The paidea/ludus analysis

Blog post number 3

Hello again,
Today's critical games analysis lecture was centred around what makes a game and how we define them.
There are several ways to define a game and I have been set the task of analysing a couple of games using some of these definitions.

I must fierst talk about what the games offer in terms of paidea (effectively 'play' for pleasure) and ludus (more constrained by rules, with a clear outcome(e.g. winning)).

I will then analyse what each game conforms to in terms of Agon (competition); Alea (chance/randomness), Ilinx (movement) and Mimicry (simulation, make believe, role-play).

The first game that I will analyse is 'Dead Rising 2'
The premise of the game is your player is trapped in a quarantined shopping centre with thousands of zombies and the military won't arrive for 3 days. the game has various missions and side mission, varying from obtaining zombrex(zombie antidote) for your infected daughter, to saving random survivors that you find on your travels, to trying to clear your name of any involvement you had with the zombie outbreak. These 'objectives' place the game under the heading of ludus, however, one of the main attractions of Dead Rising 2, and its predecessor, is the inventive way you can kill zombies.
The player can use practically every object imaginable to kill zombies, for example mowing down a huge horde of zombies with a little pink tricycle or hiding out in a restaurant throwing plates at any zombie that dares get close enough. If the player wishes he/she could just spend the entire time until the military arrives killing zombies, as long as a couple of the most important missions are completed. The ability to run around in a sandbox environment with unlimited weapons and unlimited zombies offers the player the ability to play the game as paidea instead of ludus.

The second game I have chosen to analyse is 'Fallout 3'
'Fallout' is a game set in a post apocalyptic future where nuclear warfare has destroyed the earth and the last few survivors of humanity struggle to survive everyday, facing horrific foes like towering super mutants or feral ghouls and fighting off bandit attacks and the last remnants of a government that wishes to 'purge the wasteland.' Like with 'Dead Rising,' the game falls into both categories of paidea and ludus. The game has an almost infinite list of quests and tasks for the player to complete, along with hundreds of different items to collect. If the player wants to play the game like this they can spend upwards of 60hours to complete the game, not including the DLC, the game has a karma characterisation that adds to the ludus style of play that is influenced by the actions the player takes and governs what missions are available to the player and what allies they can make. On the other hand, if the player just wants to have some fun (the paidea play through) they can just complete the core storyline quests and spend the rest of their time roaming the wasteland, looking for fights and collecting weapons and armour.

Both games have strong elements of paidea and ludus styles of play and I believe that every game has, or should have, both. Without the element of ludus, the game quickly loses meaning and there is no lasting appeal for the gamer, and at the same time, without the element of paidea, the game will not be enjoyable for long and it is unlikely that the player will lose interest quickly or only play the game once.


Agon, Alea, Ilinx, Mimicry
As well as paidea and ludus, games also fall into categories of Agon (competition); Alea (chance/randomness), Ilinx (movement) and Mimicry (simulation, make believe, role-play).
These categories often find games conforming to them, often on purpose by developers who believe that these are needed to make the game work. I will use these categories to see what 'Batman: Arkham Asylum' conforms to and how it benefits the game.

The game doesn't conform to Agon within the game itself, as there is no online mode where you can compete with other players, but it does include trophies/achievements which can be compared with other players.
There are several elements of Alea in the game, most notable when fighting bosses, as they have several different fighting styles/attacks and it can often be hard to identify which attack will come next so the player must take chances with their fighting style. The game strongly conforms to Ilinx, as Batman's main traits are his stealth abilities and his detective skills. The hole environment within the game forces the player to use these traits to successfully take down enemies and progress to different areas of the game. The use of Batman's gadgets further adds to this element as they are fundamental in successfully sneaking through rooms packed with heavily armed thugs and scaling walls to get to good vantage points. The final category, Mimicry, has a strong presence in the game as the player often believes that they are Batman, and the sense that they are dealing with some serious opponents can often seem very realistic, especially when confronting the joker.

The majority of games conform to all or at least parts of all of these categories and so I don't perceive them to be relevant, I believe a better way of categorising/defining games is by their genre, i.e. 'Call of Duty' and 'Medal of Honour' fall into the genre of FPS, whereas, 'Ratchet and Clank' and 'Mario' fall into the genre of Platform games.