Blackwell Reference Online

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Playing is always communication. It does not matter whether a child interacts in solitary play with a pretend object, whether a group of children is engaged in role-play, or whether an online community meets at a virtual playground, as in the massively multi-player online games (MMOGs). Each form of playing is communication. Some fields of communication and media sciences can profit from the view that forms of computer-mediated communication should be analyzed not only from the perspective of media communication but also from that of play. The analysis of interactive media entertainment especially can be based on a play frame (e.g., Vorderer 2001 ; Ohler & Nieding 2006 ). Play research can contribute to various fields of the communication sciences; therefore it is necessary to take playfulness seriously. Play researchers of numerous disciplines agree that an unambiguous definition of play has not been offered in the history of play research. The term “play” contains a wide range of behaviors. Till now play research has not been able to extract the behavioral or functional features that are applicable to every play form and different playful behavior pattern. It is not even possible yet to distinguish playful from non-playful behavior precisely. The concept of play is a genuine fuzzy concept. Sutton-Smith (1997) even assumes that its ambiguity is the peculiar quality of ... log in or subscribe to read full text