Play Matters——會玩至關(guān)重要
On Thinking Playfully
Many people find video games exhilarating, but it can be just as interesting toponder why that is so. What do video games do? What can they be used for? Howdo they work? How do they relate to the rest of the world? Why is play both soimportant and so powerful?
Our?basic assumption is simple: video games are such a flourishing medium that any?new perspective on them is likely to show us something unseen or forgotten,including those from such unconventional voices as artists, philosophers, or?specialists in other industries of fields of study. These books are bridge?builders, cross-pollinating both areas with new knowledge and new ways of?thinking蠢琳。
At its heart, this is what playful thinking is all about: new ways of thinkingabout games and new ways of using games to think about the rest of the world.
很多人發(fā)現(xiàn)電子游戲讓人欲罷不能傻昙，其實思考其中緣由也一樣趣味十足。電玩游戲都在做什么扼褪？有什么用蕉拢？怎么運作的眯牧？與現(xiàn)實生活有什么聯(lián)系？為什么玩如此重要且有力呢外恕？
在此我們所做的基本假設(shè)非常簡單：電子游戲自身異常繁盛杆逗，幾乎不受任何其他新觀點的干擾和影響乡翅，即使這些觀點并非傳統(tǒng)，而是來自新銳的藝術(shù)家罪郊、哲學(xué)家或者其他領(lǐng)域研究的專家們蠕蚜。趣味思考系列書籍作為橋梁，建立起新的知識與新思考方式之間的交流融合悔橄。
核心在于靶累，這才是趣味思考的關(guān)鍵所在：用新的方式來思考游戲這件事，同時用游戲的方式來思考游戲外的世界癣疟。
Play Is
Think about play, and what it means to you
What comes to minds? A pastime? Games? Childhood activitise? The opposite of work? Asource for learning? What you’d rather be doing now?
Think again: how much do you know about play?
Let’s start with a simple exercise. List your daily activities,the tasks thatstructure your day, from work to leisure to those things you have to do that are neither,yet you have to do them.
How do you do these tasks? If you are happy and well rested, you may approach yourday in a playful way, enjoying what you do. Happiness may give you time toplay, to live in a different way. The temptation of enjoying and living life through play, of having fun, is always present.
說起玩來挣柬，一下映入你腦子的究竟是什么呢？休閑時光争舞？游戲凛忿？孩子才做的事？工作的反面竞川？一種學(xué)習(xí)方式店溢？現(xiàn)在你最想做的事？
再想一想委乌，你對玩究竟知道多少床牧？
來做個簡單的測試。列出你每天的常規(guī)任務(wù)遭贸，即那些不管是在工作還是休閑戈咳，你都不得不做的事，或者即使并非工作也非休閑壕吹，你依然不得不做的事著蛙。
你如何完成這些任務(wù)的呢？如果你很開心耳贬，休息充足踏堡，你一天過得將很有趣，享受你所做的咒劲。幸福感讓你有時間以不同的方式來玩顷蟆，來生活。以玩的方式來享受生活腐魂，獲得樂趣帐偎，永遠(yuǎn)有其饋贈般的魅力。
To play is to be in the world. Playing is a form of understanding what surroundsus and who we are, and a way of engaging with others. Play is a mode of being human.
We live in exciting times. You might have encountered the argument that games are now everywhere; that intellectuals, artists, policymakers, and institutions are games for serious and trival purposes. You might have also read that games willbe “the dominant cultural form of the XXI Century.” There is even talk among game developers of the twenty-first century being “the ludic(ai in,play-centric) century.”
I disagree, to a certain extent. Games don’t matter. Like in the old fable, weare the fools looking at the finger when someone points at the moon. Games arethe finger; play is the moon.
會玩即是活著蛔屹。玩讓我們理解周圍削樊，理解自己是誰，如何和周圍的人聯(lián)系在一起判导，玩是成為人的一種模式嫉父。
我們活在一個娛樂的時代沛硅。也許你早已聽到這樣的論調(diào)眼刃，今日游戲遍布所有绕辖；知識分子、藝術(shù)家擂红、政客仪际、機構(gòu)都是其嚴(yán)肅或者瑣碎的目的而成的游戲。也許你也看到了這樣的說法昵骤，游戲會成為“某某世紀(jì)的統(tǒng)治性文化現(xiàn)象”树碱。游戲研發(fā)者們甚至有這樣的討論，說二十一世紀(jì)將是一個“以游戲為中心的世紀(jì)“变秦。
某種意義上成榜，我并不認(rèn)同以上的說法。游戲并非實質(zhì)蹦玫。就像古老的寓言中那樣赎婚，當(dāng)有人指著月亮的時候，我們像傻子一樣盯著指向月亮的手指樱溉。游戲就是那根手指挣输，而玩才是空中皓月啤誊。
What is true is that play is a dominant way of expression in our First World societies. We play games, but also with toys,on playgrounds,with technologies and design. And play is not justthe ludic, harmless,encapasulated, and positive activity that philosophers have described. Like any other form of being, play can be dengerous; it can behurting, damaging, antisocial, corrupting. Play is a manifestation of humanity,used for expressing and being in the world.
