The Young & The Scoreless

Fascinating article from Kill Screen, The Young & The Scoreless:

We enter this world a wondrous bundle, 100 billion neurons strong and bearing more synapses — those flashpoints of memory and sensation — than the adults we will become… when we are born we’re more aware and learning faster than we ever will again. Researchers, comparing the brain scans of babies to adults, have found that the only grown-up experience that even approaches this awe-inspiring awareness that we feel as infants is when we watch a really, really good movie or play certain video games. Only then is the back of our mind lit up like a child’s. Only then are we so fully immersed in a world that isn’t really real.

The article chronicles attempts by game designers wrestling with the challenges of engaging children in real play beyond mere media consumption of video games as well as returning adults to child-like play states. The science involved and the motivations of these designers and technologists are compelling.

Near the end of his presentation Takahashi gets to the heart of what he wishes to create — a return to a child-like, exploratory mind. A return to pure play.

Takahashi’s creation may be a valiant attempt at returning adult gamers to a childlike mind, but this is a nearly impossible thing. Scientists and academics who study small children, who know better than anyone the intricate mysteries of the very young, often talk about how much they would give to experience the world as their subjects do. Some say they’d give back all the awards and accolades they’ve ever received to be able to be three-years-old for just one hour.

Ultimately the people and projects in the article move on or fall short of their goals. As I read, I found myself cocking my head to one side and thinking there was an obvious problem. Though everyone in the article is speaking about creating true play and crafting playful experiences like none other, it’s always in the context of video games. Perhaps they are mistakenly conflating playful with game and are trapped in game-like thinking. What I believe they actually seek is a technology-enhanced creativity and exploration rooted in free play (think playing with blocks) that is not central to games (jumping over mushrooms to save princesses). Of course, I’m always trying to see the world in terms of playful technology. So there is that.