Parties as playful experiences
Partying is a widespread, understudied, and playful phenomena. Game Studies has seen great value from defining important concepts related to games since its inception. Foundational play and game scholars urged for a need to analyze parties and celebrations as a form of playfulness, yet there is litt...
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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Septentrio Academic Publishing
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Eludamos |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/eludamos/article/view/7562 |
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| Summary: | Partying is a widespread, understudied, and playful phenomena. Game Studies has seen great value from defining important concepts related to games since its inception. Foundational play and game scholars urged for a need to analyze parties and celebrations as a form of playfulness, yet there is little empirical Game Studies work enabling a deeper understanding of partying. Partying bears striking resemblances to games: inefficient use of resources, arbitrary rules, cultural group formation, and ongoing moral panics. There are also practical overlaps: games occur at parties and digital party games are quite popular. This work contributes to a deeper understanding of parties by analyzing 33 semi-structured interviews where individuals from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds had highly playful experiences at parties. A new theoretical conception of partying as a form of playfulness is proposed as a “phenomenon that creates an experience of social connection in a group mediated through a shared engagement-prioritizing activity”. This work concludes with a call for party studies to become a sub-field in game studies.
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| ISSN: | 1866-6124 |