Play is Vital
Thursday, March 12, 2009 at 02:56PM in design I just watched an awesome video on TED today: Stuart Brown: Why play is vital -- no matter your age. This highlights a number of interesting things about play (as opposed to gaming) that I'm personally really interested in.
One thing that's always been important to me is this particular definition of play, not related to gaming: That play is the amount of slack or looseness in a system. ("The gears kept slipping because they had too much play.") Extending this, for me personally play has always been about sandboxing within a system. That is, flexing against the rules of a system in order to find creativity. Those who know me can attest that I lean towards sim games and sandbox games, and that I get an absurd amount of entertainment from silly software toys. Puzzle games have become a surprising well of joy for me in the past few years. Conversely, I've become increasingly weary of linear games, narrative games, and 'mindless action games'.
This morning I was playing around in Ableton Live, a software synthesizer. As I was tweaking some parameter on an instrument, it occurred to me that I was getting the same kind of elation and flow that I get when I'm playing Dwarf Fortress, taking the system that is there and trying to make something new and beautiful. I also get these same sensations playing with pure simulators such as Darwin Bots.
Most of the joy I get out of gaming comes from this play. It has occurred to me lately that play is more general than gaming, and that it extends off the computer. This, along with conversations like the one in the TED video, have prompted me to look back into my childhood and examine some specific examples of play that aren't necessarily related to gaming that I can bring forward again and place into my game designs.
Reader Comments (3)
I'm breaking into Dwarf Fortress today for a design critique I've gotta do. It's been sitting on my computer for over a year just waiting to be played. I just need to keep myself from starting on The Path (just found out it was on Steam).
One of my favorite little fun facts from the anthropology of play studies is the fact that animals understand the difference between play fighting and real violence - begging the question, how stupid do you think your child is that he can't distinguish violent games from real life?
Gah my inbox is getting flooded from listserv emails of people at GDC chatting with each other, prompting me to want to an hero for not being there. Are you?
Well, make sure you don't play the version of Dwarf Fortess that's been on your drive for a year; it updates regularly! Also, so long as your report isn't on the steep learning curve, be sure to check out these:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/03/10/dwarf-fortress-for-minors-newbie-tutorials/
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/01/08/losing-is-fun-learning-is-better-dwarf-fortress-tutorials/
Nope, due to unemployment I can't afford GDC this year. :( This was going to be the year I finally went, too. BAH.
This is relevant to the attraction of the game. No matter the game is linear games, narrative games, or 'mindless action games', there must be some reason that let them exist right now. At least you can find them still and you have played them. So, i guess the reason of you do not like them anymore, and you like Ableton Live is the background of the game or the story of the game. If the game is based on a very good and classic story, you may keep playing it few years later to review the feeling of first time you were playing. That will continue the life of the game. In other words, the game's attractiveness is still here. Such as the Batman, it is still cool although now the current technology makes Batcar looking stupid, and you have grown up...