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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Harviainen, J. Tuomas
Format: Recurso educativo Open Access
Language:en
Published: 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ975880
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author Harviainen, J. Tuomas
author_facet Harviainen, J. Tuomas
Harviainen, J. Tuomas
collection Education Resources Information Center
contents Ritualistic Games, Boundary Control, and Information Uncertainty Harviainen, J. Tuomas Games Role Playing Information Needs Information Sources Power Structure Emotional Response Participation Incidence Knowledge Level This article examines the information environment of ritual-like games. Using tools from library and information science and the cognitive study of religion, it shows that certain key phenomena in games can be modeled as patterns of information and thus examined to a deeper level than before. This is of particular use to game scholars wishing to understand the intricacies of the play experience and to educational simulation/game researchers wanting to develop more efficient role-play based learning. Of particular significance to these so-called liminal games is boundary control, a system of maintaining the necessary fictional reality within the magic circle. Its maintenance results from a shared need to preserve the game-reality intact, an understanding of what is relevant to play, and a heightened reliance on information sources within the game-space. Continual boundary control makes the play function as a self-referential system, where the activity becomes rewarding and meaningful to the players because of the very limitations it contains. This condition, along with the manipulation of uncertainty about information needs during play, is then used to explain processes that take place while being engrossed in/absorbed by playing a ritualistic game as well as in game-based learning in liminal environments. (Contains 6 notes.)
format Recurso educativo Open Access
id eric_EJ975880
institution ERIC Institute of Education Sciences
language en
publishDate 2012
record_format eric
spellingShingle Ritualistic Games, Boundary Control, and Information Uncertainty
Harviainen, J. Tuomas
Games
Role Playing
Information Needs
Information Sources
Power Structure
Emotional Response
Participation
Incidence
Knowledge Level
Ritualistic Games, Boundary Control, and Information Uncertainty Harviainen, J. Tuomas Games Role Playing Information Needs Information Sources Power Structure Emotional Response Participation Incidence Knowledge Level This article examines the information environment of ritual-like games. Using tools from library and information science and the cognitive study of religion, it shows that certain key phenomena in games can be modeled as patterns of information and thus examined to a deeper level than before. This is of particular use to game scholars wishing to understand the intricacies of the play experience and to educational simulation/game researchers wanting to develop more efficient role-play based learning. Of particular significance to these so-called liminal games is boundary control, a system of maintaining the necessary fictional reality within the magic circle. Its maintenance results from a shared need to preserve the game-reality intact, an understanding of what is relevant to play, and a heightened reliance on information sources within the game-space. Continual boundary control makes the play function as a self-referential system, where the activity becomes rewarding and meaningful to the players because of the very limitations it contains. This condition, along with the manipulation of uncertainty about information needs during play, is then used to explain processes that take place while being engrossed in/absorbed by playing a ritualistic game as well as in game-based learning in liminal environments. (Contains 6 notes.)
title Ritualistic Games, Boundary Control, and Information Uncertainty
topic Games
Role Playing
Information Needs
Information Sources
Power Structure
Emotional Response
Participation
Incidence
Knowledge Level
url https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ975880