If there is little to no threat to the continuation to the course of gameplay like in Passage, Proteus, or in Minecraft (creative mode) there is primarily positive freedom possible (Carter 2012). This leads to the opposite extreme of the fear-structure in games. Positive freedom is the possibility for “freedom as self-mastery or self-realization” (Carter 2012) when there is no threat to a game’s continuation. In Minecraft (survival mode) we can then speak of a positive freedom based on negative freedom. if the player entity is hidden in a safe house or it is continuously suspended like in Minecraft (creative mode). In Minecraft (survival mode) the space of threat can get much larger dimensions to the extent that the fear-structure is temporarily suspended, e.g. Hence the freedom in Tetris is only a promise of negative freedom understood as “the absence of obstacles, barriers or constraints” (Carter 2012). In Tetris the space between the detrimental and susceptible entity expands and contracts only a little over the course of gameplay but the player cannot do much else during the game. It will then become visible that the freedom differs in kind and degree. Since the fear structure is essentially spatial, the best way to deal with such threat is getting as much literal or metaphorical space between the detrimental entity or event and its susceptible counterpart. This paper argues further that freedom in existential games always depends on the successful understanding and dealing with such fear situations by the player. In terms of an existential ludology the fear-structure is a substantial part of the “gameplay condition” (Leino 2012). Otherwise the game’s continuation is at stake. In these games there exists always at least one entity (tetromino in Tetris) or event (running out of money in SimCity (Maxis 1989)) which is not supposed to coincide with another, detrimental entity (upper game space limit in Tetris) or event (building an expensive building in SimCity) that is usually in a harmful physical or metaphorical distance. depend on an elementary restriction to freedom which will be termed the fear-structure based on Heidegger’s analysis of fear (2008). (Nintendo 1985), all first-person shooters, XCOM: Enemy Unknown (Firaxis Games 2012) etc. To do so this paper demonstrates that many existential computer games (games whose own being at play is at stake (Gadamer 2004, 106 Leino 2012)) like Minecraft (survival mode) (Mojang 2011), Tetris (Pajitnov, Gerasimov, and Pavlovsky 1984), Super Mario Bros. This paper therefore suggests studying the phenomenon of freedom in games from the perspective of existential philosophy with an emphasis on fear and boredom as discussed by Heidegger. It should be noted that Fink as a German native speaker does not distinguish between play and games. This paper holds that games considered as “mirror image” of reality (Fink 1968, 22) exhibit a similar existential structure as Heidegger’s Dasein (2008) in that “play is a basic existential phenomenon, just as primordial and autonomous as death, love, work and struggle for power” (Fink 1968, 22). It is therefore to assume that the difference between freedom and restrictions in everyday life is repeated in games, too. However, concepts like the “lusory attitude” by Suits (2005) suggest that – apart from free play –most other instances of play (such as the playing of a game) provide freedom from everyday life only at the cost of different constraints. This paper offers an essential structure of freedom in games different from romantic play theories like Huizinga (1998) and Caillois (2001) which hold “the first main characteristic of play: that it is free, is in fact freedom” (Huizinga 1998, 8) and in which freedom signifies the player’s voluntary decision to play and to thereby suspend rules and customs of everyday life. Aiming to contribute to an existential ludology, it argues that freedom is a basic element in games which occurs between structural fear and boredom. This paper analyzes freedom structures of computer games from the perspective of existential philosophy, classical game and play philosophy, game studies, and the spatiality of games (e.g.
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