ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses general theories of play and explores how scholars have thought about play in the context of videogames. Rhizome-play, the event of play and play-force are integral and relational aspects of videogame play. Drawing on Jacques Derrida's philosophy, Galloway describes how play reconstitutes the field in 'a sort of permanent agitation, filling in the structure itself, compensating for it, but also supplementing and sustaining it'. The most obvious example is when the game ends, a 'death act', that momentarily takes the player out of the action; another example is when a player pauses to open up an inventory menu, in order to say resupply ammo in Resident Evil 4. Confusingly, Galloway includes health packs, powers ups and so forth within his list of nondiegetic machine acts even though, as he acknowledges, they are integral to gameplay. Despite his engagement here and elsewhere with Deleuzian philosophy, the affective dimensions of videogame play crucial in Galloway's work.
