| E. Roinioti, E. Pandia, K. Karpouzis, Y. Skarpelos |
| Transcultural games: How immigration is reflected on gameplay and mechanics of children's games |
| International Conference on Humanities, Social and Education Sciences, Washington, DC, USA |
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ABSTRACT
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| Play constitutes a very important part of the life of children, their physical and mental development, and their ability to socialise and interact with their environment. The mechanics and rules of the games children play evolve to reflect the status of their social and economic environment and their perception of threats and dangers, acting as a shared inter-cultural capital, much like storytelling and tales. Even though technological advances have altered the aesthetics and functionality of play, one may argue that they also broadened the repertoire of game mechanics, since the majority of games played online utilise the same mechanics, aims and strategies with the games children play at school, the park or their back yard, with the latter offering the capability of adding de facto rules to reflect the relationships of players in real life and the effects of their social and economic environment. This evolution of game mechanics and reflection of real-life situations is what makes games invaluable for the preservation of cultural heritage, especially in times of extensive immigration. Games constitute a form of Ącollective memory˘ since their design is embedded in the heritage of the immigrant families, communities and nations, reflecting the socio-cultural values of their origins, adapted to their new surroundings. In our work, we are looking into transcultural games, i.e. games that originated in the countries and societies where migrant families used to live before violently relocating, but they are still played by children or adults in the countries of transit or destination. Even though the characteristics of the origin and current environments are inherently different, those games still share a number of game mechanics, narrative characteristics, tangible props and context. We will discuss the relation of those common properties and attempt to associate them with the social context of migrants and their living status.
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| 10 July , 2020 |
| E. Roinioti, E. Pandia, K. Karpouzis, Y. Skarpelos, "Transcultural games: How immigration is reflected on gameplay and mechanics of children's games", International Conference on Humanities, Social and Education Sciences, Washington, DC, USA |
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