ABSTRACT
This chapter traces a genealogy of dark play as a playful aesthetic practice, relating it to art movements of the twentieth century. Dark play is both a type of ludic experience and a creative practice with roots in the performance arts. Aesthetics is the branch of philosophy determined to explain the pleasures derived from particular objects and experiences in the world that one considers as art. Gadamer provides an interpretation of aesthetics through the lens of phenomenology that is particularly interesting for the study of games and playful practices. For Gadamer, the aesthetic experience cannot be reduced to the simple experience of the spectator or participant, nor to formal properties or qualities of a particular object. Abusive game design connects dark play and conversational aesthetics. As a strategy for game and play design, abusive game design is probably the most radical strategy in dark-play creation.