To understand what play is, I propose here a portable theory, or rhetoric, of play. Instead of deriving an understanding of play from a particular object oractivity, like war, ritual, or games, I see play as a protable tool for being. It is not tied to objects but brought by people to the complex interralations with and between things that form daily life.
不過嚎花，玩確實成了現(xiàn)代社會一種主要的表達(dá)方式。我們玩游戲握恳，當(dāng)然得有玩具挖帘，有場地完丽，有技術(shù)手段和設(shè)計方法等等。玩不只是如哲學(xué)家定義的那樣拇舀，是愉悅的逻族、無害的、可控的你稚、積極的行為瓷耙，和其他行為一樣，玩同樣可以是危險的刁赖，可能形成疼痛搁痛、傷害、反社會或者墮落宇弛。玩是人性的一部分鸡典，用于表達(dá)，也用于感知這個世界枪芒。
為了進一步理解什么是玩彻况，在此提出一項簡單的理論谁尸，或者叫修辭性描述。玩的概念和戰(zhàn)爭纽甘、傳統(tǒng)或者游戲這樣某一個具體的事良蛮、物并不相同，在我看來悍赢，玩是一種存在的便捷的工具决瞳，它并不依附于某種具體的事物，但確實是人在每天處理人與事物左权，以及事物之間復(fù)雜關(guān)系時在運用的皮胡。
Why propose a theory of play now? in our culture, playful has become a positiveword. The auther of the 2011 biography of Steve Jobs uses playful as a word ofpraise for the design of Apple computers, originally conceived to contrast withdull corporate machines. Apple’s “playful” design appropriated cues from an understanding of play as a personal expression: beauty, countercultural politics, and moral values. That is the value and place of play in our culture.
Despite its importance, we are still trying to understand play with models inheritedfrom the past. Our theories are mostly derived from the work of Dutch cultural historian Johan Huizinga, who famously coined the concept of Homo Ludens. This book is not written in the tradition of Huizingan play, understood as a faircontest that creates a sepatate world with rules that are never questioned. The nature of play I am advocating for here is different from that of Huizinga.
為什么現(xiàn)在提出一項關(guān)于玩的理論呢？因為在我們的文化中赏迟，可玩已經(jīng)成為一個積極正面的詞匯屡贺。2011年喬布斯傳的作者，將可玩作為對Apple電腦設(shè)計的最高稱贊锌杀，這與其他公司無聊死板的機器完全分開了甩栈。Apple的“可玩性”設(shè)計恰如其分的表達(dá)了玩是一種個性：美感，反文化政治抛丽，道德觀念谤职。這才是玩在文化中的價值和地位。
盡管如此重要亿鲜，我們依舊希望能從過去的模式中找到理解玩的方法允蜈。我們的理論很大程度上來自荷蘭文化歷史學(xué)家Johan Huizinga，他以定義了“游戲的人”這一概念而著稱蒿柳。在Huizinga的理論中饶套，玩是一種根據(jù)某種特定不必質(zhì)疑的規(guī)則創(chuàng)造出的獨立體系下的公平賽事，顯然我們書中的玩并不是根據(jù)傳統(tǒng)的Huizinga理論來進行的垒探，在這里所說的玩的性質(zhì)與Huizinga大相徑庭妓蛮。
I am not going to oppose play to reality, to work,to ritual or sports because it exists in all of them. It is a way of being in the world, like languages,thought, faith, reason, and myth.
And play is not necessarily fun. It is pleasurable, but the pleasures it createsare not always submissive to enjoyment, happiness, or positive traits. Play can be pleasurable when it hurts, offends, challenges us and teases us, and evenwhen we are not playing. Let’s not talk about play as fun but as pleasurable,opening us to the immense variations of pleasure in this world.
