Play divides into competition, chance, simulation and vertigo, and most games mix them in a determinable ratio.
Caillois's 1958 classification extended Huizinga: agon is contest of skill, alea submission to chance, mimicry the taking of a role, ilinx the pursuit of disorientation. The scheme is useful because the mix predicts the audience: a game that shifts from agon to alea will lose the players who came for the first.
In practice
- A strategy game that adds random rewards trades one audience for another and is surprised by the reaction.
- A festival that is contest, lottery, costume and fairground ride is four attractions sharing a field.
- Subject
- Play & Game Design
- Essay
- Small worlds with visible rules