Ludic Society Magazine #1 + #2

edited by Margarete Jahrmann

The complexity of the contemporary life has increased also because of the continuos necessity of becoming accustomed with new norms and then adapt consequently. This process is very similar to a new game rules’ assimilation and to the elaboration of the related strategies. For this reason the ludology, or the studies that analyze the games basing on their rules, is of great importance for the simple investigation of the atavic ludic mechanisms. It involves different cultural sectors and perspectives of the analysis of the real. This magazine is a precious independent voice, striking a discordant note compared to the suddenly established academic ‘videogame studies’. From the pataphysics to the role and potential of the graffiti and tag in the videogame, till the ‘real game’, or the game played in the public urban spaces, there’s a vast and free editorial perspective. It is pointed in different directions but with a common horizon, and it is framed in a 90s zine layout, comic size, using striking black and white contrast. Here the ‘game rules’ rise to the level of a vital paradigm, implicitly defining ‘ludology’ as an ironic social life science. Actually the game representation is used as a picklock to open the doors of contemporaneity to analysis and critics.