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

Apr 08

The Axiom of Player Development

by Chris Billows in Playstates Theory 1 comments tags: Game Philosophy, Games Analysis, Playstates

I keep coming up with different interpretations of my play theory to analyze game design and development. It has evolved from GameStories to Playstates to Play Motifs to Video Game Elements. My Mechanics post on my Heropath blog inspired me to think further about what it takes to develop a player. So I’ve created the Axiom of Player Development, which is based on The Axiom of Maria, a precept in alchemy. I love the concept of alchemy being related to player development since what occurs is almost magical given the passion that players commit to learning to play video games. The Axiom of Maria is: “One becomes two, two becomes three, and out of the third comes the one as the fourth.” The fundamental concept is that by using alchemy, it is possible to transform elements into new states, which are different aspects of the original element. I see the process of player development being the same thing. Following that format I would write: THE AXIOM OF PLAYER DEVELOPMENT The player encounters the video game(The One)The video game reveals symmetrical and asymmetrical mechanics(The Two)These mechanics challenge and develop the player’s skills(The Three)The player’s skills span across breadth discovery and depth […]

May 07

New Energy, Names, and Websites

by Chris Billows in Business Beller, Playstates Theory 0 comments tags: Business Development, Change of Mind, Games Analysis, Personal Resolve

Since I’ve gotten over my scarcity hurdle, I’ve found an increase in creativity for me. This new energy has lead me to refocus on new core interests by closing down projects and renaming others. Below is my announcement of changes: Billows Enterprise – My root website that acts as a starting point for my business offerings. Used to be called Promaginy (08/2004 to 12/2016) and then Billows Cyber Holdings (2017 to 2019). The recent name change reflects a shift to include coaching and consulting as an offering in the future. Billows Cyber Enterprises – My business offerings of web apps and web sites that will replace Cybersidline.com. Also to be closed down will be Fandomnaut.com and EpicStartPage as I refocus to take aspects of those sites for a new web app. Those web sites never worked as well as I wanted and its time to mothball them and move on. Chris Billows Video Games – It slowly dawned on me that that doing things I am passionate about even a little each day gives me increased energy and this applies to my game development offering. I also decided to not get ahead of myself by trying to create a studio. […]

Apr 16

Play Accords

by Chris Billows in Playstates Theory 0 comments tags: Game Philosophy, Games Analysis, Playstates

Play Motifs (used to be Playstates) has been a series of blog posts attempting to map play and video games but it never touched on the whole cycle of game development, release, and player adoption. So I have created a new concept called Play Accords to capture this. Play Accords got its genesis through two earlier blogs I wrote: Layered Dissonance and Immersion Accords. Those two blogs teased out some ideas that were interesting and as I thought about, could be combined to create a model that captured the game dev cycle. The Play Accords consists of five steps as follows: Inspiration – These are the genres, Play Motifs, mechanics, and more that capture the imagination of developers. Developers – These are the people who a drawn to respond to what inspires them. They take that inspiration and engineer it to fit into a brand new video game. This new video game in turn attracts players. Players – These are the people who play the developer’s video game. They are diverse and include fans, fandoms, critics, scholars, and theorists. Players represent the critical ingredient to the video game reaching its most complete state for when a video game is put in […]

Mar 19

Video Game Delivery

by Chris Billows in Playstates Theory 0 comments tags: Games Analysis

Video Games have been around since 1962 and I got thinking about the myriad ways they’ve been delivered to players. The list below is a comprehensive collection based on my research and is shared as a repository that others may find interesting. There are three broad categories of delivery: location, format, and style. — Delivery via location (physical to digital): University Labs Coin up / Arcades Retail / Consumer purchase (computers and consoles) BBS / Dial-in Service Shareware/Freeware mail-order Online / Digital download — Delivery Format (physical to digital): Server repository (computers) Cabinet (arcade) Printed code that you input (computers) Cartridge (consoles) Diskettes/CD/DVD (consoles, computers) Digital download (consoles, computers, smart-phones) — Delivery Style (continuation & content): Session-limited Save games Save codes Save points Persistence / MMO Demo/Full version Episodic Downloaded Content In-App Purchase

Jan 08

Talent, Engineering, Art, and Culture

by Chris Billows in Hobby Heedings, Mental Mischief, Playstates Theory 0 comments tags: Components of Human Nature, Comprehensive Analysis, Defining Life

I’ve made a resolution to start learning how to code. I’m only a few hours into it and must say it is enjoyable. There is something magical about making things work on the screen based on your code. Learning how to code is definately a skill that will take time to develop. I’d never say that I have a natural talent to code though I find some of the concepts fascinating which creates enthusiasm and drive to learn more. This got me thinking about where talent is different from skill and where skill relates to art and engineering. With me being the kind of person who loves working with conceptual models, I’ve create a speculative Talent-to-Culture model to illustrate how skills, talent, art, and culture all are related: Talent derives from natural ability or drive, and Talent may lead to skill, and Skill requires tool usage, and Tool usage comes from engineering, and Engineering comes from knowledge or science, and Knowledge comes from concepts, and Concepts comes from culture, and Culture comes from society This model can be inverted, but because I’m focusing on skill development for myself, I started at the skill (top) end of the model. […]