Playstates

Playstates is a general leisure and hobby theory written by Chris Billows. Playstates recognizes that various kinds of play exists, each possessing its own aesthetic. Playstates are different from entertainment and art because they engage more human senses through tool mastery plus the development of experience and wisdom in play.

“Playstates are a range of diverse activities and tools that includes Toys, Role-Plays, Puzzles, Games, and Sports that shares a playful state of mind, tool use and mastery, and a human need for experiencing understanding.”

Playstates started its genesis as Gamestories.

Articles

Jan 11

Understanding Socialism in Games

by Chris Billows in Playstates Theory, Political Ponderings, Republic of Bloggers 2 comments tags: Blogging, Human Condition, Political Opinion, Virtuous Discourse

Brian Green wrote on his Psychochild blog an interesting post about how MMO games are a means to understanding Socialism. First of all, its an interesting post to just think about games in terms of political economics. Second of all, I think Brian makes a typical mistake of associating positive qualities with something he favors, known as the Halo Effect. Games as Socialism… I’ve run into an interesting situation with some people in FFXIV. Many times people have needed items which I have gladly been able to provide (or acquire easily), but people feel bad taking the items from me. They insist on paying for the items somehow, or they want to trade. One friend said she felt bad always asking me for stuff, even if I offer on a regular basis. I wanted to take a look at this, and look at why it really didn’t bother me to offer these items or services to others. Why I’m a big-hearted socialist in MMOs. Okay, I used “the scary S-word” in the title. Intentionally. 😉 Since many Americans have a terrible understanding of what socialism is, let me give a basic definition here. This delves into some economic theory, […]

Oct 12

Adventure (1979) – Reply from the Easter Egg King Robinette!

by Chris Billows in Playstates Theory 0 comments tags: Adventure 2600

It’s Thanksgiving in Canada and I can’t think of a better way of demonstrating gratitude than getting a nice response from Warren Robinette to my email thanking him for Adventure 2600. Here is his response: Chris — Thanks for the nice letter. I meant to give you an immediate response when I first saw it, but your email kinda slipped down the inbox. I have attached something I wrote about Adventure a few years ago, which may interest you, if you haven’t seen it. I kept copyright, so you can post it on your website if you want. I am also working on a book about the implementation of Adventure, which I hope to have online by the end of the year. I am calling it “The Annotated Adventure”. The book is about the program that implemented Adventure, so the target audience is programmers (I think). But if you know Adventure, you might get something out of it without being a nerd. Thanks again for the good words. Back when I was creating Adventure, I had no idea what I’d be doing 35 years later, but if I had made a list, it would not have included corresponding by email […]

Sep 22

The Curious Word ‘PLAY’

by Chris Billows in Playstates Theory 0 comments tags: Definitions

So what does Play mean? We all know you can play a game. But you can also play a song, play a movie, or be in a play. Its a verb “to engage in activity for enjoyment and recreation rather than a serious or practical purpose”, and a noun “an activity engaged in for enjoyment and recreation, especially by children”. Yet, we use the word in more playful ways. When you play a movie, everyone knows that you are not playing it like you would a game of Minecraft. You play a song, play in a band, play a sport, or play on a person’s emotions. A person can play a Vine adventure but also play an Online Battle Arena. That’s why we need to relax when it comes to defining what ‘Play’ means. To play a game requires different skills and senses depending on the game. There are lots of ways to Play, so that’s why we have lots of different kinds of games. Play is not work, yet some games demand such a high level of effort and skill, they will demand more investment than some less demanding paid work. So go ahead and play. Just don’t forget […]

Sep 19

Adventure (1979) – Quest in Delight

by Chris Billows in Playstates Theory 0 comments tags: Adventure 2600

Dear Mr. Robinette, What follows is an open letter to you from my blog to thank you for your pioneering masterpiece, Adventure (1979). It is in response to your GDC presentation that you delivered earlier this year. While you admitted that Will Crowther’s Adventure (1977) inspired you, what you created was a 90 degree game that took the industry in new directions. The amazing thing about Adventure was it was a simulation that provided a dynamic, emergent narrative. You touched on the following accomplishments in your presentation: Yes, Adventure was the first action adventure game. Yes, Adventure pioneered technology to help create the first comic superhero game Superman (1979). Yes, Adventure won an Arcade award, and Superman, that used your technology also won a Arcade award the same year. Yes, Adventure contained the first ever Easter Egg and sent a F-U message to corporate cronies who treated developers like faceless factory workers. These are all things to be in awe of, but what made me so in love with Adventure was that it was primarily a simulation. Not a tedious simulation where making a wrong move would crash your Flight Simulator. It was a fantasy quest simulation with items, dragons, […]

Aug 06

Games Are Primarily About Transformation

by Chris Billows in Playstates Theory 0 comments tags: Games and Jung

Note: This is an open letter to Daniel Cook at LostGarden.com. All replies are welcome. Dear Dan, I am responding to your article ‘Shadow Emotions and Primary Emotions‘ which was shared in response to my Twitter inquiry: @danctheduck Hmm… I’m fascinated. I will write you a blog-letter with my own understanding of what you wrote. I think Jung can help. — Chris Billows (@Doc_Surge) July 6, 2015 In your blog post, you state that there are two kinds of emotions: Primary and Shadow. Primary emotions come from Games, while Shadow emotions derive from Art. I am not enthusiastic about these labels since you are clearly stating that Primary emotions possesses greater depth than Shadow emotions. Because emotions are not objectively measurable, I am not convinced that its possible to say that one set of emotions is deeper than another. Labels aside, your insight into the different emotional timbres of Games and Art is worth a deeper look. Through simple observation alone, we see that the act of participating in any game is far different than perusing an art gallery or reading a book. The level of engagement and stake in a game is far greater. But how do these different […]