{"id":24385,"date":"2025-04-01T15:31:19","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T14:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/glowblogs\/digilearn\/?p=24385"},"modified":"2025-06-11T17:11:33","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T16:11:33","slug":"recommended-reading-critical-play-radical-game-design-by-mary-flanagan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/glowblogs\/digilearn\/2025\/04\/01\/recommended-reading-critical-play-radical-game-design-by-mary-flanagan\/","title":{"rendered":"Recommended reading: Critical Play; Radical Game Design by Mary Flanagan"},"content":{"rendered":"

This blog is a summary of Mary Flanagan\u2019s book Critical Play; Radical Game Design. This was recommended by Dr Tom Brock, who is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Manchester Met, after he spoke at the recent Scottish Esports Conference 2024. With the book on order, it was only possible to access the <\/span>first chapter on Google Scholar.<\/span><\/a> This post is a summary of those initial points but are subject to change with further reading.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Flanagan starts off by identifying games as \u201ca significant cultural medium across a wider range of social, economic, game and gender categories\u201d that are still new and not as valuable as other forms of play. These points might be useful to consider games as art, as media and as play. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Defining games<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For a definition of games, Flanagan refers to Salen and Zimmerman\u2019s (2003) definition of games as an artificial system with player, rules and a quantifiable outcome or goal. The artificiality of games aligns with Tina Bruce\u2019s \u201812 features of play\u2019 (<\/span>2020<\/span><\/a>) as \u2018possible, alternative, imagined worlds which involve \u2018supposing\u2019 and \u2018as if\u2019 situations.\u2019 <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to these features, Flanagan refers to Greg Costikyan (1994) who says that while \u2018stories are inherently linear\u2019 and games are \u2018inherently non-linear’ the more a game is story-driven then the more linear and less of a game it becomes. This distinction on linearity would separate games from other media, such as books, film and music in most cases. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Are games play?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, the requirement for outcomes puts games at adds with the <\/span>Scottish Government\u2019s National Play Strategy<\/span><\/a> and another of Bruce\u2019s \u2018features of play\u2019. \u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Scottish Government defines play as \u2018freely chosen, personally directed and intrinsically motivated. It is performed for no external goal or reward\u2019 (2013). Bruce also makes this distinction between play and games as play does not have \u2018externally imposed rules, goals, tasks or a definite direction\u2019 (2020). <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Agreeing that games and play are distinct, there are still valuable similarities worth exploring. Both play and games include their being \u2018freely chosen, personally directed\u2019 (Scottish Government, 2013) and being \u2018not-work\u2019 and \u2018diversionary activities\u2019 (Flanagan, 2009). Flanagan states that games can ‘create cognitive and epistemological environments that position the player or participant with the experiences [of play] in meaningful ways\u2019 (2009). Similarly, Bruce identifies that play “helps children to function in advance of what they can actually do in their real lives. They can drive a car, perform a heart operation, be a shop keeper.\u201d (2020)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Are games art?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Might games be considered art? Flanagan considers games may be \u2018outlets for creative expression, conceptual thinkings or to examine or work through social issues?\u2019 There are similarities between this and another of Bruce\u2019s features of play: \u201cPlay is about wallowing in ideas, feelings and relationships and the prowess of the physical body. It helps the process of becoming aware of self in relation to others and the universe. It brings unity and interconnectedness\u201d (2020).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As well as \u2018playing\u2019 games, Flanagan also explores the concept of \u2018making for making\u2019s sake\u2019 to distinguish being creative with games from the commercial development that is traditional games design. She considers that\u00a0games can be \u2018a medium of expression but using elements common to games as the materials.\u2019 In his book, <\/span>The Element<\/span><\/a>, Ken Robinson states that creativity can be thought of as \u201ca conversation between what we\u2019re trying to figure out and the media we are using\u201d (2009). For Robinson it is impossible to separate the idea from the medium because creativity is \u201cabout making things […] it always involves using media of some sort to develop ideas\u201d (2009). <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Conclusion<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In conclusion, games should be considered distinct from play. This does not devalue their cultural significance \u2013 there are many similarities between games and play and we should explore these. Indeed, we may want to explore games as a medium through which to explore ideas, of ourselves, others and the world around us. Realising the Ambition (<\/span>Education Scotland, 2020<\/span><\/a>) states that<\/span>:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The experiences and spaces for play we facilitate for the children should reflect the children\u2019s ideas, aspirations, curiosities and next steps in their learning. It is through play that children learn about themselves and make sense of the world around them.\u00a0<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In this sense we should certainly encourage games as part of their learning.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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This blog is a summary of Mary Flanagan\u2019s book Critical Play; Radical Game Design. This was recommended by Dr Tom Brock, who is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Manchester Met, after he spoke at the recent Scottish Esports Conference 2024. With the book on order, it was only possible to access the first chapter …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61927,"featured_media":24388,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2226,3,2192],"tags":[2227,2228,2229],"class_list":["post-24385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-games","category-home-page-news","category-suggested-reading","tag-games","tag-play","tag-research"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/glowblogs\/public\/digilearn\/uploads\/sites\/6913\/2025\/01\/13154856\/Presentation-4.002-3.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/glowblogs\/digilearn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/glowblogs\/digilearn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/glowblogs\/digilearn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/glowblogs\/digilearn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/glowblogs\/digilearn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24385"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/glowblogs\/digilearn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24386,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/glowblogs\/digilearn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24385\/revisions\/24386"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/glowblogs\/digilearn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/glowblogs\/digilearn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/glowblogs\/digilearn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/glowblogs\/digilearn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}