Caillois- The Definition of Play

Caillois opens up this reading by discussing Huizinga and his definition of “play,” and he almost immediately shuts it down, claiming that it is “too narrow.” Interestingly enough, I actually found myself getting slightly annoyed at Huizinga’s definition while reading it, and thought the exact same thing as Caillois. The first thing in Huizinga’s definition that told me right away that it was outdated was his comment on profit and how none can come from play as he believes it is not concerned with material possessions. However, people have been monetizing joy and pleasure ever since the conception of man, and surely that wouldn’t end with the more modern definitions of “play.” Some obvious examples of profits tied to genuine play are professional sports players and, more recently, professional gamers. While one could argue that adding a monetary value to genuine enjoyment can decrease that feeling, it is human nature in a capitalist system to put a price on our own happiness so long as it appears valuable to others, and that doesn’t necessarily mean people can’t enjoy it.

Caillois expands on Huizinga’s definition of “play” and says that forcing someone to play defeats the purpose and robs them of that feeling of pure enjoyment. Additionally, he claims that play is entirely separate from normal life, must contain an element of uncertainty, and is lacking in rules. On the surface, these seem like perfect definitions of “play,” but his discussion of rules seems a little misguided. Rules aren’t there to prevent players from doing what they want, but rather, rules are there to create a better environment in which the player is able to freely experience all the different possibilities a game has to offer. For example, in popular table-top roleplaying games like Dungeons and Dragons, the main point of the game is to tell a story that, like Caillois says, is completely separate and different from normal life. Not having any rules in a game like this may initially seem like it would allow for more creativity, but actually what this leads to is determining the outcome of the game yourself and ridding the game of that uncertainty that feeds a player’s excitement to continue playing. Instead, Dungeons and Dragons uses a dice system where the players can still come up with their own creative path but leave the possibility of these choices up to chance by rolling a dice that tells them how likely it is that their desired choice could actually play out. In this case, rules are actually far more beneficial to a player’s enjoyment and they create more suspense and the possibility for more surprises.