The Book of Rules

All play has its rules – they determine what holds in the temporary world circumscribed by play.  Play is, in this sense, a virtual condition bound within the territory defined by these rules.

“They are absolutely binding and allow no doubts – no skepticism is possible where rules of a game are concerned, for the principle underlying them is an unshakeable truth.  Indeed, as soon as the rules are transgressed the whole play world collapses.  The game is over.”  [Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens]

Here Huizinga expresses the ephemeral and fragile nature of play.  It exists within a spatial and psychological territory, where the rules obtain and are absolute.    The importance of the rules is explicit, a game consists of the need to find moves which are free within the limits set by the rules.  This license of the player, to express his independence to make trial of his good fortune as well as of his skill, is essential to the game and partly explains the pleasure which it excites. 

The state of play is established within the territory.  The territory is established within the Book of Rules.