Paidea games are games that are meant to be played for the pure pleasure of playing them, there are no goals for the player to achieve nor are there rules that bind them from doing certain things.
An example of a Paidea game is The Sims, in the Sims you can freely choose what you want your character to do, and there is no long term goal, the idea is to just live your life and take every day as it comes. There are also no significant rules that set you back, or completely stop you from doing something. All options are open. You play The Sims for the pure enjoyment of playing.
Ludus games are games that have a distinct set of rules and objectives/goals, the player must obey the rules and follow the objectives to eventually reach the goals and "complete" the game.
Ludus games tend to be competitive games such as the classic game, Chess. or for example the Halo Trilogy, in the Halo Trilogy you must follow a strict set of rules so that you can progress further through the game and ultimately finish the game.
However there are some games that have Paidea and Ludus aspects, a good example would be the Grand Theft Auto franchise, the Paidea aspect is that you can freely roam around the city, doing near enough anything you please, from gunning down innocent civilians to robbing liquor stores. But then there is also the Ludus aspect, the player can partake in missions which often have a strict set of rules that the player must follow in order to complete the mission.
Hi Jonathan,
ReplyDeleteCaillois also thinks of play as falling into four categories, which he designates agon (competition), alea (chance), ilinx (vertigo) and mimicry (simulation).
Most games (ludus) or forms of free play (paidea) will also fall into one or more of these categories.
After thinking about how Caillois' categories might be applied to games that you know, you might also consider if this form of categorisation provides a useful or interesting way to think about play.