• Modern study of play is traced back to Dutch historian and publisher Johan Huizinga.

• Huizinga's book describes play as a "free and meaningful activity, carried out for its own sake," "bound by a self-contained system of rules."

• Huizinga's core argument : "My aim is not only to make sense of the core concerns of Homo Ludens, but also to show that none of its central postulates actually undermines the legitimacy of serious game design."

• Thesis? "A careful study of Homo Ludens clarifies the fundamental aims and purposes of serious game design, and also highlights the close connection between Huizinga's ideas and key developments in contemporary experimental art.

Player Experience

• Philosophical starting point of Huizinga's study is "the observation that, where there is play, there is also 'meaning.'"
• "Tension, release, challenge, effort, uncertainty, risk, balance, oscillation, contrast, variation, and rhythm" words to describe the activity of playing with rising, falling, and evolving intensities.
• Huizinga argues that the cultural study of play "consists in a careful description of the players' experiences."

• Example : playing a game differs from playing with toys because of the winning conditions. Game rules are set to determine what counts as a win or a loss, simply playing with toys there is not much winning and losing.

• Philosopher, Hans-George Gadamer, strongly opposed any subjective interpretation of Huizinga's conclusions. Gadamer argued that "the purpose of the game is not really the solution of the task, but the ordering and shaping of the movement of the game itself" (Gadamer, 1989, p.97).

Methodology

• Huizinga assumes "playing is a medium where lived experience is organized as a structured situation ."

Play and Human Nature

• Huizinga critiques that people do not simply play because it is good for them, they play because they are seeking some potential benefits.
• Existing games were often modified, such as the traditional lotto machines replacing the boards with new collages.

Play and Culture

• Adult play is viewed as not being serious, seen as leisurely
• This is seen as so because playing is not seen as a "moral obligation"

Play and Life

• In Homo Ludens first chapter he notes that his definition of play does not cover all playful actions such as games of children and animals, but only higher forms in advanced cultures