“The conceptual and methodological framework I will be developing approaches children’s folk games not as sets of game rules, but as highly situated social contexts in which real players collectively construct a complex and richly textured communal experience.

I will begin by describing three different rule systems that are implicated whenever games are actually actually played: rules, social rules, and higher-order gaming rules governing the  interplay between game structure and social process. I will then contrast several qualities of games with qualities of the social episodes in which they are embedded in the playing. Throughout, I will draw on my own observation of how one group of girls playing the common ball-bouncing game foursquare to illustrate implications of the framework being developed for actual studies of child culture” (Hughes 94).

#GameStudies101 Selection:

Work Cited:
Hughes, Linda A. “Children’s games and gaming.” Children’s Folklore: A Sourcebook. Ed. Brian Sutton Smith, Jay Mechling, Thomas W. Johnson, and Felicia R. McMahon. Logan: Utah State UP, 1999. 93-120. Digital Commons @ Utah State U. Web. 16 Jul 2015.