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Why Play is Vital — No Matter Your Age

6d6Fireball has a great post on why we cheat. The video he linked to is one from TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design).

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The TED Conference, held annually in Long Beach, is still the heart of TED. More than a thousand people now attend — indeed, the event sells out a year in advance — and the content has expanded to include science, business, the arts and the global issues facing our world. Over four days, 50 speakers each take an 18-minute slot, and there are many shorter pieces of content, including music, performance and comedy. There are no breakout groups. Everyone shares the same experience. It shouldn’t work, but it does. It works because all of knowledge is connected. Every so often it makes sense to emerge from the trenches we dig for a living, and ascend to a 30,000-foot view, where we see, to our astonishment, an intricately interconnected whole.

One of the videos I found in their archive is one about the importance of play. It really hit home for me because a) I’m a gamer and play almost every week and b) I’m a father of a seven year old son whom is encouraged by me and his mother to use his imagination and play a lot. Dr. Stuart Brown from the National Institute of Play dicusses, in the video below, the importance of play not only in a children but in adults as well. He discusses the multitude of benefits, cognitively, socially, et cetera, of play. It’s well worth watching.

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Posted in: Culture, Gamer Life, RPG

6 Responses to “Why Play is Vital — No Matter Your Age”

Chris Tregenza March 26th, 2009 at 4:57 AM

Thanks for the link and the video. I’ve been working my way through the TED talks (nearly all of them are brilliant) but I’ve not seen this one.

I like the inclusion of the Twitter ID in the comments. You are the first blog anywhere I’ve seen doing this and my immediate response was “what great idea, I should do that!”

Chris Tregenza´s last blog post..5 Adventure Hooks for Times of War

reveal March 26th, 2009 at 6:06 AM

@Chris – Thanks! It’s a plugin by the same guy who does Commentluv. You can get it here.

Mad Brew April 7th, 2009 at 2:54 PM

You know, I saw this awhile back, and bookmarked it so I could come back and listen to it when I had time, and I am glad I finally got back to it.

The science of play is very intrigueing and I’m glad there is some headway. How many years did I hear from people, “Haven’t you grown out of that yet?” Well, no! It’s sort of like I knew it at a subconcious level that play is vital. Most parents who observe their children know that development is often a direct product of play!

Thanks for sharing this.

Mad Brew´s last blog post..10 Reasons to Play Games at the Table

reveal April 7th, 2009 at 3:02 PM

@Mad Brew – I think too many adults look on play as nothing more than a waste of time; a “childish” practice that accomplishes nothing. But I’ve always seen it as more of a way of exercising our cognitive functions. Hide and Seek helps kids learn how to follow clues and try to stay one step ahead of the person they’re looking for, although it’s a completely unconscious act. Same with tag; they watch body language and try to figure out where they will go next. How many times as a DM have we had to make connections on-the-fly in order to progress the story or solve a problem? That’s something easily transferable to adult life.

RPP-310: Roleplaying Promotes Wellbeing | Mad Brew Labs April 9th, 2009 at 8:27 AM

[...] this year, Tony Law posted a video on RPG Centric from the TED (Technology, Entertainment, & Design) Conference. The video features Dr. Stuart [...]

RPP-310: Roleplaying Promotes Wellbeing » Mad Brew Labs June 14th, 2012 at 8:36 AM

[...] this year, Tony Law posted a video on RPG Centric from the TED (Technology, Entertainment, & Design) Conference. The video features Dr. Stuart [...]