world-as-audience

The concept that a world is constituted by a singular, absorbed audience whose unity is based on shared attention to a finite game.

1 chapter across 1 book

Finite and Infinite Games (1986)James P. Carse

Chapter 10

This chapter explores the nature of finite games as bounded, rule-governed contests that occur within a world defined by an audience, temporal limits, and spatial boundaries. It contrasts finite play, which consumes time and seeks closure through winning titles, with infinite play, which generates time and embraces ongoing possibility without a fixed endpoint. The chapter also examines the reciprocal relationship between players, audiences, and worlds, emphasizing the internal divisions and the different experiences of temporality and freedom associated with finite and infinite games.