Table Talk: Games as Spaces of Translation
Table Talk: Games as Spaces of Translation
Table Talk: Games as Spaces of Translation
By Laura Mitchell
March 02, 2020
Summary
Analog games are fundamentally spaces of translation.
In business education, games often form a means of translating business processes or procedures into competitive play, offering an engaging mechanism for learning about strategy, recruitment, sustainability, resource and project management, or simply the day to day challenges of pursuing profitability.
1 Such serious games make use of a process of gamification, of the application of game design principles towards specific outcomes beyond enjoyment.
Instead, to see games as a translation space views play as a space of transformation where persons and objects come to mean something different to usual.
As a space set aside from the reality of everyday life, playing games relies on a shared understanding of social norms.
Looking at the history of analog games illustrates the way in which games, even when played using different languages, are carriers of their original culture.
Equally, imports of 'exotic' games to dominant cultures as part of colonialism and cultural appropriation may simplify or present caricatures of local tradition, undermining the significance and value they hold in their original context.
Play opportunities are time-bound workshops where participants must follow the rules, not transform the games into something unique or pleasurable.
There is also another way in which games are used to transform identities by engaging feeling; in entrepreneurship communities games are being used to encourage the development of passionate competitiveness.
She has published work on how our social roles affect the attribution of dignity and value in organisations, and works on games as spaces of role performances and organisational culture.
Reference
Mitchell, L. (2020, March 02). Table Talk: Games as Spaces of Translation. Retrieved August 14, 2020, from http://analoggamestudies.org/2020/03/table-talk-games-as-spaces-of-translation/