Risk as Pleasure Corrected Text
127
Caillois: Schema for Play
The diagram above (Figure 1) adapts Caillos’ synthesis to show the
application and limits of each grouping of play. The extrapolative diagram
proposes that play may degenerate into self-indulgence or else transforms into a
new facet of exploration.
Ackerman differentiates between simple play and deep play (deep: The
most intense or extreme part; profoundly absorbed and immersed12). Deep play
is a state of transcendence, which alters our notion of time, space, and spirit—
brings out our ‘best-selves’—a state of unselfconscious engagement with our
environment13.
Ackermann also links play with risk. Risk drives us forward, challenges
our sense of the logical, the status quo. The act of risk-taking is empowering and
enabling, and gives us pleasure.
Risk-as-Necessity
Risk is defined as the potential loss or harm arising from an intended
action.
We may be either risk averse or loss averse. Kahneman14 speaks of a
‘delusionary optimism’ in association with loss aversion: ‘people are generally
timid and dislike risk; they are more prudent than they think they are, they think
too small.’ ‘Bounded rationality’ is the norm in our decision-making, especially
during periods of uncertainty. Most of the time we don’t know that we’re taking
risks15. Fate is going to be kind to us is the self-perception in gauging our own
well-being. Kahneman cites the fundamental example of the 2 to 2.5 odds
gamble, and demonstrates that the level of willingness to participate is
predictable by proportion. In the community, players take the highest risk and
property owners the lowest.
Games People Play: Game Theory and its broad context
Game Theory is a mathematical theory dealing with game-like
situations in which participants wish to maximize some property (such as utility)
in positions of uncertainty, not only with respect to the state of nature but also
the actions of other players whose interests may be opposed or parallel to those
of the participant. Typically, when deciding what to do, one must predict the
actions of others with the knowledge that they themselves when deciding which
action to perform will predict the actions of others including oneself.
Complexity may be increased by allowing coalitions between players.
Game theory has been used to analyze and calculate best possible
strategies in game-like situations such as business, war, politics, and social
activities. It has been extensively developed in the 20th century by John Von
Neumann (1903-57) and Oskar Morgenstem (1902-).
There is a relationship to decision theory, viz.:
Decision theory16: A theory whose subject matter is the
situations in which a decision problem arises; a situation in