The value of a constrained play-space, in this case by contrast we have Gris’ highly unconstrained meaning-play-space, does not come from there being more or less constraint.
It comes, explicitly, from DESIGN. Constraints are put into place, and affordances are added!, in order to make undirected play more often fruitful and meaningful to a wanderer — regarding the thing which we’ve brought them here to play with, whatever that is.
yesterday’s droqen, the damned fool (playgrounds can be designed!)
Playgrounds must be played into existence.
I wrote my last letter too hastily, friends! For this I apologize. I woke up today and spend hours in a dull, lost haze, burdened with the thought that I only needed to sit down and DESIGN a great playground into existence, that a wonderful, playful system could be engineered by me, now that I have all these amazing tools at my fingertips.
The tools:
- Zach Gage’s Designing Games for Problem Solvers
- Jack’s Recognizing Play
And yet, nothing. I was a joyless creature, toiling away with such systems! Such dry concepts! It wasn’t clear to me that I was missing something until I gave up and went to play Spiritfarer and found that dreadfully boring too, a game devolved into the rote act of grinding for materials.
Then I realized I’d been treating the game, as well as the act of game-making, as a rote act. I’d been applying simple problem-solving (the enemy of play?), just repeating things that I knew I’d done before and which I knew would have some reliable outcome.
So I printed out Jack’s table from Recognizing Play. I’m going to return to playing Spiritfarer with it sitting next to my desk, to remind me of who I am, or who I want to be, and I will report back.
I’m sure the grinding in that game will wear on me eventually, but first I must loudly proclaim “I’m the player. I am the one who plays.”
“Videogames” is a hobby with a great deal of depth and room for study, but I think each videogame is more like a hobby with not a lot of depth.
Zeigfreid (Brevity is the dark souls of wit) (every single time, Ziggy <3)
You can explore a branch of math, or a lover’s body, or the 3rd wave coffee scene in Paris. These would all be a process of becoming more familiar.
Zeigfreid (Brevity is the dark souls of wit) (btw, Zeigfreid, the name of this article makes me happier every single time I read it)
I like the way Zeigfreid talks about games here, likening it to a thing-to-explore, or a thing-to-do (a place, a body, a scene, a hobby). It’s an object upon which we focus active thought.
Play is not visited upon us.