Play Entry 22

"The best known element of Homo Ludens is Huizinga’s statement of five defining characteristics of play. 

• First, play is a relatively free or voluntary activity in which people set the terms and timing of their own in- volvement. 
• Second, play is distinguished from routine affairs by its absence of material consequences. 
• Third, play is separated from other activities by its use of exotic rules, playing spaces, ideas of time, costumes, and equipment. 
• Fourth, play is marked by the way in which it both honors rules and yet encourages transgression and disorder. 
• And fifth, play promotes the banding together of participants in “secret” or otherwise outlandish societies. 

The Nature of PlayAn Overview •
Thomas Henricks 

This is a apparently controversial because Huizinga was focused on adult play and dismissed solitary play and seems to be a kind of "great man" theory of play.

This is probably relevant to my thesis because the intentional construction of premier competitive play in Magic the Gathering buys into the theories described in Homo Ludens and specifically utilizes them for market purposes - creating economic capital through creating social capital.



Also this entire edition of the American Journal of Play: http://www.journalofplay.org/issues/6/2