Tag Archive for huizinga

Professional Games and Spectating

Of particular interest to me in this week’s readings were Huizinga and Parlett’s claims that professionalized play, especially sports, tend to fall outside the definition of play. Certainly simple participation in “ball-games,” as Huizinga calls them, falls under the category of play, but does this change if the game becomes big business and one signs…

Week two reading response, Huizinga

Reading through Huizinga’s work I became very distraught at times due to what he was saying about play and he wouldn’t always clarify what he meant to ease my worries. Huizinga mentions the seriousness of play and said that it is naturally not serious and that humans made it seriousness with games such as chess,…

1/22 Reading Response

Most of the texts we read for the first week did not leave a lasting impression. It wasn’t until I started reading “Homo Ludens,” by J. Huizinga that I found sentences that left me thinking about games and history. The first one was when Huizinga stated, “Play only becomes possible, thinkable and understandable when an…

Reading Response

Homo Ludens by J. Huizinga was an interesting read that I gained a lot of information from as well as interested on how he referred to and defined ‘play.’ The fact that he did not limit play to a human characteristic and acknowledged that animals ‘play’ as well was intriguing. Huizinga also states that ‘play’…

Post 1

When I signed up for this class, I was confused as to how a class could be centered around games and play. And after the first day meeting I was worried we would be mostly talking about videogaming and board games. After starting on the first article I realized that there was an entire background…

On Huizinga

Oh You, I thought while reading Huizinga’s Homo Ludens. You’re almost there. Almost.

First Reading Response

I found this weeks readings to be pretty stimulating as far as how I think about what it means to “play.” Houzinga’s piece “Homo Ludens” was especially conductive for my thoughts about what it means to play. I especially like how he recalls that the activity of “play” existed long before humans were ever around.…