[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-591606-105":59,"doc-detail-591606-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","playing-to-death-thanatoludism-meditation-on-play-and-death-in-computer-games","Playing to Death - thanatoludism - meditation on play and death in computer games","","An exploration of how computer games relate death and play, arguing that while games are not about life itself, they create a “playground at the edge of mortality.” Through visual, auditory, and rule-based mechanics, games can push thoughts of death out of awareness while shaping the belief that death is predictable, controllable, reasonable, and ultimately benign. The authors frame a meditation using terror management theory to analyze this symbiosis.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/playing-to-death-thanatoludism-meditation-on-play-and-death-in-computer-games/591606/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/playing-to-death-thanatoludism-meditation-on-play-and-death-in-computer-games/591606.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"supergirl","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-30","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":29},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What relationship between death and play do the authors emphasize in computer games?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"They argue that games provide a space that pushes death thoughts away while cultivating perceptions that real death is manageable and ultimately benign. This creates opportunities for “death play” at once ordinary and extraordinary.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How do the authors define “thanatoludism”?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"They label the fundamental characteristic of game play as thanatoludism. It captures how play in games engages with death rather than ignoring it.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What theoretical tool does the meditation propose for thinking about the interaction of play and death?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"The authors introduce terror management theory as a critical tool to examine how play and death interact in computer games.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},591606,1792251907,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":29,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":56,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144,"preview_page_count":4},962088121634,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_9964176cb1d06d4a9deccf72a44ae3dc","Playing to Death  \n•  \nKen S. McAllister and Judd Ethan Ruggill  \nThe authors discuss the relationship of death and play as illuminated by computer games. Although these games, they argue, do illustrate the value of being—and staying—alive, they are not so much about life per se as they are about providing gamers with a playground at the edge of mortality. Using a range of visual, auditory, and rule-based distractions, computer games both push thoughts of death away from consciousness and cultivate a perception that death—real death—is predictable, controllable, reasonable, and ultimately benign. Thus, computer games provide opportunities for death play that is both mundane and remarkable, humbling and empowering. The authors label this fundamental characteristic of game play thanatoludism.  \nKey words: computer games; death and play; thanatoludism  \nMors aurem vellens: Vivite ait venio.  \n—Appendix Vergiliana,“Copa”  \nConsider here a meditation on death. Or, more specifically, a meditation on play and death, which are mutual and at times even complementary presences in the human condition. To be clear, by meditation we mean just that: a pause for contemplation, reflection, and introspection. We do not promise an empirical, textual, or theoretical analysis, though there are echos of each in what follows. Rather, we intend an interlude in which to ponder the interconnected phenomena of play and death and to introduce a critical tool—terror management theory—that we find helpful for thinking about how play and death interact in computer games.  \nJohan Huizinga (1955) famously asserted that “the great archetypal activities of human society are all permeated with play from the start”(4). But he could just have easily substituted the word death for the word play and the assertion would still ring true: the great archetypal activities of human society are all per-  \n85  \nAmerican Journal of Play, volume 11, number 1 © The Strong [Contact Ken S. McAllister at mesmer@email.arizona.edu](Contact Ken S. McAllister at mesmer@email.arizona.edu)  \nmeated with death from the start. Death is embedded in conventional wedding vows (“till death do us part”), forms the centerpiece of large public ceremonies (e.g., the Many Mouths One Stomach All Souls procession), and constitutes celebrated parts of geographic identity (e.g., Death Valley) . In countless films, television programs, and comics, death plays a major role, and even more deathrelated books fill libraries (both public and personal) . Death, in other words, like play, is omnipresent, figuring in all manner of defining events, occasions, places, and personae, from the macabre to the transcendent.  \nSigmund Freud (1959) said as much: “In the very structure and substance of all human constructive efforts, there is embodied a principle of death”(273). Here, too, play makes an indistinguishable substitute for death, and again Huizinga (1955) provides a textual and conceptual mirror: “Civilization arises and unfolds in and as play. . . . Law and order, commerce and profit, craft and art, poetry, wisdom, and science, all are rooted in the primaeval soil of play”(ix, 5). Play is as inseparable from life as life is from death, and each is inescapably mundane in the sense of being part of the everyday human experience. To offer a commonplace but still quintessential example, consider the death and play involved in food preparation, where one snuffs out the life of plants and animals and subsequently manipulates the carcasses to create pleasurable flavors and texture palettes.  \nBut play and death are more than merely interchangeable in some ontological jiggery-pokery. They are, in fact, interrelated and interlocutory, dialogic in their ability to illuminate and inflect one other. And it is precisely this dialogue that we mean to parse in our meditation, especially its symbiosis. We are also curious about what it would mean to move from thinking about computer games and death—already the subject o","cbCaioPPp07dxCLQ","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaioPPp07dxCLQ","pdf",144337,"English","# Meditation on play and death in computer games\n## Thanatoludism as a fundamental game-play characteristic\n## Death and play in culture and theory\n## Evocative objects and lovable game objects\n## Adoration and its historical roots","[{\"question\":\"What relationship between death and play do the authors emphasize in computer games?\",\"answer\":\"They argue that games provide a space that pushes death thoughts away while cultivating perceptions that real death is manageable and ultimately benign. This creates opportunities for “death play” at once ordinary and extraordinary.\"},{\"question\":\"How do the authors define “thanatoludism”?\",\"answer\":\"They label the fundamental characteristic of game play as thanatoludism. It captures how play in games engages with death rather than ignoring it.\"},{\"question\":\"What theoretical tool does the meditation propose for thinking about the interaction of play and death?\",\"answer\":\"The authors introduce terror management theory as a critical tool to examine how play and death interact in computer games.\"}]","Playing to Death - thanatoludism - meditation on play and death in computer games | PDF",1792072823,48]