HCI issues in computer games

The mid 20th century witnessed some serious attempts in studies of play and games with an emphasis on their importance within culture. Most prominently, Huizinga (1944) maintained in his book Homo Ludens that the earliest stage of culture is in the form of play and that culture proceeds in the shape and the mood of play. He also claimed that some elements of play crystallised as knowledge such as folklore, poetry and philosophy as culture advanced.

A more contemporary play scholar, Crawford (1982), in his seminal book. The Art of Computer Game Design scrutinised play within computer games and maintained in line with Huizinga that play is the sources of knowledge and that the most fundamental motivation of play is, in fact, to learn.

As cultures move forwards, the notion of play seems to receive more positive recognition among the society. In the society where youthfulness is regarded as a desirable state of human life (where cosmetic surgery is popular especially for women, and both sexes alter their hair colour with chemical dyes to hide the natural greying that occurs with age), playful behaviour might be one of the ways by which their members can present themselves as youthful (Kücklich, 2004).

In addition, as human civilisation advances toward the post-industrialism era, people have more leisure time and disposable income to engage in play activities. As more emphasis is put on creative forms of labour, the boundaries between work and leisure time become blurred. Offe (as cited in Bills, 2003) for example, identified a trend away from work and toward leisure as the means by which people establish their identities in contemporary society.