Oct 21

Toys/Playgrounds, Simulations, and Emergence

by Chris Billows in Playstates Theory 0 comments tags: Emergence, Playstates, Software Toys
The Playstates theory is defined primarily as as trait system. The five different Playstates are distinguished by their kind of Play so Puzzles differ from Sports, Role-Plays differ from Games, etc. But being distinct does not mean they are exclusive. Playstates can mix with each other to create new Play experiences. When somebody is completing a crossword puzzle, they are participating in the Puzzle Playstate. It is the Play of Matching and crosswords share that essential core trait with Soduko, Find a Word, and Match-3 Video Games. Whether it is done electronically or with a pencil and paper, the core trait of Matching is unchanged. The core trait of each Playstate is as follows:   Puzzles is the Play of Matching Role-Play is the Play of Behavior Toys/Playgrounds is the Play of Exploration Games is the Play of Measurement Sports is the Play of Competition   Each Playstate demonstrates a distinct type of play. When I test the model anecdotally, I find that so far it stands up to the testing. There is an inherent logic and wisdom that feels right. To demonstrate, let’s take a distinct Video Game genre, the Simulation, and see where it fits in the Playstates. […]
Oct 14

Pretend & Pinball: Playstates Roots in the Midwest

by Chris Billows in Playstates Theory 0 comments tags: Playstates
Being born in the Canadian Midwest (Winnipeg) I assumed that critical milestones in recreation and play took place in larger East and West coast metropolitan centres. It was the development of the computer industry that created this assumption. East-coast university hackers helped create the earliest game prototypes on mainframes while the West-coast hobbyist hackers helped create Arcades/Consoles/PCs. I thought that the middle of the continent was about farming and tornadoes. As I did research on Playstates and their origins, I discovered for myself an unexpected revelation. The Midwest (USA) played a huge role in the development of new kinds of play and recreation. Here is a list of important Playstate developments that took place in the Midwest:   Year Location Details 1866 Macomb, IL Lizzie Maggie is born and would later create the Landlord Game in 1904, the predecessor to Monopoly. (Games) 1927 Chicago, IL Gottlieb is formed and begins manufacturing pinball machines (Games) 1931 Chicago, IL Bally is formed and begins manufacturing pinball machines (Games) 1938 Chicago, IL Gary Gygax is born and would later help create D&D in 1974 (Role-Play & Games) 1943 Detroit, MI Diana Paxson is born and would later help create the SCA in 1966; […]
Oct 07

Imaginary Performance in Playstates

by Chris Billows in Playstates Theory 0 comments tags: Playstates, Republic of Bloggers, Virtuous Discourse
An open letter to Chris Bateman responding to his blog-letter The Language of Games at Only A Game as part of the Republic of Bloggers. Feel welcome to provide your own input via the Comments!   Dear Chris, I agree with you that language is important and is part of the reason we have some of the turf wars taking place in Game Development. By not agreeing on terms, limiting if you will, we end up arguing over things that should have been settled. In the music industry, we see accepted practices like pitch; keys, and time signatures. Yet despite a common language and tool set, we see new music being created all of the time. Limits help creativity. How else can we explain that with 26 letters we can write so much? I think that placing limits can paradoxically lead to a kind of liberation. Below I respond to specific points in your blog-letter:   You wrote: ” I personally find this a fascinating perspective, particularly because I have not encountered this before.” I find this to be surprising since I consider my point that games are about the play of measurement to be a elucidation on your definition […]
Sep 27

Response to Are Videogames Made of Rules?

by Chris Billows in Playstates Theory, Republic of Bloggers 0 comments tags: Game Philosophy, Games Analysis, Playstates
Over at Chris Bateman’s ihobo blog a great discussion was had relating to Video Games. Are Videogames Made of Rules? I inserted my two cents as you can see below.   Hi Chris, I believe you have teased out a continuum of how humans interface with each other or solitarily with play. There is little doubt in my mind that Rules are required, but the fidelity they hold depends on what people want to get out of their play experience! Which is exactly your point. I believe that Rules are just one part of what I call the Imnersion Accords. I think you will find the following blog post validates your perspective: https://journals.billo.ws/the-immersion-accords/ As many have said in the comments, Rules are more tightly bound to when competition is a focus of play. What I would argue is that Rules exist to track measurement, which is what is unique to Games. You roll two dice, not three, or one when you play Monopoly. Forcing one player to roll a different amount of dice is unfair. But why is it unfair? Because the measurement of movement is so critical to the game space of a board game and all participants should […]
Sep 16

Playstate Firsts in Video Games / Video Plays

by Chris Billows in Playstates Theory 0 comments tags: Playstates
I’ve made arguments in previous posts (Why Games are about Play of Measurement and Measurement as Power) that Games join naturally with computers (which are about measurement and calculation). It is this alignment that has resulted in the assumption and innocent misnomer that all Video Games are Games. Because Games are about Measurement, they are only one of the five Playstates; the others being Toys/Playgrounds, Role-Play, Puzzles, and Sports. The fact is that Video Games are much broader than Games. It is an innocent mistake though. The first Video Games were primarily were about Play of Measurement and Competition. They were not Video Role-Plays, Video Toys-Playgrounds, or Video Puzzles. Tic-Tac-Toe from 1950 was the first ever Computer Game, with its play of measurement being about staking out territory on a nine-square grid. Space War! from 1962 was a competitive Game/Sport that played a huge influence on the industry. The very first Arcade games were inspired by Space War! Yet it is important to not neglect the other Playstates that are playable on computers: Toys/Playgrounds, Role-Plays, and Puzzles are all part of the history but did not have the fame that the Games/Sports Playstates did. Cheekily, I would say these other […]
Sep 09