在這里，我并不將玩與現(xiàn)實圾叼、工作蛤克、傳統(tǒng)或者運動相對立，因為玩存在于所有這些行為中夷蚊，玩是在這個世界存在的一種方式构挤，就像語言、思想惕鼓、信念筋现、理由、神話一樣。
玩也不一定就是有趣的矾飞。玩令人愉悅一膨，但它所產(chǎn)生的愉悅并非總是伴隨著享受、開心或其他正面特征洒沦，玩的愉悅也可能產(chǎn)生在它刺痛豹绪、冒犯、挑戰(zhàn)微谓、取笑我們森篷，甚至在我們不玩的時候输钩。所以不要將玩作為一種樂趣看待豺型，而是一種愉悅，一種能夠開闊世界維度的愉悅买乃。
Play can be dangerous too. It can be addicting and the destructive and may lead to different types of harm-phyical injuries, lost friendships, emotionalbreakdowns. Play is a dance between creation and the destruction, between creativity and nihilism. Playing is a fragile, tense activity, prone tobreakdowns. Individual play is a challenge to oneself, to keep on playing. Collectiveplay is balancing act of egos and interests, of itself and of its players. Play is always on the verge of destruction, of itself and of its players. And that is precisely why it matters. Play is a movement between order and chaos. Liketragedy, it fulfills its expressive purpose when it manages a fragile,oscillating balance between both. This echoes the concept of dark play,exploring the boundaries between play and not play, between performance andsecrecy. Dark play, with its potential dangers and exhilarating results, isanother example of the nature of play as a way of being in the world-adangerous one.
玩也可能是危險的姻氨。玩可能引起上癮，毀滅剪验，或者導(dǎo)致各種類型的生理傷害肴焊，失去朋友，又或心理傷害功戚。玩是在創(chuàng)造與毀滅娶眷、創(chuàng)造力與虛無主義之間的舞蹈。玩是一種緊張脆弱的活動啸臀，極易出錯届宠。一個人的玩對于個人來說持續(xù)玩下去是個挑戰(zhàn)，而團隊玩需要平衡個人和團體利益乘粒，同時平衡玩本身以及其參與者豌注，這種玩法本身就是在毀滅的邊緣徘徊。而這才是玩的本質(zhì)所在,玩游弋于秩序與混亂之間灯萍。就像悲劇一樣轧铁，在其最后的表現(xiàn)力上往往在秩序與混亂之間達(dá)成一種脆弱搖擺的平衡。這就引出了隱形玩的概念旦棉，隱形玩在玩與不玩齿风，表演與機密之間探索其邊界，有其潛在的危險或者充滿驚喜的結(jié)果绑洛，這也從另一方面佐證了玩是在這個充滿危險世界的一種自然客觀存在救斑。
Play is carnvalesque too. Play appropriates events, structures and institutions tomock them and trivialize them, or make them deadly serious. The carnival of the Middle Ages, with its capacity to subvert conventions and institutions in asuspension of time and power, was a symptom of freedom. Carnivalesque playtakes control of the world and gives it to the players for them to explore,challenge, or subvert. It exists; it is part of the world it turns upside down.Through carnivalesque play, we express ourselves, taking over the world to laugh at it and make sense of it too.
Think about the famous Twitter bot-not-bot horse-ebooks. Initially a spam bot, then a piece of automatic found art, and finally a piece of performance art,Horse-ebooks is the perfect example of carnivalesque-dangerous play and playfulness in the age of computing machinery. By taking over a social situation and technology, this (not)-bot-come-art piece played with ourexpections, broke our hearts, and showed us a new way of seeing the world and understanding ourselves. Horse-ebooks was appropriated by a performance artist Jacob Bakkila teased our perception of Twitter and the technologies to which were lingquish our entertainment. The sense of betrayal that some felt whoHorse-ebooks was revealed to be human can be understood only as an example ofcarnivaleaque dark play and the ways in which it can painfully enrich ourlives.
玩也是一場狂歡。玩讓事件诊笤、機構(gòu)系谐、組織變得輕松、簡化，或者讓它們變得異常嚴(yán)肅纪他。中世紀(jì)的狂歡節(jié)就是自由來臨的象征鄙煤，狂歡節(jié)的魔力在于暫停了時間與權(quán)力，從而顛覆了議會和機構(gòu)茶袒√莞眨狂歡式玩樂控制了整個世界，給其中玩家冒險薪寓、挑戰(zhàn)亡资、甚至顛覆的可能。玩就這樣存在向叉，是世界的一部分锥腻，自上而下的。通過狂歡式的玩樂母谎，我們表達(dá)著自己瘦黑，嘲笑自在我們掌握的世界，同時去理解真實的世界奇唤。
回顧一下著名的推特bot-not-bot Horse-ebooks事件幸斥。起初只是一個發(fā)送垃圾信息的木馬程序，然后變成了一種自動發(fā)現(xiàn)的藝術(shù)咬扇，最后變成了一種表演藝術(shù)形式甲葬。Horse-ebooks事件是電腦時代狂歡式玩樂和娛樂性的完美案例。通過某種特定的社交場景懈贺，加上技術(shù)手段经窖，這種“源自機器的藝術(shù)”讓玩的同時，迎合了某些預(yù)期隅居，打破內(nèi)心深處顧慮钠至，給了一個新的視角來理解自己。Horse-ebooks是由表演藝術(shù)家Jacob Bakkila運營的胎源，巧妙抓住了人們對于Twitter的依賴棉钧，它已經(jīng)成了人們所有的娛樂活動了。在Horse-ebooks事件給人造成的那種背叛感覺涕蚤，作為一種狂歡式隱形玩樂的結(jié)果更容易讓人理解宪卿，這也痛苦的感覺也是一種豐富生命的方式。
This is also not a theory of play through games. Games donot matter that much. Theyare a manifestation, a form of and for play, just not the only one. They are the strongest form, culturally and economically dominant. But they are part of an ecology of playthings and play contexts, from toys to playgrounds, from political action to aesthetic performance, through which play is used forexpression. The book explores this ecology, from conventional computer andboard games to sports, activism, critical engineering, interaction design,toys, and playgrounds. Play is the force that ties these design, toys, and playgrounds. Play is the force that ties these cultural expressions togetherand makes them matter.
