In-between a «real» and virtual game: some aspects of interaction within game practices

The article is devoted to some aspects of the interaction of electronic and traditional games in the practices of modern children of primary school age. The material for the article was the recordings of games and communicative situations (the Leninsky district of Ulyanovsk, 2015-2016) collected by the method of included and unconscious external observation. Electronic games have become a part of the everyday play practices of modern children. Many teachers and researchers involved in children’s everyday life started talking about the impoverishment of the modern play repertoire and began to express fears that electronic games will eventually replace traditional games. It may negatively affect children. However, the analysis of the real play practices of children suggests that traditional games are becoming less popular than electronic games. There is a complex interaction of virtual and traditional games both at the level of functions and at the level of structures, plots and images.