Esperienza urbana e ludicità contemporanea

This chapter investigates the context of ludification, by developing the idea that the contemporary understanding of cities focuses on their perception as hubs of experiences. After taking the change of format and communication pattern of tourist guides as a sign of the growing centrality of experience in the common sense representation of cities, the author tries to outline the aesthetic criteria that define the beauty of a city, and their relation to play. Mobile games in particular will be approached as particular experiences that more and more often takes place into the city, which is becoming the predominant human habitat in the world. The fast changing nature of nowadays urban areas, and their increasing complexity, require a different way to live in and to move in and around the cities. Playfulness, which is, after all, a training to a variety of possible situations, might therefore be a resource for humans to adapt, in a Darwinian sense, to the ever-changing shape, and experience, of cities, and to help them in confronting every new challenge that might arise.