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An exploration of how we know we’re playing and what happens when we don’t. Pearce teases out distinctions between ritual and play activities, including social practices in which they merge or are indistinguishable, as well as incidents of frame breach or misalignment, where participants’ perception of “what is going on” diverges. These principles are illustrated with a series of four topical studies that explore various scenarios in which play and non-play contexts are juxtaposed or blurred. These span from delightful--fan convention cosplay and simulated and virtual weddings--to confusing--virtual currency and bitcoin--to dangerous. Building on recent research, the book culminates with an in-depth analysis of the gaming roots of the January 6 Capitol insurrection and argues that playframe breach and deliberate misalignment were the major contributing factors.
List of contents
Foreword
Janet H. Murray
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The How of Play
Part I: Framing This Research
Introduction to Part I
1 The Social Construction of Playframes
2 Principles and Terms
Part II: The Metacommunication of Play: Keying Mechanisms
Introduction to Part II
3 Four Types of Rule Conveyance
4 Inter-Rule Dynamics
5 The How of Play
6 Gestalt Redux—Putting It All Together
Part III: Topical Studies
Introduction to Part III
7 A Trip to Dragon Con with Erving Goffman
8 “Playing with Fire”: Weddings, Real and Virtual
9 Play Money
10 “This Is Not a Game”: Alternate Reality, Alternative Facts, and the January 6 Insurrection
11 Beyond Bateson’s Monkeys: The Present and Future of Playframes
Notes
References
Index
About the author
Celia Pearce is the author of Communities of Play (MIT Press) and IndieCade: A History. Her award-winning game designs include Virtual Adventures and eBee, an electronic quilt game, which won the 2017 award for Most Innovative Board Game at the Boston Festival of Independent Games. She is also a cofounder of IndieCade and Co-Executive Director of the Playable Theatre Project.
