Frank Fischer, Mark Schwindt: Battle of the Plays

The network analysis of literary texts is a complex endeavour. Not only the automated extraction of social networks from texts but also the interpretation of calculated values is a demanding task. For example, what does it really mean that the average path length for Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” is 1.7? However, if we put this value in relation to corresponding values of other plays, it gains comparative significance. This card game aims to playfully develop a feeling for the meaning of such values. Toying around with social networks extracted from European drama can even contribute to your cultural knowledge about networks in general. The 32 cards assemble a minimal canon of European drama, reaching from antiquity up to the modern age (from the Greeks to Beckett).

»Battle of the Plays« ist ein Kartenspiel, das in die Netzwerkanalyse literarischer Texte einführt. Im Spiel werden errechnete Daten zu Kopräsenznetzwerken dramatischer Texte von der Antike bis zum 20. Jahrhundert miteinander verglichen. Unter der Adresse battle-of-the-plays.github.io finden sich eine ausführliche Spielanleitung sowie Informationen zur Entstehung des Spiels.