Play as Emergence: Examining “Play” through Three Video Games

Play is a fundamental human activity that has been enjoyed by people of all ages and cultures throughout history. In this essay, I hope to explore how the concept of “play” is manifested in video games about the emergence and “growing”. I will first review the literature regarding play and games to set up the theoretical framework. I will then take three video games - Snake, Bag of Belief, and Flower - that each incorporate a certain sense of emergence and invites them to come into play with one another. Through an analysis of how each of them manifests the idea of play and comparison that follows the Mechanics-Dynamics-Aesthetics (MDA) model, I argue that BOB and Flower both challenge and transcend the “play for an objective goal” by either challenging the player’s subjectivity or create an emotional engagement to allow for “play as emergence” in their own terms.