Some thoughts on Play

(De-brief at the end of playing Visible Cities at Hide and Seek Weekender)

Doesn't time go fast when your having fun? I've found that it has, particularly over July and August which is why I haven't been writing to this blog in a while. So first the catch ups, still doing some web dev to earn a living, still doing bits and bobs for / with Space Makers, still running a few projects on the back burner, still looking for a place to live... But I've also had a chance this summer to stop and play, and that is what this blog is about.

Play has been a bit of a strange thing for me, dominated by electronics and online, I'm not really a gamer in that sense, though I do play on emulators to remind myself of my 8bit upbringing, alongside a few social online games I've experimented with but quickly fallen out of favour, there's something just not quite right that feels odd about it.

Back in July I went along to the Hide and Seek Weekender, having been the previous year and along to a couple of sandpits earlier in the year, this is a social / pervasive games experience (this year at the National theatre). Whats fun about these games is they become an opportunity to have fun, often without much in the way of technology, and in a social way with new stranger friends.



The first night I played this game where we had to travel to different dimensions avoiding chasers (Visible Cities). There wasn't any set teams or anything, but a group of us seemed to come together (safety in numbers) for the ruining about, joining with a few others to complete set tasks around the 'gates' to enable us all to transfer dimensions. Di spite the very sci-fi settings, it was very low tech and that added to the fun. the representation of being in different versions of London was simply done by exchanging coloured ribbons tied around the arm. You could tell who was in your 'dimension' and who chasers where, it added to ad-hoc group dynamics that formed from playing. It would be easy to imagine such a game involving an iPhone app and with geo spatial co-ordinates triggering challenges and it linking out to others in the same 'dimension' in the game including chasers, though I wonder if that then would make the game more solitary as it was played?

There where lots more games that weekend, some involving technology while others not. What was good about the ones that did involve technology is that it blended quite well with the game play and the interactions flowed with the players and not caught up in the tech itself, which was no easy feat to pull off. The game 'Serb I am' which involved taking ch alleges from a magic black box, and then performing them in the street (this included the task of soliciting 'donations' for BP, to which we raised about 64 pence!) Also Nikki Pughs Sonar Goggles, used for playing her game, 'The Bloop' became an interesting and spontaneous set of experiments involving trying to race across the foyer. A very odd, but fun experience (when you don't end up trying to walk down the stairs, from what I remember). I did take a lot of photos of the weekender, but not as many as I might usually take over a weekend, I think that is a testament to the fact it's hard to take photos when your playing, and next time I might not take as many as I will play more.

This makes me think of a piece that was in the free newspaper provided at the event by Briony Greenhill. It talks about whether electricity spoils fun (from her playtime blog). It's an interesting hypothesis, while I wouldn't necessarily say that it is, games that did use some electricity where still fun, but the key point I take away is the fun was created between the players, the fun moments and creativeness that occurs within the games. That's what is really interesting about the games that weekend, a space where fun could be generated. I think an interesting parallel was last year at the Tree house Gallery writing the Collaborative Scroll. During the writing and getting others involved on the old typewriter, was quite a fun in its way of getting participants and seeing what they would write, or just filling in the gaps in the morning / evening, the reading with the electronic loudspeaker seemed to loose the ad-hoc'ness of it all and felt out of place, far too broadcast. Whereas the writing felt very dynamic and got people interested in what we where doing, the reading seemed to send people away.

In August I organised a couple of board games nights in at #Brixvill. It was a bit hit and miss, trying to get people involved, the second night worked a bit better, having games available for people to play (Dominoes seems to go down a treat, though lots of kids want to play it). Having them available for people to play worked out quite well, It was an interesting experience running the games night, and again there was spontiaty created between those that play, whether it was those 'other enthusiastic kids' wanting to play dominoes, or the two friends walking though the market seeing a chess board set up and playing, it was a moment of generated fun, using the games as a catalyst. I'd be interested to see what other generative fun could emerge.
I would like to try the 'bring your own most obscure game' again soon, but this time with more lead time promotion, I would be interested in who brings what, and what fun can emerge.