Playing with Ruleplay

What is ruleplay? This a neologism I use to describe the exploration of rules systems as a way of understanding legal and regulatory theory. Law has much in common with other rules systems and we can expand our understanding of regulation by comparing practices in law, sport, games and other rule-oriented contexts such as computer programming or even the following of patterns and instructions. Further, the idea of play, is an important aspect of rule-oriented activity, we test the limits, look for loopholes, find inconsistencies and develop strategies for engaging in rules environments. There is a pleasure associated with understanding, navigating and being fluent in rules.

I am a gamer. I enjoy video games, boardgames, role playing games and so on. I don't so much enjoy competition, but rather the process of understanding and mastering rules systems, achieving a fluency in their practices. When I presented my first paper on this topic (see my paper on the Wraith roleplaying game), a colleague congratulated me on my courage in 'coming out' as gamer. As a queer academic, the irony was not lost. As academics we seldom discuss our interests outside of legal discourse, especially if we risk exposing our geeky proclivities. Doubly ironic since law is a pretty damn geeky discourse itself.

Here are some applications of the ruleplay concept:

• By understanding our own approaches to rules, rule enforcement and cheating we can understand more about how we approach legal rules systems. Cheating is an interesting topic as we explore the boundary between legitimately exploiting a system actually breaking the rules, an issue with legal and ethical impact. See the learning module Rules and Ruleplay.

• Rules are cultural constructs, subject to constant evolution, adaption and change. Once we accept the discursive nature of rules and laws we can get a better understanding of the ways in which rules evolve, through regulatory conversations (see Julia Black's work on this topic). Play is a legitimate field of inquiry, if we can get over our prejudices that this is an activity limited to children. See the learning module Deathmatch Playdoh which confronts students with a viscerally childish game and asks them to develop higher order reasoning in relation to rules systems.

• I have used Deathmatch Playdoh for a few years now and I'm beginning to see some very interesting gendered patterns of behaviour. Male students are far more likely to hyper-optimise, to act brashly and then get struck down by an alliance of female students. It is also interesting to see how much power comes from being "the one who understands the rules" and interprets them for other players who resist reading the rules because they are "too hard". More research to be done here, I feel.

• Rules systems are representational, they model a simplified version of reality which is one we can contain, control and speak in a common language about. Whether we are discussing the metaphysical models of a role playing game's magic system or the models of causation in torts law, we dealing with a representational system where elements of gamism, narrativism and simulationism shape the way in which we explore the system. See my Wraith paper, once more.

• As video games become more important cultural forms (with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, a video game made more money on its launch weekend than any movie for the first time) we are seeing more theory generated around games. Building on the early work in Ludology by Huizinga we are seeing journals like Games & Culture develop. As many more of us grow up with video games, our cultural understanding of law will be filtered through these perceptions.

• Concepts of evolution and expandability are common across rules and law. Games errata and expansions are similar to regulatory practices around evolving legal principles, law reform and statutory amendment. Currently I am playing the Arkham Horror boardgame where expansion sets extend the rules system, while always having to be consistent with core rules themes and approaches. Particularly interesting to me is the geographical nature of these expansions as many add new towns and new narrative streams to the core game. Expect more on this.

• I have also explored the place of rules and gameplaying in literature. The excellent manga Death Note explores the discursive conversation between criminal and detective as a game where the rules must be intuited and reasoned out. I have a draft of a paper on Death Note, if you are interested to read more.

I am currently designing an elective subject called 'Elements of Regulation' where I want to explore these ideas more, and connect them to other regulatory theories, statutory interpretation and anything else that takes my fancy. I want to get students playing with Little Big Planet and using it as a launching point to discuss the design of rules environments and the importance of anticipating the ways in which potential subjects will intertact with that environment. I'll blog more on this subject as I develop materials and any feedback would be most welcome.

So, I've come out. What games do you play?