Play's the Thing: A Framework to Study Videogames as Performance

"Play's the Thing" argues that videogames should be studied through the lens of performance studies rather than the looser metaphor of "interactive drama." Drawing on Richard Schechner's definition of performance as "showing doing," the paper contends that play, games, sports, theatre, and ritual share four qualities: a special time set apart from everyday life, a non-productive purpose, a bounded performance space, and governing rules. Mapping these qualities onto videogames, the authors identify exceptions such as gambling and the economic systems of MMORPGs, which complicate a straightforward fit.

The central framework adapts a tri-partite theatrical model, combining Patrice Pavis's dramatic text, performance, and mise-en-scène with Schechner's approach, and aligning code, runtime, and interaction with these elements. Hunicke, LeBlanc, and Zubek's MDA framework (mechanics, dynamics, aesthetics) is used to supplement the analysis. A key conclusion is that the player functions simultaneously as performer, through interaction, and as audience, so a game becomes a performance only once the player interprets and engages with its system. The paper extends this reasoning to spectatorship, citing StarCraft tournaments broadcast in South Korea and speedrunning communities, and argues that audience comprehension of game mechanics is a precondition for watching meaningfully.

The authors position videogames as a performative medium in which mechanics shape player behaviour along a spectrum from scripted progression to emergent play, invoking Schechner's notion of the "restoration of behaviour." The analysis is conceptual rather than empirical, offering no quantitative data, and is framed as a foundation for further inquiry. Proposed directions include applying Brecht's alienation effect, analysing narrative within the performance framework, and comparing videogames with tabletop role-playing games and computer RPGs.