Pretending and games, design, commerce and life

Russell Davies presentation on "pretending" and "barely games" from the Playful conference is a wonderful exploration of the importance of pretending to fun and games, a subject often missing when we talk about why and how games work.

But it's not just a matter of dressing up. A successful pretending object has to delicately balance pretending affordance with not making you look like an idiot. That's why so many successful pretending objects are also highly functional. As anyone who's been down the Tactical Pants rabbit-hole can tell you it's easy to obsess for ages about exactly the right trouser configuration for your equipment (ooh-er), all with a perfectly straight face. But every now and then you have a moment of self-awareness and realise you're just pretending to be a cop or a soldier from the future or Val Kilmer.

And of course, what you're really doing is both things at once. You're being practical and thinking about function and you're pretending. But you need some plausible deniability - the functional stuff needs to be credible. Which is why pretending objects that are too obvious don't work. You're no longer pretending in your own head, you're play acting in the world.

Another thing - I've always wondered why software/OS makers don't do more with the power of pretending. Look, for instance, at the average desktop. It's using a pretending metaphor - but it's not much of an imaginative leap is it? It's a desktop on your desk. I can see how this would have been useful in the early days, getting people used to interfaces and everything, but surely there's more opportunity to have some fun now - to make software more compelling by adding some pretending value to it.

playful (via Wonderland)

[Anonymous #1 06:16 on Mon, Nov.16]

There are pretending interfaces like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LCARS_24 or http://www.nullsoft.com/free/nbeep/

[Robert #2 07:01 on Mon, Nov.16]

I would like my desktop to pretend to be Johnny Depp.

[denkbert #3 07:41 on Mon, Nov.16]

I'd like mine to be a ridiculously complicated, beautifully engraved steam machine with lots of levers, winds and push buttons. All unlabelled, of course.

[Anonymous #4 08:23 on Mon, Nov.16]

I just wish designers had a better idea of when the crossed over from utility to can't-find-anything-too-many-pockets overload. Heck, I wish I had a better idea of that line when I'm consider a purchase.

[Daemon #5 09:08 on Mon, Nov.16]

I just had to go and look up what, exactly, were tactical pants. Apparently they are basicly just cargopants (read: pants with tons of pockets) with a pseudo-military title. I find the militaristic pretentions silly myself, but tons of pockets are always cool.

And I don't know about you, but my computer's desktop looks nothing like any desktop I've ever seen. Who has a desktop that is covered with icons, has a taskbar and has a picture as the background?

[gumption #6 10:28 on Mon, Nov.16]

Interesting article ... got me to thinking about the word "pretend" ... "pre"+ "tend" ... and wondering its etymology. In case anyone else is interested, here's what Merriam Webster's has to say:

Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French pretendre, from Latin praetendere to allege as an excuse, literally, to stretch out, from prae- pre- + tendere to stretch