Article:

«Here be dragons» Spielerische Entwürfe be- und entgrenzter Zukünfte

Games employ various forms of uncertainty to confront players with a variety of challenges. In negotiating possible futures in games, the focus is not only on the uncertainty about the outcome of a game but also on the development of one’s own relation to how games playfully envision worlds. Following the notion of firmative and affirmative speculation articulated by the uncertain commons collective, the article examines the extent to which playful practices arise from firmative or affirmative speculation. Whereas single-player games reveal a coexistence of both speculative modes, complex multiplayer games reveal practices in which firmative and affirmative speculation become functional together. The potentiality of games and their envisioning of world always produces new practices that are playfully speculative and keep the future open.