‘Play’ and ‘Games’ are methodologically very different forms of playing yet confusingly are still both ‘playing’. The former (play) is often referred to as ‘play without rules’, and the latter (games) as ‘play with rules’. This distinction, which begins in the classical Greek and Roman world of around 500BC (a period considered to a hotbed of philosophical thinking around the concept of play) gives a big clue to the difference in practice.
The word ‘Play’ originates with the Greek term ‘paidia’ which refers to forms of play that were considered ‘non-serious’, trivial, light-hearted and therefore not particularly significant to the then adult world. This would include things like playing with dolls and figures, making marks, and building with bricks, for example.
The word ‘Game’, on the other hand, has its origin with the Roman term ‘ludus’ which is associated with ‘seriousness’, rules, structure, and is often goal oriented, competitive, and have highly defined characters. This was considered to be much more serious and productive to the adult world. The connection here with ‘sport’ should be obvious, though we are not talking here of that organised adult activity but that which children themselves are organising on a more informal basis. So, a game of ‘hide and seek’, circle games like ‘duck duck goose’, and pretty much all forms of chasing games, for example.
In more recent years, these terms have been refined and given greater clarity by theorists such as Johan Huizinga (1872-1945) and Roger Cailois (1913-1978), for example, although its worth noting that these refinements to definition have often caused as much disagreement as consensus. The degree to which ‘characters’ and ‘narrative’ are with-rules or without-rules, for eample, is a contentious issue.
Also, the whole concept of ‘ludus’ is tricky at times as the definition of this word in Latin is broad and overlapping and can refer to competitive sports, formal education and learning, and playing in an informal way – which produces yet another confusion point between ‘game’ and ‘sport’. This confusion is less present around the concept of ‘paidia’, and some suggest this is because ‘ludus’ is serious and ‘paidia’ is not.
There is a simpler way to consider the difference between the two. Think of it like this:
Both play with and without rules contain a ‘beginning’, a ‘middle’, and an ‘end’ (often referred to as a ‘play episode’); yet there is a fundamental difference between how this works in both cases.
A game (play with rules) is likely to begin and end in the exact same way or similar every time it is played. The middle is also likely to have a usual and predictable path.
Think of a common chase game, for example: if the players have to choose the ‘it’ player before beginning and always use a counting out method to choose them, then this is a largely unchanging structural start to the game. If the game always ends with the last player being caught and that person then becomes the ‘it’ player for the next round, then that is also an unchanging structure to end it.
So, it’s a game.
Now compare that to a group of children playing with teddy bears who suddenly decide to host a tea party. They may do this often yet quite how that tea party begins and ends may be completely different each time this is played; and the middle (in particular) could go off in any number of unpredictable tangents. So, every time the ‘tea party’ is played it could be entirely distinct. There are no hard and fast, unchanging rules here governing the beginning and end of this example.
So, it is play.
The play of very young children tends to be exclusively ‘play without rules’ yet as children reach around four years old ‘play with rules’ has begun to take up a proportion of playing, and by around seven and eight often dominates.
Yet in a kindergarten concept it is possible to see the journey from not-rules to with-rules developing from around three years of age onwards, albeit with conflict as the ability to fully decern the difference between the concepts can cause fallings out, disagreements, and occasional fisticuffs. The cause of this kind conflict that derives from young children trying to understand a compex play concept is easy to miss. If you can't understand the cause, then you can't fix it.
Interestingly, a similar thing happens among the older age groups too as ‘play with rules’ becomes less popular again with older children and teenagers to be replaced (again) with a greater interest in ‘play without rules’ - such as hanging around with mates in an informal, non-goal-oriented way.
In turns out, therefore, the concept of 'game' and 'play' presents an example in how the action of playing goes through changes and developments, and how making sense of all this requires understandable definitions.
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Photos taken by Marc in Ancient Times - top 'Play with Rules', bottom 'Play without Rules'. Can you make out what is actually being played here?
See also Play, Play Episode, Softwar, Counting Out, Johan Huizinga, Roger Callois (to come)
