Critical Play Quotes

“What if some games, and the more general concept of ‘play,’ not only provide outlets for entertainment but also function as means for creative expression, as instruments for conceptual thinking, or as tools to help examine or work through social issues.”
― Mary Flanagan, Critical Play: Radical Game Design

“Above all, a game is an opportunity, an easy- to-understand instrument by which context is defamiliarized just enough to allow what Huizinga famously refers to as his “a magic circle” of play to occur.”
― Mary Flanagan, Critical Play: Radical Game Design

“Critical play is characterized by a careful examination of social, cultural, political, or even personal themes that function as alternates to popular play spaces.”
― Mary Flanagan, Critical Play: Radical Game Design

“Games are legitimate forms of media, human expression, and cultural importance”
― Mary Flanagan, Critical Play: Radical Game Design

“The phenomenon of play is local: that is, while the phenomenon of play is universal, the experience of play is intrinsically tied to location and culture.”
― Mary Flanagan, Critical Play: Radical Game Design

“A group’s preference for specific activities is one important way values emerge in a culture. The leisure habits of the rich are framed as activities to see and to be seen at. They prove exercise, but no exertion; they are a courtly site of sociality and pleasure.”
― Mary Flanagan, Critical Play: Radical Game Design

“The enactment of critical play exhibits at least three kinds of action: unplaying, re-dressing or reskinning, and rewriting.”
― Mary Flanagan, Critical Play: Radical Game Design

“Critical play means to create or occupy play environments and activities that represent one or more questions about aspects of human life . . . . Criticality in play can be fostered in order to question an aspect of a game’s 'content,' or an aspect of a play scenario’s function that might otherwise be considered a given or necessary.”
― Mary Flanagan, Critical Play: Radical Game Design

“Play is, by definition, a safety space. If a designer or artist can make safe spaces that allow the negotiation of real-world concepts, issues, and ideas, then a game can be successful in facilitating the exploration of innovative solutions for apparently intractable problems.”
― Mary Flanagan, Critical Play: Radical Game Design

“For many game players, games exist for entertainment, for passing the time, for fun.
They are a diversionary activity, meant for relaxation or distraction—a “not- work” space where players are free to engage in fantasy narratives, amazing feats, and rewarding tasks. But what if certain games have become something more?”
― Mary Flanagan, Critical Play: Radical Game Design