Designing Social Behaviour through Play

“All play means something” Johann Huizinga (Huzinga,J, 1949, page 7) In this paper I discuss the strategic and discursive implementation of interactive play in motivating positive social behavior within children and young adults. Central to my discussion is the social role of play and the roles of the players, as described by play theorists Johannes Huzinga (Salen, K et al, 2004, page 465) and Richard Bartle (Salen, K et al, 2004, page 79) Play theory seeks to build meaningful relationships between game participants through the formation of social groups within the play world, referred by Huizinga as the magic circle. In this paper I examine the aspects of social play within the game design of three year-four undergraduate visual communication student projects. I will outline how the students were asked to identify an existing social issue and user group to which they applied the key principles of play methodology in creating a ‘circle of magic’ and motivating factors as a means of instigating social change. In addition my discussion explores the play theories as discussed by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman (2004) as instrumental to developing game strategies as frameworks for keeping game users engaged within the social space. I concentrate on how each project encourages player social interaction thus enabling users to customize and manipulate their individual experience, while remaining an active participant within the larger social circle.