I’ve been asked a few times now, “What is a good indication that something is an appropriative game?” In the past I’ve used a few different answers but after listening to a recent NPR report on Parkour, I think I’ve settled on the perfect sound bite: If the game pisses people off and makes them say something like, “Hey! You can’t do that here!” there is a good chance you are playing an appropriative game. Unlike other games, the primary friction between an appropriate game and the rest of the world isn’t a discussion of content. It is a discussion of location and Parkour is a perfect example of that.

Via Wikipedia:

The cultural phenomenon Parkour is a physical activity which is difficult to categorize. It is not an extreme sport, but an art or discipline that resembles self-defense in the martial arts. According to the founder David Belle, the spirit of Parkour is guided in part by the notions of “escape” and “reach,” that is, the idea of using quick thinking with dexterity to get out of difficult situations. You want to move in such a way, with any movement, that will help you gain the most ground on someone/something as if escaping from it, or chasing toward it. Thus, when faced with a hostile confrontation with a person, one will be able to speak, fight, or flee. As martial arts are a form of training for the fight, Parkour is a form of training for the flight. Because of its difficulty to categorize, it is often said that Parkour is in its own category: “Parkour is Parkour.”

Parkour has been added to the Avant Game List.

Bonus: A David Belle BBC Commerical:

This entry was posted on Monday, July 2nd, 2007 at 8:17 pm and is filed under avant game list, appropriative games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.