We warmly welcome you to our little community of game playing enthusiasts at the LSE!
Inspired by the ‘PlayPublik Festival’ in Berlin (Germany), we, the Playpublic Society at LSE, aim to organize an annual ‘PlayPublic’ Day offering a small number of public games around an annually set theme to be played in the London area. If you wonder what this is all about, we will try hard to make the society’s ideals and ideas more tangible in a moment! For those of you in a hurry, this might
do: The games and lectures organized will take place on a sunny weekend on the streets of London (tba) and essentially centre on the notions of gamification, city space, public awareness, social inclusion and most importantly: encounter. They will be designed, developed or crafted by committed individuals that touch upon a variety of disciplines, ranging from Architecture to Zoology. We are strongly inspired by the international ‘Playpublik Festival’ taking place annually in Berlin, Germany. We might start out stating what we are NOT. We don’t play board games, nor do we do any particular outdoor sports. (This is not saying we wouldn’t like it!)
Considering the Wiki definitions reading “Play” as “voluntary, intrinsically motivated activities normally associated with recreational pleasures and enjoyment” and “Public” as forming a “totality of groups of individuals”, we dream to find these institutionalised in form of a “PlayPublic”. We organize an annual ‘PlayPublic’ Day offering a small number of public games around an annually set theme (e.g. ‘London community building’ or ‘Arab Spring’) to be played in the London area. The events will be open to society’s members at the LSE and to associate members from other universities in London. As public games, we consider all those games that take place in the public space, are played between at least four players and aim to raise awareness of certain political and social matters relating to the annually set theme. The games can, but must not, be based on portable technical devices like smart-phones. We invite game developers to bring their games or borrow their ideas to us, academics speaking about the relevancy of gaming as much as the set theme, and professionals and passionates from other domains. The society strives to provide a bridging platform between disciplines, universities, and individuals. Please click on the following links to get an idea about different public games, their developers and how and where they take place: http://hideandseek.net/ http://jakoblacour.com/portfolio/ http://www.londonstreetgames.com/games/#TallyHo
