Not Bedazzled (Goin' Old School)

In all fairness, you should know that despite my last post urging every adult to be free and play, I am not immune to the influence of our culture that says play isn't really for grown ups. When I got the syllabus for my play seminar, and saw that one of the requirements was to play every week, the first thing I did was some whooping and fist pumping. But in true obsessively perfectionistic, precise, academic, grad student style, the next thought was: "What do they mean by that? What counts as play? Is there a list I should look at to pick from?" Sigh. Turns out, I can rest easy. Because no one really exactly knows what play is. Brian Sutton-Smith wrote a seminal book on play. He says in the first sentences of that book: "We all play occasionally, and we all know what playing feels like, but when it comes to making theoretical statements about what play is, we fall into silliness. There is little agreement among us, and much ambiguity." (p.1) Later in the chapter, he gives a list of activities associated with play that range from daydreams to kayaking. Turns out there's a lot of "play" (yeah, pun intended) in the definition, and part of what we're doing in class is exploring just that. So, starting with this post, I'll be sharing with you the variety of ways I have or will incorporate play into my own life, and how that connects with other people's experiences of play, communal play, what I am learning through the coursework and readings, and how it applies to me in my personal as well as academic life.

This week, I decided to start with something I don't do often: video games. Another person in class mentioned them as part of her play memories, with a shout out to Tetris along the way. It's probably been decades since I played it, so I figured, why not? As I shared this idea with my sister, she suggested I also check out another really popular internet game called Bejewelled. No problem; there are free versions of both available online. Getting on the Tetris site and playing a few games was fun, and reduced stress, once I got the hang of it again. There's something rather comforting for scrupulous people like me to fit all those pieces together, and watch the completed lines disappear. Of course I played it at the baby level- when the pieces start coming down at the speed of light, it's too stressful, and the games are too short. : ) It was a good trip back to old school gaming and fond memories of when I played as a teen. But Bejewelled? No. No way. Talk about feeling like a total idiot! I couldn't find the matches most of the time without the game kindly giving me "hints", and even then it took me a minute. Seriously, any 7 year old with decent visual discrimination could have kicked my tail at this game. What I realized is that part of the issue is my eyes; I have pretty severe astigmatism, and all the rows of jewels were too much visual stimuli, too close together. I was ready to stop playing this game pretty quickly, and returned to a few more rounds of soothing Tetris instead. 

My experience with these video games illustrates the importance of the player in understanding what play is all about. As Sutton-Smith says, "The ambiguity of play...owes some of its force to the...diversity of the players...all of whom play somewhat differently." (p. 5) What is one person's play may not be someone else's. And to me, that is the beauty of the ambiguity of play. Play is elastic enough to include my sister relaxing with a game of Bejewelled, while I "old school" it with Tetris. Just don't expect either one of us to join y'all at a Halo party.