On Games and Creative Projects
When we engage in structured play, we practice the skills that we need to change the world in a safe and enjoyable way
A good friend of mine is a supporter of The Strong National Museum of Play and gave our children a version of Monopoly branded by the Rochester museum.
Another friend of mine recently developed a tabletop role-playing game, “FOLDS: A Solo-RPG Trilogy” that is available on Kickstarter.
Acorn Land Labs is “a team of engineers, designers, data scientists, gardeners, & agri-science teachers who are passionate about using sustainable tech to improve the lives of humans TODAY.” They released a land simulator app to allow people to play a game to discover what is possible to be done in the real world to develop land to improve human lives.
Some people treat politics as a game. Perhaps it is. Politics has rules, some people cheat, it’s simplified from the complexity of the real world down to a more manageable simulation of reality.
When we play games, it lets us focus on facets of the more complex problems in our lives, problems of meaning, of personal relationships, of businesses to build, of causes to be supported, or people to help. Learning to negotiate in Risk to band together against the strongest player temporarily while pursuing eventual conflicting goals is a good way to learn lessons without real world losses. Calculating the odds of a poker hand to know the right play to make, even though the cards sometimes come bad, making the optimal decision anyway based on the objective math of the situation can help in high pressure business situations.
I told him to mind his own business, I was tired of having the Cause constantly thrown in my face. I did not believe that a Cause which stood for a beautiful ideal, for anarchism, for release and freedom from conventions and prejudice, should demand denial of life and joy. I insisted that our Cause could not expect me to behave as a nun and that the movement should not be turned into a cloister. If it meant that, I did not want it. "I want freedom, the right to self-expression, everybody's right to beautiful, radiant things."
-Emma Goldman, in response to being criticized for dancing at an anarchist event.
People enjoy playing games. People too often don’t enjoy their work.
If we can make our real work more like a game, it will be more enjoyable. The sense of winning, the sense of accomplishment, these create real positive motivation to continue striving when we run in to what Steven Pressfield calls, “The Resistance.”
If you are inclined to write back, I’m interested to hear what games you play and why someone else should play them.
Which games shaped how you deal with the real world?
Yours truly,
Nick