Playfully Playing at Playful

We've finally pieced our brains back together after they exploded from the brilliance of Playful 09. This who's who of UK gaming professionals overloaded us with networking opportunities and ideas - so many that we're just now getting back around to posting about the day.

The one day conference was organised by Pixel-Lab with the broad goal of 'highlighting the importance of play.' Well, Mission: Accomplished. There were nearly 20 presentations dealing with all manner of playful things. My notes are copious and full of pen-heavy drawings and musings that were incredibly profound at the moment but are now incomprehensible. For beautiful (and coherent) notes check out Nick Marsh's brilliant graphics (via ThisIsPlayful.com):





One of the overarching, if not explicitly stated, themes of the conference was the question of what defines the idea of 'play' and 'games.' Not surprisingly, the Playful umbrella covered a diverse range of playful things - from Leila Johnston's choose your own adventure book for nerdboxes like us to James Bridle's zomgawesome talk about the concept of awesomeness.

Back at The Go Game panel at SXSW in March (which seems like 9203482342 years ago) someone asked us what games we play. That question has bounced around my head for 8 months now and I still can't come up with a concrete answer - I play so many games! Sure there are the standard ones: the treasure hunt type team building events we do, the craziness at Hide&Seek's Sandpits (next one is on the 23rd btw), the video games I play (the current obsession is Redneck Rampage), the random flash games online, Connect4 with Mei and Prolific on Facebook (be my friend!). But there are so many other games I play with myself - just today for example I played the

- how many times can I hit snooze before I irrevocably ruin my day game (lost)
- can I make it to the coffee maker in under 10 steps from my bed game (WIN)
- can I swish the mouthwash in my cheeks for 30 seconds before it gets too tingly game (WIN)
- can I beat Mei to the comfy chair race (WIN)
- can I ignore the incessant jackhammering outside of the office game (draw)
- can I get the Playful post up by 3 pm game (lost)
- can I make this list longer than 6 bullets game (WIN)
- can I make this list longer than 8 bullets game (draw)

This is hardly a new concept, but it's always fun to see the world via games. That is, before we go nuts John Nash in A Beautiful Mind. Until then, want to play?