Lusory attitude: History and Key Facts

Lusory attitude is the psychological attitude required of a player entering into the play of a game. Adopting a lusory attitude is accepting the rules of a game to facilitate the experience of play.

The term was coined by Bernard Suits in the book The Grasshopper: Games, Life and Utopia, first published in 1978, in which Suits defines the playing of a game as "the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles". He also offers a fuller definition:

"To play a game is to attempt to achieve a specific state of affairs [prelusory goal], using only means permitted by rules [lusory means], where the rules prohibit use of more efficient in favour of less efficient means [constitutive rules], and where the rules are accepted just because they make possible such activity [lusory attitude]."

For example, when two individuals play the pen-and-paper game Hangman, they aim to arrive at the same word through contrived means, thereby accepting the lusory attitude required by the game's rules.

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