Residual Play Artifacts

Residual Play Artifacts

Residual play artifacts are objects, whether virtual or existing in real space, that are created by the player during the process of play.

Ian Sundstrom discusses the value of “play artifacts” - things created by players in the process of playing a game that can then be reviewed, saved, or shared. He lists several widely-varied examples from particular games, and observes that it seems to be a growing trend - and since then we’ve seen a proliferation of high-profile games with photo modes and consoles with screenshot or sharing buttons as well.