[In-Depth Look] "Everything is Play."

Ham Hyeri / Journalist · Cultural Critic

Johan Huizinga, a Dutch cultural historian, traced the origin of all cultural phenomena to ‘play’ and defined humanity as ‘Homo Ludens,’ beings who enjoy play. In his 1938 book Homo Ludens, Huizinga asserted that our civilization emerged and developed through play. Play is not merely an element of culture but culture itself embodies the nature of play. While there are various analyses on why the Netflix original drama Squid Game continues to captivate audiences, it is believed that tapping into the play instinct of ‘homo ludens’ was key.

Squid Game unfolds as a survival game where losers in a winner-takes-all world compete for a prize of 45.6 billion won. As analyzed by the BBC, the drama addresses class conflicts in modern society in a way that resonates globally. By embedding serious themes that everyone can relate to into simple children’s games, it transcended language and cultural barriers to attract viewers worldwide. In fact, many people have expressed interest in participating if such a game existed. Reports of brawls breaking out at the experience center Netflix set up in Paris to promote Squid Game suggest this is not mere fantasy.

Squid Game is a drama that leaves a bitter aftertaste. Director Hwang Dong-hyuk, who also wrote the script, said in an interview with CNN Filmschool, “This work is about losers. It’s about losers fighting and dying.” He revealed that he had been conceptualizing this drama for 10 years. Would it have received such a global response if it had been released back then? In the same interview, he stated, “In the past, people said this story was too unrealistic, but now they say it could happen somewhere in reality. The world has become one that fits Squid Game over the past decade.”

The world has changed greatly over the course of a decade. The gap between rich and poor has widened further. The development of media, especially the advent of smartphones, has changed how people access and understand the world. Generations familiar with computer games have become the main consumers of cultural industries. In computer games, killing and being killed is commonplace. Along with the success of director Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite, the film Minari, and BTS, Korean cultural content is captivating global audiences. Netflix, known as a game changer in the content market, has keenly captured all these trends.

As the leading OTT service in online video streaming, Netflix holds vast amounts of information about its global subscribers. Based on data collected from users?such as age, preferences, and viewing habits?it creates recommendation algorithms and decides on original content. In a situation where the variety of content available online is increasing exponentially, Netflix invests in new content to secure more subscribers. This too is a meticulously crafted game for them.

Huizinga, who said play creates civilization, accurately predicted the 21st century. However, the question is what kind of play it is. It should be play that plays a positive role in social change, but in reality, games that do not fulfill this role dominate. Consider the Daejang-dong development preferential treatment scandal, which has been topping political news alongside Squid Game. The basic rule of play is fairness for all participants, but in the Daejang-dong game, a few holding money and power made rules to benefit themselves. While there is a clear winner who made billions in profits from this decade-long land and money game, the losers remain unseen. This is because the entire nation was made losers without anyone noticing. This game, which reportedly generated the largest profit since the era of Dangun, is truly malicious and therefore the truth must be revealed. The reality we are experiencing cannot be called play.