這也不是一個通過游戲來理解玩的理論万栅。游戲本身并不重要佑钾，游戲只是玩的一種表達(dá)方式，是其中一種形式烦粒，而非唯一的形式休溶。在文化和經(jīng)濟層面上代赁，游戲是玩的最強烈的表現(xiàn)形式，但也只是玩和玩的內(nèi)容這整個生態(tài)系統(tǒng)的一部分兽掰，從玩具到操場芭碍，從政治活動到體育競賽，這些都是玩的表現(xiàn)形式窖壕。本書在于探索整個玩的生態(tài)系統(tǒng)，從電腦杉女、桌游到運動瞻讽、行動主義、關(guān)鍵工程熏挎、交互設(shè)計速勇、玩具和操場。玩將這些設(shè)計婆瓜、玩具快集、操場聯(lián)系在一起，它才是將這些文化的表達(dá)方式維系在一起的力量廉白，因為玩，這些事物才有了實質(zhì)的意義乖寒。
I am aware of both my ambition and the obvious limitations of what I can do. Mine is a ramantic theory (or rhetoric) of play, based on an idea of creativity and expression that has been developed in the highly postromantic culturalevironment of the early twenty-first century. I write this theory of play as a reaction to the instrumentalized, mechanistic thinking of play championed bypostmodern culture industries. This is a theory that acts as a call to playful arms, an invocation of play as a struggle against efficiency, seriouness, andtechnical determinism.
在此我也意識到我的雄心壯志和力不從心猴蹂。我表達(dá)的玩的理論或者描述，是基于二十一世紀(jì)早期后浪漫主義文化下充分發(fā)展的對于創(chuàng)造力和表達(dá)的觀點楣嘁，而我要對抗的是當(dāng)下在現(xiàn)代工業(yè)文化下產(chǎn)生的工具化結(jié)構(gòu)性玩的概念磅轻。在現(xiàn)在的概念里，玩就是和效率逐虚，嚴(yán)肅聋溜，技術(shù)性決策對抗的臂膀和祈禱。
If?and when this era passes, my theory will be rendered obsolete. But right now,we need to think about play matters and reclaim play as a way of expression, a?way of engaging with the world—not as an activity of consumption but asan activity of production. Like literature, art, song, and dance; like politics and love and math, play is a way of engaging and expressing our being in theworld.
當(dāng)這個時代過去了叭爱，我的理論可能會被徹底摒棄撮躁。但是現(xiàn)在，我們必須看到买雾，會玩至關(guān)重要把曼，玩是自我表達(dá)、理解世界的方式漓穿，玩不是一種消費性行為嗤军，而是一種生產(chǎn)性行為。就如同文學(xué)晃危、藝術(shù)叙赚、歌舞，而或政治、愛情震叮、數(shù)學(xué)沿量，玩是在這個世界上我們自我表達(dá)、相互理解的一種方式冤荆。
In fact, play is a fundamental part of our moral well-being, of the healthy andmature and complete human life. Through play we experience the world, weconstruct it and we destroy it, and we explore who we are and what we can say. Playfrees us from moral conventions but makes them still present, so we are awareof their weight, presense, and importance.
實際上朴则，對于我們道德成熟、身體康健钓简、心理成熟發(fā)展乌妒，玩都是基礎(chǔ)組成部分。通過玩外邓，我們經(jīng)歷了這個世界撤蚊，構(gòu)建了它，也摧毀了它损话。我們探尋自己是誰侦啸，我們能說什么。玩讓我們從道德傳統(tǒng)中解放出來丧枪，同時知道它們依舊在光涂，并且知道了它們的存在和重要性。
【編者編】
感知世界拧烦，每一分每一秒都可以是玩忘闻，有意識或者無意識的。玩的心態(tài)和視角恋博，不一定能讓所經(jīng)歷的事更簡單齐佳，或者可以重啟再來一遍，但有可以紓解那種覺得結(jié)果命中注定的沉悶债沮，又或因為感受到這種沉悶而依然有成就感炼吴，畢竟這才是真實的世界，輸贏對錯疫衩，喜怒哀樂都得一玩硅蹦。
