Denis Flannery, University of Leeds I’m not sure many saw David Bowie’s latest creative project coming. It was recently announced that he is involved as a writer (along with Irish playwright Enda…
Play
“Discarded junk? Fire? Water? Tetanus! Skin grafts! Drowning!” That’s probably how many American parents would respond to the idea of their child visiting “The Land,” a Welsh “Adventure Playground” where a kid…
Thanks to a hot tipper on Facebook (friend me) for pointing me in the direction of this. Apparently the daughter of the guy who did the Illuminatus play back in the day…
Via Aeon Magazine, psychologist and researcher Peter Gray writes that children’s free time to play is an essential form of learning which is now being denied them: For more than 50 years…
It seems that new models of play are constantly emerging. Perhaps adaptable for babies as well, iPet Companion allows the user to remotely interact with and amuse household animals by manipulating toys…
Kottke on the indigenous Baining people of Papua New Guinea, who when awake scarcely do anything but work, out of the belief that unstructured fun is a waste of time. One wonders…
Trey Parker and Matt Stone first created Cannibal! The Musical together, followed by the cult film Orgasmo. Now the duo is taking the religious approach. Working with Robert Lopez (one of the…
A Stanford professor advocates World of Warcraft or Second Life in the workplace to hone skills like teamwork, leadership, and data analysis – and even suggests putting online gaming experiences into your resume! “There’s just so much that gets done [in a virtual world] that’s just right on target with what happens in real business.”
And meanwhile, Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt now claims that multiplayer gaming also provides good career training, especially for technology careers. “Everything in the future online is going to look like a multiplayer game. If I were 15 years old, that’s what I would be doing right now… It teaches players to build a network, to use interactive skills and thinking.”
Maybe this article asks the ultimate question. “Is the corporate world beyond Google and IBM ready for legions of dwarves, gnomes, night elves, orcs, and trolls competing for leadership roles…?”