Passagen des Spiels II

At the turn of the century it became apparent that games cannot be seen as marginal to a work and information society, but have taken a central position in society. Economy, sport, music, and architecture are all said to be influenced by play and our lifestyles are often characterized as ludic. A new discipline labelled ludology is at the forefront of scholarly activities and does not only attempt to anlayse games, play and the players, but ludic environments, music or economics as well. Our species can hardly any longer be understood in terms of homo sapiens or homo faber individuals, but has to be seen as homines ludici. It seems as if there were no limits to play and as if playfulness has replaced what once was governed by reason, work or religion. This book investigater the limits of play. Starting with a critical review on the classical texts by Huizinga and Caillois a revised notion of play is sought for – based on the dramatic changes our economy and media landscape are undergoing at present