The Digital Agora

Time for the third, and at the same time last one of the abstracts. Finally something closer to my own field and interests, with Valentina Rao discussing playfulness in her article

Facebook Applications and Playful Mood: the Construction of Facebook as a “Third Place”

Rao frames the focus of her paper in an interesting way. She proposes an interpretative framework
for a better understanding of Facebook Applications and similar products and practices in social networks, arguing there are similarities between social networks and the socialization areas defined as “third places”. She also aims at defining the status of Facebook Applications in relation to the various definitions of game and play.

The writer argues that novel cultural practices are establishing play as a central cultural value rather than an alternative to or escape from everyday reality. I agree with her; play and games are characteristic to the human nature [1], and when one doesn’t have to worry about staying alive anymore, more room is left for playfulness and creativity, and mental practices are given more value than before. Another interesting point she brings out is the diffusion of play in conventionally serious settings, the blurring of the distinction between everyday reality and play space, and the increasing importance of “playfulness” or “playful mood” in domains other than game design. The question that arises is: is this the prelude to a new era or are humans simply doing what is natural to them?

Games?

Rao argues that when Facebook Applications are complex enough to fulfill the definition of games, they usually are casual games. At a closer look, most are even more simplified. The actual gameplay is often substituted by a text offering a narration of the events and their outcome, and this narrative quality questions the essence of Facebook Applications as games; they do not allow the player to perform actions that will modify the behavior of the system. The writer states that other types of applications are even more problematic if one views them as games.

An interesting fact that Rao brings up is that although Facebook Applications are thought to increase the social interaction between people, people are not actually playing together or even asynchronously, due to the construction of the applications. On top of this, the users of Facebook Applications don’t usually see themselves as players. Thus, they do not seem to be games as such. They do, however, act as enablers of playfulness and game-like situations. The social construction of Facebook Applications is actually quite similar to the way people used to play in arcades back in the day: it is based on displaying the results, resulting in people competing for higher scores with their friends.

Third places?

“Third places” can be seen as a contemporary version of the agora, the tavern, the café – places where people can simply be together and unwind. According to Rao, important features of “third places” are conversation, socialization and playful mood. Social networks seem to fit the model well as their focus is indeed on conversation and socialization, and add-ons – such as the Facebook Applications – seem to be vital in establishing the playful mood.

The writer defines three main qualities that the playfulness of virtual “third places” can be analyzed with. The first one is physicality; according to Rao, playful mood in real-life “third places” is strongly related to the physical dimension, and since online settings lack this dimension, add-ons are needed to convey it. The second quality is spontaneity, which is also difficult to reproduce in virtual settings, and since Facebook’s architecture of participation doesn’t allow the user to express herself in an
unmediated fashion, it seem that the Applications can also play the role of a regulated outlet for the individual need for free expression. The last quality Rao lists is inherent sociability; according to her playfulness is intrinsically connected to social situations and cannot exist without them. Thus, most of the actions expressed by Facebook Applications can be seen as representations of playful actions or performances.

From gameplay to social play

When discussing how Facebook Applications situate themselves in current game theory, Rao states that we can regard them as the casual version of social play, being to social play what casual games are to video games. The single Facebook Application is usually an extremely simple game, and more often a representation, hinting to a symbolic, ritual construction of the place by social agreement. The elements of play in Facebook Applications, while not always corresponding to the strict definitions of game or play proposed by game theory, take a crucial part in “setting the mood” of social networks, and participate in the larger game of identity construction of the social network place as a virtual “third place”.

This seems like a good definition, and I am definitely looking forward to reading Rao’s later research on the topic.

[1] See for example the classic Homo ludens : a study of the play-element in culture (1955/1980) by Johan Huizinga.

References:
Rao, Valentina: Facebook Applications and Playful Mood: the Construction of Facebook as a “Third Place”. MindTrek 2008 proceedings. Tampere, Finland. http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1457199.1457202