Sunday 10 October 2010

Agon, Alea, Ilinx & Mimicry

Agon: competition

Alea: chance/randomness

Ilinx: movement

Mimicry: simulation, make-believe, role-play

Example 1: Rage; a card game based upon the common whist card game played with a standard pack of playing cards. Rage adds two extra suits (red, orange, yellow, purple, green, blue) and to simplify things further suits range from 0 to 15, special cards are also included to alter play. The game conforms to both Agon, as there is compitition between the players, and Alea in the dealing of the cards.

Example 2: Halo Reach
Halo conforms to Agon as there is competition in the campaign, defeating the enemies, and also online defeating other players. Halo also offers Mimicry, as you play as an elite spartan (soldier) through a story that prequels the orginal Halo game (the ending connects the two very well). I think if the online multiplayer aspect of the game is also considered, the game could be said to feature Alea, as the other players actions cannot be predicted.

I think these terms are very useful in creating a games vocabulary, for analysing games. I think Mimicry is the most useful of the four terms as its meaning is immediately apparent. The other terms will need to be incorporated into my vocabulary for games analysis and used over time.

1 comment:

  1. For Roger Caillois (the French sociologist who used these terms to systematically classify games), games fall primarily into one of the four categories, while on a continuum between the extremes of paidea and ludus.

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