Game On!

 

Until recently I considered gaming to be the hobby for the serious geek with way to much spare time (apologies to my gaming friends for that!!). However, my recent reflection and learning’s into the elements of gaming design and culture has opened my eyes to a far greater definition.
As a child I happily engaged in a round of monopoly, Chinese checkers, or cludeo but I never associated that type of game to ‘gaming’ as we know it today.
The progression of gaming from board to handheld device to computer to online seems so natural that I am bemused as to why it collected the geeky name tag along the way. Facebook Farmville or Scrabble, Tetris and solitaire – all forms of gaming. As the social web develops so to do the opportunities to play games with different people. No longer do you need beg your sister to play monopoly with you.

What’s more online gaming means no lost pieces and no packing up!
Recently a neighbour confided in me that her 12 year old some was heavily into gaming and had formed a connection with a middle aged male in Melbourne. Naturally she was concerned and asked why would a middle aged man be interested in playing with a 12 year old? Whilst parents need to be vigilant and actively try to moderate their children’s online activity, connections in the social world can happen very innocently and without concerning intentions. Often the social connection doesn’t happen by a person seeking out to play with a person of X age or X gender, more likely they bump into each other during random play, perhaps they bump into each other a few times and enjoy the style of play. Later discussion may evolve and details shared. Thus a middle aged man ends up playing against a 12 year old. I am not saying indicating that there is no cause for concern however ignorance can lead us to tar unexpected online friendships as concerning.

More than something to do, gaming can potentially help us solve real world problems. Games can have us:

• Learn the challenges of people management and delegation
• Help us discover the complexities of landing a chopper in a war zone
• Get us to care for, love, feed, nurture a virtual pet so that we understand the demands and needs of the role of pet owner
• Challenging tired, lazy, out of action brain cells to expand its vocabulary
• Virtual town planning to discover potential unforseen traffic instances or water storage issues.

Whilst I don’t have any spare time for gaming of any kind in my life right now, I am moving forward with a new appreciation for games and game play. If I did have the time I think I could very easily get lost in the cultural and social research on gaming design and social mechanics – what an intriguing and complex field of study.