Play Is Powerful; Don't Dismiss it

My brilliant friend and ex-colleague Mohammed Khalid recently bought me the book Play: How It Shapes The Brain, Opens The Imagination and Invigorates The Soul by Stuart Brown, and he observed that I use play as a precursor to serious work - almost a mental lubricant.

I have realized that games have formed a big part of my life. Not just any games, but a particular set of games, and contexts in which I play(ed) them. I think much of my learning has come from games. When people dismiss games and play as trivial and unimportant, I feel like they are wrong. Here's how games have helped me.

1.      When I grew up, we didn’t have much money. Also, I was a bit of a loner. My mum and dad both worked for much of my youth, but on a Friday night, my mum used to buy some sweets from the local sweet shop, and she and I would sit at the table and play games. She taught me rummy, draughts (checkers), chess and scrabble, amongst others. One specific feature of this play – my mum never, ever, ever let me win, no matter what. The things I learned: The pleasure of play with others. The fact that fun didn’t need to be expensive. The immersive nature of play. (Whatever else was going on, you could tune it out and enjoy play.) Enjoying play even if you didn’t win. And the dignity of giving your best game, and knowing your opponent gave theirs. (I also learned this dignity point practising Aikido later in life.)

2.      I began playing snooker when I was young, with my dad, cousins and other relatives. I began playing billiards and pool soon afterwards. I am not the world’s best potter of balls, but I am quite tactically adroit, and really enjoy the thinking part of these games. I often play quite beautiful shots but lose the game. The things I learned: There are many ways to play a game, and many ways to win. The importance of killing off a game, not romancing an individual act of brilliance.

3.      When I was about 11 or 12 I began playing video games. The first I remember was the basic tennis game (pong), then I rapidly got exposed to all sorts of other video games. My main learning here was the awesomeness of computers, and their nature as a soft machine (i.e. a machine that could be changed to do many different things).

4.      When I was about 14, I started writing video games, first in Basic then in machine code. I remember when I sold my first game to a shop in Manchester, when I was 15 or 16 for £10 per cassette. I also remember one wonderful moment when I was about 17 or 18, when I went to a game convention, and watched two kids howling with laughter, playing a game that I and my colleague Steve had made. I learned that I wanted to work with computers for the rest of my life, and I learned the pleasure of creating things, creating things that helped others, and made them enjoy themselves.

5.      At school I played chess and bridge, but I plateaued at a fairly average level, and couldn’t be bothered to learn openings etc. to get better. I learned that (potential) ability was helpful, but passion was essential to really improve.

6.      When I was 19, I discovered the game of Go. It was the most intellectually intriguing, deeply satisfying, and aesthetically entrancing game. I have loved it ever since. I learned many strategic and tactical concepts. The importance of having a strategy. The value of practice. The difference between winning a battle versus winning a war. The mix of difficulty and pleasure of engaging in niche pursuits. The courage to challenge someone much stronger than you. The humility of knowing there are usually many stronger and many weaker than you. And the acceptance that there was no final destination, so I must enjoy the journey.

7.      Whilst playing video games in the arcade as a late teen, I became very adept at a few games, including Donkey Kong and Robotron. I learned that repetition was not necessarily repetitive and boring – sometimes it was a great way to master an art. I also learned specifically from Robotron, the importance and power of switching off your conscious mind, and entering flow state. (My brief encounters with the sport of Squash also taught me about flow state.)

8.      Later, video games got more complicated, and I kind of lost interest. I learned that I love fun gameplay under relatively simple conditions. I value minimalism highly. For me at least, less is often more.

9.      At some point (I can’t remember when) I fell in love with puzzles, including Sudoku (particularly killer Sudoku), crosswords, quizzes and tricky logic problems. These taught me about analysis, decomposition of problems, lateral thinking, triangulation, creativity and persistence.

10. At some point in the 1990s, I came across the book Finite and Infinite Games by James Carse, and fell deeply in love with it. It is by far my favourite book of all time. I learned so many things about all aspects of life from this book, including: The difference between the important business of play, and the trivial business of 'playing at'. The notion of win-win. The playing of games in order to open up possibilities, not close them down. The difference between education and training. The triumph of the future over the past. The importance of the continuation of play. The freedom to play, and the impossibility of being forced to play.

11. I have relatively recently joined the Leading Edge Forum, where one of our fundamental values/ beliefs is the importance of experimentation and individual, haptic learning. My colleagues Lewis Richards and Doug Neal, and client Dave Goldsby, are shining examples of this. This has helped me rediscover my lost love of technology, and of play in a work context.

The games I have played have shaped who I am, and taught me who I am. For sure we all like different games, but I believe strongly that games are a wonderful part of both enjoying life and human development. We should never consider them a waste of time.

Game On.