Definition
The seminal text in the field of play studies is Homo Ludens by Johan Huizinga. Huizinga defines play as follows:
"Summing up the formal characteristic of play, we might call it a free activity standing quite consciously outside 'ordinary' life as being 'not serious' but at the same time absorbing the player intensely and utterly. It is an activity connected with no material interest, and no profit can be gained by it. It proceeds within its own proper boundaries of time and space according to fixed rules and in an orderly manner. It promotes the formation of social groupings that tend to surround themselves with secrecy and to stress the difference from the common world by disguise or other means."This definition of play as constituting a separate and independent sphere of human activity is sometimes referred to as the "magic circle" notion of play, a phrase also attributed to Huizinga. However, many other definitions exist when trying to make sense of what play really is. As Piaget states, "the many theories of play expounded in the past are clear proof that the phenomenon is difficult to understand." (Piaget, 1962)
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