interacting with PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. For context, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is a "battle-royale" game, a competitive multiplayer genre in which players compete to be the "last man standing" on a map that slowly shrinks. With matches of 100 players at a time fighting against one another PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds fits into Caillois' category of "agon", or competitive games where, "adversaries confront each other under ideal conditions." (131) What is more, the title incorporates elements of alea, as resources spawn in at random places across each map and providing players with an element of chance.
In relation to this production's specific definition, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is free in the sense that players can hop in and out of the game with no penalty. Furthermore, the choice to play the game is, at least in my case, voluntary. Likewise, it is a social game, either played as a free-for-all or in squads, small group of three or four. Interestingly, though, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds certainly has an element of loneliness to it. When played solo in a free-for-all, the game's maps are massive, meaning that there are long stretches of gameplay where no one is around and the experience feels non-social, albeit until another player appears. Unlike a more traditional multiplayer shooter like Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare or Battlefield: Hardline', which feature tighter maps with more action, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds encapsulates this assignment's definition of play because it can be at once lonely and inherently social.
In terms of space, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds exemplifies Huizinga and Caillois' idea of the "play space" because its in-game areas are rigidly defined: the player spawns into an island, and a massive blue wall encroaches on players, funneling them into confined areas. As a digital game, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has a second play space as well, that is, the physical play space where one's console or computer is set up. This space for me is a desk with my Xbox One and speakers. To that end, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is heavily ruled: players must defeat others to win, they can spawn in at whatever point they wish, certain controls perform certain actions, there are bullet-velocity and damage systems in place, and players need to conserve resources, from guns to bullet-proof vests to med-kits, to collect kills and survive.
Conversely, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is certain classifiable as ludus. This is because, in order to achieve the game's desired goal, players must submit to countless arbitrary conventions, to use Caillois' term. Per Caillois' definition, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds features significant skill requirements. It has deep systems and procedures. Thus, players need map knowledgem muscle memory, patience, and stealth skills to succeed, just like any other game of ludus. And PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is often unbearably tense. As players move into smaller spaces in which players have no idea where each other are, and where death means the end of the game for said players, one cannot help but feel tense and anxious. Indeed, the ludic nature of the game, and especially its exciting moments, has led to the creation of the "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds Global Championship", an esports venture with prize-pools of many hundreds of thousands of dollars. In this way, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds's arbitrary stakes, skills, and tension line up with Caillois' definition of ludic play.
Interestingly, playing PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds involves mimicry. When booting up the game for the first time, players must create their own avatar, and then assume control over it in combat. They can tweak these avatars to their liking, and adorn them with skins and other cosmetic items. PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds therefore intrinsically involves an element of mimicry. To that end, the game also features an element of role-playing, as users must pretend to exist as soldiers in uncanny environments. Naturally, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has no narrative, yet its situating of players in another diegesis, as another character, qualifies it at least partially as mimicry.
In sum, then, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is played using most of the elements of Huizinga and Caillois' definitions of play. The dynamic nature of the game, with elements of freedom, skill, seriousness, restricted spaces, mimicry and social play may explain why the game is as popular as it currently is. Correspondingly, as this analysis showed, Huizinga and Caillois' definitions of play are equally dynamic and applicable to digital experiences. Play may be impossible to define, but the term's amorphous nature opens it to a multitude of examples. Huizinga and Caillois did not have PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds in mind when they theorized play. All the same, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is played in certain ways, ways that conforms to their theories.
