Defining Play & Games: Caillois

Agon, Alea, Mimicry, Ilinx: these categories of games that Roger Caillois isolate different aspects of play as they are codified into games.

Caillois defines Paidia as the "spontaneous manifestation of the play instinct" that leads to turbulence and disturbance. Ludus is the "taste for gratuitous difficulty" (141).

Let's apply these terms--and check back to Caillois's revision of Huizinga's definition of play (see below, p. 128) as we discuss your excellent analyses of the games you play and of some that we play together.