Finding the Playstates in Books

by Chris Billows in Playstates Theory 0 comments tags: Marshall McLuhan, Playstates
I stated before that books are a passive media. When you think of how we typically interact with books, it requires a different set of skills and abilities than what skills we use when we play an instrument or engage with a board game. Books are a passive media primarily, but there are exceptions! Marshall McLuchlan said that the medium (the singular of media) is the message. His insight was revolutionary at the time, and I believe I found a new demonstration of this insight. It occurred when I applied the Playstates model as a lens to evaluate how we interact with media, and in this post’s focus, books in particular. The five different Playstates are found in the medium of books. Below I have listed examples of all five and this has forced me to rethink my stated position that books are inherently passive. It is quite possible that there is a continuum of activeness to passivity found in all media. I will need to take some time to explore that further!   Toys/Playgrounds: The Play of Toys and Playgrounds which encompasses free-form engagement, temporary rules, and exploration can be found in Whiteman Press-Out books. Coming in the form […]
Sep 02

When Play Leads to Games and Sports

by Chris Billows in Playstates Theory 0 comments tags: Playstates
One of the unique aspects about Playstates is the distinction between what a Game is and what a Sport is. I have discovered that not all Games are Sports, but all Sports are Games. Games are the Play of Measurement, while Sports are the Play of Competition. The rules that determine how that competition is structured is based around a meta-system play of measurement. So let’s take a look at Soccer/Football. You win the game by kicking a ball into a goal. This is a play of measurement and is what I call a Game. The sport aspect of soccer is that a competing player is trying to take that ball away from you and score the ball into a different goal. Overlay that competition with a larger meta-game and meta-sport of win/loss/tie record, leader-boards, scoring leaders, playoff elimination, and championships it becomes evident that Sport is more than just a Game. Another distinction is that Sports have Win and Loss states while Games do not need to have one. Old-time arcade games like Space Invaders, Pac-man could not be won. You kept playing until you ran out of lives or money. Games also do not need to have a […]
Jul 16

The Moose are Loose! Correction. They’re Lost

by Chris Billows in Jets Flight Control 0 comments tags: Drafted Jets, Jets Farm Team, Jets Improvement
Its July and hockey is in hibernation mode. Its also a time to look back and see what our local hockey AHL team has accomplished. It has been two years since the Manitoba Moose have returned. It is pretty unique and special to see a NHL and AHL team share the same market and fanbase. Along with Toronto and San Jose, Winnipeg has its NHL and AHL affiliate play and operate in the same city. Fans can see young prospects learn the pro-game for a few seasons in the AHL and then move up to the NHL club down the hall/street.  True North Sports Entertainment has  appealed to that dynamic by marketing a rallying cry for the Manitoba Moose, “It all starts here!” It sounds great but when you look at the win-loss record, potential Winnipeg Jets players are starting off on the wrong foot.   Year Win % Playoffs Avg Age 2011-12* 0.618 Conf. Finals 24.74 2012-13* 0.474 DNQ 24.85 2013-14* 0.651 Finals 24.45 2014-15* 0.493 DNQ 24.81 2015-16 0.401 DNQ 23.80 2016-17 0.447 DNQ 23.25 * Played in St-John’s, Newfoundland as the St-John’s IceCaps. The IceCaps/Moose started off quite well but now have three consecutive years of losing […]
Jul 09

Winnipeg Jets Cumulative Trades Score 2011-2017

by Chris Billows in Jets Flight Control 0 comments tags: Jets Trades
Player Trading is a useful way for NHL Teams to supplement and refresh their roster. It becomes possible to get rid of players that need a change and giving a fresh start to the players you get or build for the future. The Winnipeg Jets are known to be a team that makes very few trades. Since they arrived in Winnipeg, GM Cheveldayoff has made only 19 trades over five years. But how has the Winnipeg Jets fared with these trades? Are they winning or losing? This article attempts to answer that question. I have created a table that tracks each trade conducted by the Jets that compares traded players according to a very simple, transparent statistic called ProGames (ProGms). ProGames counts the number of NHL and AHL games that a traded player accumulates for their new team. NHL games played count as 1.0 ProGms while AHL games played count as 0.5 ProGms, and these are accumulated across both Regular Season and Playoff Games. So a traded player who plays 20 NHL and 10 AHL games for his new team will accumulate 25 ProGms for his team. So why just games played instead of points or other stats? Because not […]
Jul 02

Atlanta Thrashers Prospects Evaluation 1999 to 2017

by Chris Billows in Jets Flight Control 0 comments tags: Jets Draft, Jets Improvement, Minor League Stats
The 2017 NHL Entry Draft has come and gone and the Winnipeg Jets adding to their cupboard of future hockey players. This is the seventh draft for the franchise since moving to Winnipeg. When it moved from Atlanta in 2011, the Winnipeg Jets inherited an empty cupboard of players and prospects. We just need to see the Winnipeg Jets records of marginal competitiveness for proof. The Winnipeg Jets essentially had to start restocking their prospects cupboard. Drafting and developing is the single best way for a sports franchise to build success yet you will see in the year-by-year breakdown below that the Thrashers did a very poor job of drafting good players and then did a poor job of developing them. How did I track this? By tracking each Thrasher draft prospect according to a very simple, transparent statistic called ProGames (ProGms). ProGames counts the number of NHL and AHL games that a drafted player accumulates for their new team. NHL games played count as 1.0 ProGms while AHL games played count as 0.5 ProGms, and these are accumulated across both Regular Season and Playoff Games. So a drafted player who plays 20 NHL and 10 AHL games for his […]
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