Hey Folks,
The newest article in my "Fine Art of Roleplaying" column is finally up, after a two week break.
We decided to abandon the article I was going to talk about previously (because it wasn't very interesting) and instead discuss Chris Lehrich's piece Ritual Discourse in Role-Playing Games (http://www.indie-rpgs.com/_articles/ritual_discourse_in_RPGs.html) (which is). Along the way, I also address the ideological debate between "System Doesn't Matter" and "System Does Matter," so it's a pretty Forge-centric article in general.
http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/columns/fineart22apr04.html
Feel free to respond here or in the forums for the column. I've very interested to hear what people think.
I am not sure where you want to go with this. You ask a very broad question.
I will nod my head and say me too. Then humbly offer my thoughts which are suggestions for what's next.
RPGs as Ritual
RPG (esp. Step on Up) as a form of "deep play" (Compare with Balinese cockfighting, halloween, and masquerades).
RPG (esp. some forms of "immersion") as "meditative rites" - compare with possession, conversion, trance, and "spirit possession"
RPG, "play theory" (childhood psychology), and the anthropology of childhood role-playing.
RPG and the "sacred clown", or RPGs as "Rites of Inversion".
RPG as "ritual drama"- pageantry, experimental and entertainment rites.
RPG as pilgrimage - specifically quests.
And for further thought, but not as convincing:
Purification rites - fasts, pollution, taboos, sin, confession
Exchange rituals - hunt, agricultural food offerings, potlatch
Magical rites - fertility, divination, sorcery, oracles (RPGs as the "invocation" of fantasy. Compare with the Surrealist movement and its invocation of Surreality- Perhaps summoning the character from surreality. Alternatively, manifesting the character in fantasy.)
Healing rites - shamanic rites, entheogenic rites, exorcism, therapy, dream rites. (Compare with RPGs as "psychodrama", "play therapy" and "ritual therapy")
There is also precedent for games creating overtly sacred space, such as possible interpretattions of the meso-american ball agem. In the vbroader sense, a lot of reitualised human interactions can probably be classified as games quite easily.